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Interview with Evgeny Arinin |
Home > Designer Interviews > Evgeny Arinin |
Editor Frank Scott (FS) from DesignPRWire has interviewed designer Evgeny Arinin (EA) for A’ Design Award and Competition. You can access the full profile of Evgeny Arinin by clicking here.
FS: Could you please tell us more about your art and design background? What made you become an artist/designer? Have you always wanted to be a designer?
EA: Life is a constancy of movement and its irony is that you never know where the “curve” of fate will lead you. On the other hand, looking back, now I really understand that I was literally born for this profession. All previous communications, contacts, communications, studies, courses, literally disposed to the present formation in the role of a creative sustainable unit. I have always been interested in things related to art and related activities.
FS: Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
EA: My company "ARINE ATELIER" is the possibility of an uncompromising reflection of my views, my opinions, my persistently frisky and evolving day-to-day taste. For me and my team there are no borders - that is why projects of any kind of complexity, ambition and direction are always interesting for us. If only because this challenge makes us grow.
FS: What is "design" for you?
EA: Design for me is an absolute synonym for life. I consider design not only as a profession related to the interior, industrial design or illustration, but I scale it to all household activities, be it speech, writing, cooking ritual, cleaning and so on. Every our action, every gesture, every word, every stroke of the pen, ultimately forms the design of our existence.
FS: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
EA: The most interesting subjects for design for me are examples of industrial design. To create something that thousands, hundreds of thousands and even millions of people around the world will use in the future will always motivate and admire with its scale on the one hand and its exceptional usefulness for the world.
FS: What is your most favorite design, could you please tell more about it?
EA: My favorite design is an example of his “absence”, if you rephrase the words of the famous Dieter Rams. Certainly, being somewhat inclined towards luxury goods, I am driven by products whose quality is pretentious, unique and unconditional. Bang Olufsen, Vertu, Mercedes Benz - whose products symbolize uncompromising leadership in the design development and further production of their goods.
FS: What was the first thing you designed for a company?
EA: The first official work was the development of signs ostrovki for Moscow transport. In 2014, being an intern in a working group at the Department of Transport and Road Infrastructure Development in Moscow, I carried out an analysis of the urban environment, world examples and ultimately offered my vision. The project was not destined to be realized, but I still do not refuse my idea.
FS: What is your favorite material / platform / technology?
EA: My unconditional favorite materials for the work: metal, glass and wood. Their symbiosis seems exceptionally obvious and harmonious, thanks to the natural nature of their origin. The interaction of these materials in the infinite most cases is the key to a successful outcome. The temperature contrast of objects, from cold to warm, forms a harmonious environment, close in spirit to a person, like Yin and Yang, where the existence of one is impossible without the other.
FS: When do you feel the most creative?
EA: In addition to design, my element and passion has always been music. Insightful sounds of quality compositions are always the cause of a good mood and charge a certain degree of energy, which in turn has to creativity.
FS: Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?
EA: Each project is unique in its essence. Nevertheless, I personally are always captivated by the moment of searching for an idea / solution for a particular task. It is like a computer game in the flesh, when there is a “problem” requiring a non-trivial solution, and the culmination of this interaction is the ingenious simplicity of the solution, for which, sometimes, you have to spend a significant amount of effort analyzing, trying, repeating in your actions.
FS: What kind of emotions do you feel when you design?
EA: Being consonant with life in principle, design for me is an absolutely natural environment, which is a mandatory self-sufficient and independent part, like the senses.If there really is a 6th sense, then for me this is design. A sense of beauty, a sense of necessity, a sense of correctness and necessity of decisions. The feeling of the need to develop the world as a whole.
FS: What kind of emotions do you feel when your designs are realized?
EA: Each project is created a priori in order to be embodied. And this feeling is like having a baby. The comparison is somewhat exaggerated, but the essence and processes are absolutely similar - the difference is only in their scale. The realized project every time begins to live its own life and develop in conditions of acceptance by the society, and this is wonderful.
FS: What makes a design successful?
EA: An example for determining the success of a design can be quite diverse, and each of them will be in its own measure objective and correct. For some, successful design is a recognition. For others - the amount of revenue. For me, successful design is immortality. In other words, the lack of a framework of existence and the constancy of demand. The formula that I have been shaping and shaping from the moment I study at the British Higher School of Design allows me to achieve this. The qualitative interaction of many important aspects and nuances of design, ultimately forming the overall picture will always be recognized by society, including professional part of it. Therefore, the statement is true that for me, design is the absoluteness of exact science and the absence of any art or naive creativity.
FS: When judging a design as good or bad, which aspects do you consider first?
EA: The first opinion is always superficial, internal, but the most honest. Someone calls it the voice of the heart, others - the inner mind. For me, this is a feeling of being in love, which arises or does not arise, as a chemical reaction that can not be described in words, in the interaction of which there is no need to understand, simply enough to understand that it works.
FS: From your point of view, what are the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment?
EA: The designer is highly responsible for the external, internal, obvious, visual and hidden image of the world. The role of design is to create a better future for society. Modern, comfortable, perfect to make life and its processes extremely favorable, giving positive quality emotions.
FS: How do you think the "design field" is evolving? What is the future of design?
EA: The world is relatively young. In general, all life is relative. I am sure only one thing is that the principles have long been formed and obvious, and over time, only their type of interaction changes. Processes in design, as in the whole world, will be improved, simplified and complicated at the same time. The world, at first glance, will change drastically, and in fact will be the same, with the same primary and mandatory needs of people, with the same passions and desires, but probably in slightly different forms.
FS: When was your last exhibition and where was it? And when do you want to hold your next exhibition?
EA: The last exhibition was held in the Vremena Goda shopping center on Kutuzovsky Prospect in Moscow. It was a unique experience of participating in a creative competition, connected not so much with design, as with art. And yet, experience, vision and principles allowed to be among the 10 finalists representing their work in the center space. The next exhibition will be the MOOD museum in Italy, where I present my two new works.
FS: Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?
EA: Inspiration for me is the interpretation of mental activity, its level of intensity and breadth of perception. And the reason for its enrichment is the constancy of development, analysis and training. In fact, any idea that arises in our mind is the result of a huge number of processes in the brain that occur independently of us, adding up literally into a puzzle, the result of which is a solution for a specific task. Our brain cultivates these ideas as information arrives, which may have diametrically opposed characters and types.
FS: How would you describe your design style? What made you explore more this style and what are the main characteristics of your style? What's your approach to design?
EA: Exceptional minimalism and concentration on the form, combined with the interaction of texture, texture and color. In the absolute majority of cases, my style is the modern integration of constructivism into exceptional luxury associated with the use of expensive and high-quality materials, their processing and interaction through thoughtful hidden nodes of connections.
FS: Where do you live? Do you feel the cultural heritage of your country affects your designs? What are the pros and cons during designing as a result of living in your country?
EA: I was born in Moscow, in 1991, the Soviet Union is in the passport, but I grew up from and to, already in modern Russia. Given the development of technology and the Internet, it is difficult to say that only my homeland influenced my development, having access to publications, lectures, lessons of modern and historical personalities from abroad. Nevertheless, I feel that native walls to some extent give me strength, especially if I draw a historical parallel with Statehood, which, in spirit, I think, is very close. On the other hand, it is necessary to recognize that the grayness of society and the architecture of the city does not dispose to the constancy of creating something beautiful, because for me it is extremely important to feel comfortable in creating conditions.
FS: How do you work with companies?
EA: My principled position is the authority and importance of my opinion. That is why, in most cases, I work with companies that really trust me and will not contradict my opinion, decision or choice. This is what allows the work to be done desired and loved, and, as a result, to ensure maximum final quality.
FS: What are your suggestions to companies for working with a designer? How can companies select a good designer?
EA: A good designer for a company is not always a really good designer. Most often, this is a subjective opinion based on personal partisan opinions. Unfortunately, the client is rarely willing to listen to professional opinion and hurries to guide and dictate the conditions and principles of the project development. In fact, this destructively affects the quality of the result, because as a designer, he becomes not a creator, and a mediocre performer.
FS: Can you talk a little about your design process?
EA: Any project development process begins with a primary analysis of the problem, with a superficial personal subjective opinion, and ends with an in-depth audit with the interaction of the widest group of people to determine the validity of the correctness of the decision.
FS: What are 5 of your favorite design items at home?
EA: Perhaps my favorite items at home are the Macbook Pro workbook, Bang Olufsen Speaker System, Fornasetti Plate Series, Smeg Series of kitchen appliances and VITRA Bird model. All of them, as one, have their pronounced properties and traits of character, quality, uniqueness and, most importantly, their unique history of creation.
FS: Can you describe a day in your life?
EA: Every day is unique in its essence, and more recently every day for me is associated with freedom. Being the owner of a design studio, I belong to myself and this allows me to be inspired and feel positioned towards creativity.
FS: Could you please share some pearls of wisdom for young designers? What are your suggestions to young, up and coming designers?
EA: Experience is the most important aspect in professional development and it is important to properly and efficiently manage your time in order to be able to really accomplish anything. But the most important thing is to be honest. Honest to the client, the world and themselves, in general. Design is not for the sake of goods, but because otherwise the heart does not allow. Feel the love of creativity and the profession and settle down to them in a friendly manner.
FS: From your perspective, what would you say are some positives and negatives of being a designer?
EA: Any profession and the role of a person as a whole has positive and negative aspects. It is important to understand that one without the other does not exist and does not regard the work from this point of view. Design is always an interaction 24 hours, 7 days a week, for 365 days a year. Design is the constancy of development and interaction with the world, requiring both professional and moral all-consuming efforts.
FS: What is your "golden rule" in design?
EA: The golden rule in design is the lack of compromise and the search for harmony. Only harmonious decisions are a reflection of a quality design, characterized by and fulfilled at 100 percent of its potential, while a compromise is always a concession, which means a smaller and weaker result.
FS: What skills are most important for a designer?
EA: The designer must first be able to think broadly, be deeply erudite and, most importantly, be able to rely not on his personal experience and opinion, but look at the situation from a third independent person. Each successful designer must have a wealth of experience in performing activities in order to understand the principles of interaction and the implementation of tasks, as well as the basic skills of a manager who is able to organize development and communication processes. To be able to correctly convey and convince the client of the correctness of the decision and be responsible for each work performed.
FS: Which tools do you use during design? What is inside your toolbox? Such as software, application, hardware, books, sources of inspiration etc.?
EA: The most necessary for me was always the imagination. Perhaps, in this formed “virtual” reality, I created, formed, painted, built and embodied most of my projects. Before starting, I always build a plan and a final image in my head and only then proceed to copy it on paper.Depending on the task, completely different programs are used. From time to time, one has to study new ones or even find and come up with solutions, if such tools have not been created.
FS: Designing can sometimes be a really time consuming task, how do you manage your time?
EA: The most important thing is not to postpone. In general, it is very Russian, to postpone business until the last moment and to complete all the night before handing over the project, but the idea that you can achieve great results with quality and effective time and quality always captivates and motivates you to immediately proceed to design.
FS: How long does it take to design an object from beginning to end?
EA: Very often, the search for an “elementary” solution takes most of the time. While the subsequent implementation may be as simple as "two and two." In fact, the solution appears as an explosion, instantly, but it is absolutely impossible to track the amount of time spent on anticipating and motivating this internal explosion.
FS: What is the most frequently asked question to you, as a designer?
EA: The most common question for me is whether I ever use color other than black. Indeed, the most important and beloved, special color for me is black. As an example of its absence and the possibility of concentration on the essence, form, function of the object. However, I also often love and get used to using “natural” colors related to the nature of the material. Wood, glass, metal.
FS: What was your most important job experience?
EA: For me, a collaboration with the Department of Transportation, in which I designed parking pavilions in the center of Moscow, was a particularly memorable job for me. The idea that the project of this kind of scale was carried out by me, was implemented and stands in the historical and not only part of the capital, motivates and allows you to feel its significance.
FS: Who are some of your clients?
EA: Over 4 years of work, I managed to establish working contacts with various structures and companies, including: the Department of Transport, the Moscow Metropolitan, St. Petersburg Energy Company, the French Immersive Show brand, a Swiss virtual reality startup and many others.
FS: What type of design work do you enjoy the most and why?
EA: Most of all I love the development of concepts. Searching for an idea and finding a solution seems fundamental for future and future work, which can transform an idea in completely different ways, but the essence always remains the same. It is the search for this essence that seems the most difficult and interesting to work with.
FS: What are your future plans? What is next for you?
EA: Future plans - standing development, finding yourself in new aspects of design and daily development and the path to the best.
FS: Do you work as a team, or do you develop your designs yourself?
EA: Despite the existing studio, I got used to solely make decisions and rely on myself, which is why in most cases I work from and to the project, relying only on myself.
FS: Do you have any works-in-progress being designed that you would like to talk about?
EA: Recently, I got the idea to create a unique outlet, the work on which I have been working for half a year now and it seems that I will soon find the final solution.
FS: How can people contact you?
EA: I can be found on most social resources. Facebook or Instragram. My nick @arininevgenyAll detailed contact information is also available on the website: www.arininevgeny.com
FS: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?
EA: Keep moving
FS: Thank you for providing us with this opportunity to interview you.
A’ Design Award and Competitions grants rights to press members and bloggers to use parts of this interview. This interview is provided as it is; DesignPRWire and A' Design Award and Competitions cannot be held responsible for the answers given by participating designers.
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