Novosibirsk City Wayfinding System, Graduation Thesis

Wayfinding system consisting of on‑street signage, information panels at the bus stops & car park exits, in the metro & railway stations, free printed maps, public transportation diagrams, website and mobile app interface concepts. After several months of an intensive research I designed information architecture and everything else, including mapping, placement strategy & outdoor signage construction.

The Three Directors of the Bauhaus Publication, a preview

Motivated by my growing interest in the origins of the Bauhaus school and mixed emotions towards Modernist ideas, I set out to explore 14 years of the existence of the original school, approaching it through a prism of career paths and personal lives led by each one of its three directors: Walter Gropius (1919–28, red), Hannes Meyer (1928–30, yellow) and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1930–33, blue).

Then I presented my findings as a trilogy of hand‑bound, monochromatic, digitally printed books. Every publication includes a small catalogue and an index of all projects done by a director.

Academy of Architecture & Fine Arts Wayfinding

NSAAFA’s academic building has its charm, 5.5 m high ceilings and almost 5 m high windows. Architectural features, interior, patterns of transportation and functional needs made up a whole set of challenges for the project. I couldn’t even think of using ceiling‑mounted signage, or drawing on or repainting any walls, or using free‑standing structures. One of the requirements was to make the signs as tiny as possible. It was also not allowed to use most walls on the eye‑level. Possible screening of sculpture or any architectural detail had to be avoided. Every element of the system had to be overlooked, controlled and considered individually.

Analysing movement patterns, classifying types of rooms, profiling visitors and their routes, finding out how much crowded every part of hallway was, how people made their way and what problems they were encountering helped me massively to develop a layered and functional, yet minimalistic wayfinding solution.

Samo‑Soft Software Visual Identity & Print

Samo‑Soft is one of the leaders in the global market of tourist industry‑specific software products development. Today the software by the Moscow‑based company is used by hundreds of companies all over the world. The visual identity is built around the concept of four icosahedra, with each one representing a specific product. Deeply integrated applications, as well as icosahedra, go side by side; each one of their twenty faces is marked with a pictogram, symbolising a specific real‑life product feature. The identity in action can be seen on the company website.

Made at Nimax agency in St. Petersburg. Art director Pavel Konuykov, creative director Ulyana Kozghevnikova, accounts: Yulia Marhadaeva, Valerij Krasikov, 3D treatment by Roman Domkin.

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. Book Cover

Viktor Frankl was a psychotherapist & neurologist, a Holocaust survivor. In 1942 he was sent to a nazi death camp, along with his whole family: parents, siblings and wife. Theresienstadt, then Auschwitz, and finally, Dachau. This book is a first hand death camp account. Imprisonment, dying and how to make sense of it.

There were images of the infamous Arbeit Macht Frei gates on my mind, general idea of restrainment and the asphyxiating thick polyethylene. But in the end, it’s a book about life, all the good worth living for, that helped survivors to pull through, so make an effort to pull the dust jacket off and see the seamless white hardcover.

163 Boutiques Visual Identity & Environmental Graphics

Retail multi-brand boutiques called 163 are located in Novosibirsk, Russia. Boutiques sell prêt‑à‑porter lines by such brands as Diane von Furstenberg, Fendi, Versace, John Richmond and Karl Lagerfeld. They asked me to design a visual identity that wouldn’t overshadow the clothing but will be recognisable in a tiny local fashion market.

Boutique network has both male and female stores working under the same name. Ladies’ and gentlemen’s colours are connected within dynamic gradients and mixed using a grid. Vibrant patterns are easy to remember, apply to any surface and hard to be left unnoticed.

The William Morris Leaflet

Self‑promotional leaflet for the occasion of my lecture on William Morris, an influential british designer of the end of the 19th century. He’s well known for his wallpaper and fabric designs as well as furniture, type design & interior decoration. Keen John Ruskin follower, he was amazingly widely talanted and showed a rare example of a progressive design thinker, writer, designer, politician, craftsman, team leader, all at the same time. One side of the leaflet offers a short biography & career highlights, the other is printed with colourful detailed patterns he’s most famous for.

Khot’ Kooda Tour Operator Brand Development

Khot’ kooda is a russian idiom which I’m struggling to find an adequate translation for. It stands for ‘anywhere’, ‘anyplace’, meaning that the company with that name can provide you with service wherever you wish to holiday, and at the same time is an expressive way of saying, ‘we couldn’t be better’. A small tour operating company in Kyiv chose this idiom as their name to promote its rare speciality of creating and distributing extreme, adventurous & eventful tours. Khot’ kooda has come into existence as a result of a friendly collaboration of people,  who love adventure, travels and exploration.

The objective was to attract new clients and raise awareness of the business, help to build a fresh and emotional brand, primarily for people who’d never tried it or never even heard of it. I co-created marketing guidelines, turning it into a consistent written copy, and designed a visual identity, proposing ideas for ATL advertising on the way.

The Workshop of Taste Visual Identity, a preview

A leading Russian publishing house, Exsmo, has always been paying considerable amount of attention to food and cooking. Earlier this year they decided to launch The Workshop of Taste, a whole new cookbook- and gastronomy-publishing brand with a dozen of bestselling authors already attached.

I was delighted to be invited to pitch a visual identity targeted for sociable middle-aged women, who not only seek out meal ideas, but are willing to become a part of the Workshop community.

Cup of Coffee Restaurant Chain Menu

In 2009 a successful restaurant chain Cup of Coffee asked me to design their menu, and three years later the work is still in use at all of their ten locations. There’s a lot to offer: the best coffee in the city and fancy interiors that are always crowded with hipsters and local bohème. Colourful 24 pages feature loads of appetising food photography. To pull this trick we had to style, photograph, retouch, revise and try out almost every item on the menu.

Art director Olga Borovikova (BBD studio), photographer Vera Salnitskaya.

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