andrei slobtsov

hi, my name is andrei. i moved from moscow (russia) to milwaukee (us) to pursue a career in advertising and graphic design. i'm currently employed full-time as a junior art director, teach design classes at my alma-mater, and starting a creative shop with two of my partners. snowboard, rock climb, and climbing everest in 4 years. I'm always open to the new and exciting freelance opportunities.

what is design for me?

as soon as you open your eyes in the morning, every single thing which surrounds you, made out of plastic, wood, concrete, glass, or metal, is someone’s idea designed. like whenever i say “a toothpick”, you already have an image in your mind. probably a person who designed the toothpick did think about it as an actual design process, but he was looking for a solution to the problem. and that’s what design is all about, finding a solution. that’s why i like to call it not a “graphic design”, but a “communication design”. we develop the language of communication, organize the information, and put ideas into a physical form or shape. a real life example in everyday design is - a door, particularly a glass door. it's made to let you in or out, it’s hinged on one side and you have either to push it or pull it. so basically you can apply only two actions to it. but how often you can see an explain sticker on both sides of the door: “push” or “pull”. the only reason to it is that a designer failed to find a good solution to the problem, his design failed, he couldn’t convey the idea through his design.