Woman Life Freedom

Title: Woman Life Freedom
Concept: This collage is a reflection on the nearly fifty-year-long fight of Iranian women for their rights. It brings together images of protest, symbols from Iranian art, and the tension between oppression and hope. The figures pushing out of their frames represent the fight against imposed limitations, while birds flying above suggest freedom on the horizon.
I started with the idea of torn paper on a wall, but I wasn't very happy with the result. It looked a bit too messy. I wanted something more stylized and neat.

Software: Affinity Designer (main), Photoshop (secondary edits)
Images: Hengameh Golestan’s 1979 protest photographs from https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/women-protesting-hijab-1979/. Stock images (Freepik), AI-generated (the wing).
Brushes & Textures: Frankentoon brush packs for Affinity
Techniques: digital collage layering, masking, blending modes, textured brush accents, geometric composition foundations

I'm not a professional designer so I don't really have a 'method'. I generally gather some raw material (images, shapes, etc.) and just play around with them until I run into something that triggers my interest. A happy surprise if you will. For this piece, I began by collecting images for the concept I had in mind. Some of the images were powerful photographs by Hengameh Golestan from the 1979 protests, others came from stock archives and a few AI-generated elements (like the wings). I experimented first with a torn-paper composition, but it didn’t feel right. I stepped away, reflected, and during a walk the idea came: figures breaking out of frames — a visual metaphor for fighting against restrictions. To achieve the stylized look I was aiming for, I took inspiration from a few random pieces I found by a Google search.

Then, in Affinity Designer, I started layering, moving images, and testing balance. The first bit was to set the overall composition. From the previous piece I had made, I took the idea of three rectangles at the bottom and the yellow circle at the top. I already knew that I was going to use the top rectangle with the image of the woman on the bus pushing out of it towards the circle. For the rest, I started to play again with the images and shapes. Some elements surprised me: I initially planned for a single wing as a symbol of fragile freedom, but duplicating and flipping it gave the main protesting figure the look of carrying wings, almost mythic in scale. I liked the result so I kept it. Around another figure (the angry young girl screaming), I placed simple lines to highlight her — but the lines reminded me of a riflescope, which aligned with the darker reality of violent oppression. So I went with the second idea. These moments shaped the piece organically. The white frame came at the very end. First it engulfed the whole piece, except for parts of the larger wing, but then I thought if I made it smaller, the bottom rectangle will also be pushing out of the frame from below. Again, I found it supporting the visual metaphor I was going for.

I added brush textures from Frankentoon packs for accents and variety. To make images protrude from frames, I duplicated and masked them in layers, then added a subtle white outline to emphasize the breaking point. One thing I almost always do is simply play around with blending modes. For the birds, I first used a multiply blend that made them stark and heavy, but later switched to screen mode so they became ghostly, distant — like a whisper of hope.
Since the original photos were all black and white, I built a palette inspired by Persian tiles, along with Persian red and gold. These touches of color anchored the piece in Iranian artistic tradition while lifting the grayscale base into something more alive. I also picked a few of the symbols and motifs that are often found in Iranian art: tulip, often found in Persian designs (carpets, tiles, fabrics) can represent life, and it also is a symbol of martyrdom. Pomegranate also found often in Iranian traditions and art, represents woman and life, (holding seeds of life within). The red color also added a bit of variety to the piece.

Creative Tip:
When you feel stuck, step away. Sometimes the best ideas arrive when you’re not looking at the screen — walking, reflecting, or just letting the images breathe in your mind. For me, the breakthrough came when I imagined the figures literally breaking out of frames. To me, collage, especially digital collage, is about play: moving, resizing, duplicating until the images surprise you with new meanings. Stay playful and be welcoming.

Thank you for reading.