We, as the Designer Interviews ("DI") had the distinct pleasure and opportunity to interview award-winning, most creative and innovative Kirill Semenovich ("KS").

Kirill Semenovich — graphic designer and founder of the studio "pale". "Pale" is focusing on logo design and brand identity. It is a platform for experiments, where intersect various forms of the visual art. For helping to design identity systems, Kirill developed a unique approach with the interaction of mental maps. "Pale" doesn't follow the temporary trends. It creates honest products with live stories. The major achievements of the studio is the development of an identity for Vitebsk city (Republic of Belarus).

Kirill Semenovich Designs

We are pleased to share with you original and innovative design work by Kirill Semenovich.

Designer Interview of Kirill Semenovich:

DI: 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?

KS : I love to draw since my childhood — it is about creation the whole worlds. I dreamed to become an artist. And with growing up I discovered new areas through which I can express my emotions. So I started shooting a video. And then I studied architecture at the RUDN university in Moscow. Finally I created my own studio «pale».

DI: Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?

KS : «Pale» is a design studio. There are two of us in the studio: me and my muse — my wife. We focus on logo design and brand identity. Pale is a platform for experiments, where intersect various forms of the visual art. Pale philosophy is about humanity. We realize how little time is left. Therefore, we do not follow temporal trends. We create honest products with live stories. Our slogan: love, think, play.

DI: What is "design" for you?

KS : If we talk about design as a process, we divide it into several stages: brief, research, concept, sketches and final product appearance.

DI: What kinds of works do you like designing most?

KS : What I like most is to create identity systems: develop product DNA and subordinate all the elements of a single logic. And in the future, I like to see how the product grows and how the visual part of it transforms.

DI: What is your most favorite design, could you please tell more about it?

KS : I can't say I have the most favorite design. I like all our works. But I want to highlight the identity for Vitebsk City (Republic of Belarus). This is the first project where we used our unique approach with a mental map to design. Since then, we have been improving our approach to design and making all projects with pale mental map.

DI: What was the first thing you designed for a company?

KS : The first project for which I received a cash reward was a logo for a job searching company.

DI: What is your favorite material / platform / technology?

KS : In our studio we use Adobe package, especially Illustrator, Photoshop, Premiere, After Effects. For the time being we use Xmind Software to work with the mental map. In the future, we plan to create our own mind map application, with a focus on brand design.

DI: When do you feel the most creative?

KS : If we're talking about inspiration, I get it from different areas of our life: movies, music, video games, paint art, technology news, my family and so on.

DI: Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?

KS : It all depends on the specifics of the project. But basically at each stage of designing, we do accent on the following things: full research of a product, market and competitors. Then we work in detail with the pale mental map, where we find the concept for the project. And next comes the technical part.

DI: What kind of emotions do you feel when you design?

KS : Interesting question. I feel joy. And I feel like something moves quickly in my head. Hmm.

DI: What kind of emotions do you feel when your designs are realized?

KS : I'm still feeling joy.

DI: What makes a design successful?

KS : Happy client, and the desire to put the new project in our pale portfolio.

DI: When judging a design as good or bad, which aspects do you consider first?

KS : The first impression is the visual appearance. If it does, I keep digging inside to decompose the image into semantic components and find the logic in the construction.

DI: From your point of view, what are the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment?

KS : I think it's enough to realize that your work will be seen by people like you. The rest moral part — is only everyone creator's business.

DI: How do you think the "design field" is evolving? What is the future of design?

KS : Design is already evolving and will evolve towards AI. At the same time, the designer will still be in charge, and AI will be the main assistant for designers in all design processes.

DI: When was your last exhibition and where was it? And when do you want to hold your next exhibition?

KS : Our studio is very young. And the first exhibition - in honor of the victory at A’ Design Award 2019.

DI: Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?

KS : As I said before, inspiration can come from very different fields: watching a movie, listening music, communicating with interesting people, reading a book, watching lecture on YouTube, playing a new video game, and so on - it all depends only on how open and receptive you are to absorbing and processing new information.

DI: 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?

KS : Pale studio works in ascetic design style. This concept was developed in the walls of our studio. The ascetic design is similar to the abstract art - it allows you to remove the visual frames and show the soul of the project through the figurative graphic elements. With the help of ascetic design, we also demonstrate the identity of our studio. And now we develope ascetic design dogmas - a set of rules that we follow when creating new products.

DI: 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?

KS : At the moment I live in Moscow. Undoubtedly, the environment affects to some extent the work we do. But I can't say that our design is «russian design». I don't think about it. I just do what I think is right and interesting.

DI: How do you work with companies?

KS : We don't have any secret approaches. The main aspects of cooperation are transparency and honesty. Usually companies send us email or write to us in personal messages on behance and we start our cooperation.

DI: What are your suggestions to companies for working with a designer? How can companies select a good designer?

KS : When choosing a designer for collaboration, it is obviously necessary to look at works in the portfolio and further build communications on this basis.

DI: Can you talk a little about your design process?

KS : We start with a brief - we write our questions and send them to the client. After that we analyze the answers, research the market, audience, competitors. Then we start working on concept. To do this, we go through several stages with the help of a mental map. When the concept is approved, we proceed with the sketches. Then we work through all the details and prepare the final design.

DI: What are 5 of your favorite design items at home?

KS : iMac and my sketchbook — all that I need for work.

DI: Can you describe a day in your life?

KS : I usually spend most of the day at work. That's why I spend most of the time sitting in front of my computer. I don't need to go to the office because I work from home remotely. In the evening I try to spend time with my family. Nothing special. I'm just a normal person.

DI: Could you please share some pearls of wisdom for young designers? What are your suggestions to young, up and coming designers?

KS : I will not be original and I will say things in which I was convinced myself. The main thing is to set the goal, break it into small stages and work to the bitter end. And most importantly, don't forget that beauty is a consequence of love. If you want to do beautiful things, you need to be able to love.

DI: From your perspective, what would you say are some positives and negatives of being a designer?

KS : The freedom of your creativity can end where the vision and wishes of the customer begin, who makes some changes to your concept. It's from the negative side. On the positive side, the other side of what I said - is the opportunity to create and make art.

DI: What is your "golden rule" in design?

KS : Love, think, play. Our slogan. Our golden rule.

DI: What skills are most important for a designer?

KS : I think technical skills and creativity. Spicy combination.

DI: Which tools do you use during design? What is inside your toolbox? Such as software, application, hardware, books, sources of inspiration etc.?

KS : We use Adobe Package tools, most often: Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, Premier Pro. For the development of web sites we use Figma. We make 3D graphics in Cinema 4d. We design mental maps in Xmind. We look at the works of other designers on Behance, Dribble, Pinterest. In general, a classic set of tools.

DI: Designing can sometimes be a really time consuming task, how do you manage your time?

KS : I try not to spend more than 4 hours a day on design. This is the best time for me to do the job efficiently. I record every minute I work. And at the end of the month I draw up a report on how much was spent this month to work. Which job did I spend more time on. It helps to evaluate everything I do, whether I do it right or not, and how much my time costs.

DI: How long does it take to design an object from beginning to end?

KS : Depends on the project. I can say that on average it takes 2-3 weeks to develop, for example, a logo. It takes 3-4 weeks to develop an identity system for brand.

DI: What is the most frequently asked question to you, as a designer?

KS : How much does a logo design cost in your studio?

DI: What was your most important job experience?

KS : Probably working on public and large projects. When you realize that hundreds of people will see your work. An example of such a project: I worked on the visual appearance of one of the main music festivals of Russia.

DI: Who are some of your clients?

KS : We work with clients from different fields of activity. Shops, wedding agencies, medicine, museums, city projects, religion and so on.

DI: What type of design work do you enjoy the most and why?

KS : Most of all I like to work with mental maps and create a brand DNA. I like the approach that we used in our studio. It reminds me of a game. We just play and create new projects.

DI: What are your future plans? What is next for you?

KS : Our plans can be divided into two ways, linked together. The first is to gain further popularity in order to attract new clients and create interesting projects. The second is the products we produce inside our studio. For example, as I have already said, it is to form all the dogmas of ascetic design and to create a separate project. We are also working on our own pale mental map, patenting, and in the future we plan to develop a separate cloud application, which could be used by all designers in the design of their brands, logos, etc.

DI: Do you work as a team, or do you develop your designs yourself?

KS : There are two people in our pale studio: me and my wife. But if necessary, we can invite outside professionals for specific projects.

DI: Do you have any works-in-progress being designed that you would like to talk about?

KS : Perhaps the most exciting and promising project at the moment is the development of our mental map, which I have already mentioned in part above.

DI: How can people contact you?

KS : Please feel free to contact me: play@pale.love. You can also write me a personal message in instagram @pale.design. Let's talk about the art :)