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Design specialist, artist, art director, author, columnist and teacher at the HSE School of Design. He has received over 30 design awards, including Good Design and RedDot. He is also a jury member at the Cannes Lions, Eurobest, and AD Stars festivals.
He is the co-author of the book "Parable Therapy, or the Book of Meanings about Marketing" with Sergey Kuzhavsky. He was a regular contributor to Snob magazine and published in a specialized graphic design publication [kAk], as well as in publications such as Creative Director and Vedomosti.
What does my name mean to you?
It will disappear like a sad sound.
Waves crashing on a distant shore,
A sound coming from a deep forest at night.
On a memorial sheet.
It will leave behind a trace, resembling a dead shadow.
An inscription on a monument.
In an incomprehensible language.
What is hidden in it? Lost memories.
In stormy and disturbing experiences,
This will not bring peace to your soul.
Pure and tender memories.
However, on a day of grief, in silence,
Say it with a touch of sadness;
Say that you remember me.
There is a corner of this world that I call my home...
A.S. Pushkin
LONG LIFE TO THE LOGO: This expression translates from English not exactly as "Long live!" but rather as "Long life!" At first glance, these phrases may seem similar, but if you delve into the nuances of their meanings, you'll notice their differences. However, who dares delve into such subtleties?
Why am I saying this? Because the logo in the world of graphic design will likely be the last element to disappear. Most likely, it won't disappear at all. No, it definitely won't disappear.
A logo for a brand, company, or business can be compared to a passport photo—it serves as a unique identifier for your commercial entity. From an ontological point of view, we can say that this is a kind of name.
Look what's happening: advertising billboards have disappeared in Moscow, leaving only a few modest city formats with images that move along verticals, but no one pays attention to them. As for television content, I know nothing about it—respectable people don't watch it. The internet constantly offers me some kind of Ural forged axes, which I no longer need, since I only bought one for chopping firewood. Despite this, the ads keep popping up, as if I have extra hands for these axes. Furthermore, I'm shown women in revealing bikinis—we won't go into the reasons why I'm so precisely targeted. The internet also persistently offers me a TV series that I've already downloaded, and generally pushes products and services that were once useful, but I don't need now and are unlikely to need in the future.
The web displays this openly and without style, ignoring any design principles: the micro-banner format fetters creative potential.
Where else can we encounter elements of graphic design, sometimes without even noticing?
In my In my mailbox, I find leaflets that, sadly, urge me to rent out my apartment to an employee of the Tyumen Oil Company or, worse, sell it to some investor realtor. In the same mailbox, I also found other pieces of newspaper, which I intend to use to kindle the stove, which burns oak logs purchased without any designer trim, cut with a Ural forged axe. There are a lot of ads in the newspapers, but I'm not interested - my lack of design skills makes them such an awkward composition that I can't pick out any interesting information.
In what other areas can we find graphic design?
On store signs, clothing labels, car nameplates, and supermarket food packaging. And everywhere else, what will we see? That's right, it will be children! It will be logos and names!
In our constantly changing world, it is precisely this constant that helps us avoid confusion. It allows us to easily distinguish between Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola, as well as Bentley and Rolls-Royce, Dolce & Gabbana and Louis Vuitton. It remains the only reliable reference point in a complex multi-brand reality, providing us with the necessary consumer guidelines.
Whether it is good or bad is not so important, but nevertheless, it still helps us determine the direction.
A name carries many meanings, this is obvious, especially if you look at the work of Pushkin. And in the very image of his name, you can find various aspects, sometimes even elements of a logo. Think, for example, of the poet's famous self-portrait - doesn't it resemble a logo?
Read also:
- Appearance no longer determines how we are perceived. Or, the story of the Rusalka Funeral Home.
- Sheep Gate Update: What's the Difference Between a Redesign, a Restyling, and a Rebranding?
- Logo Changes: Is It Worth Updating a Design? What Could Be the Reason for It, and What Are the Potential Consequences?