Ukraine’s Creative Class
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought the world’s attention to the country’s political landscape and its rich history. However, what remains underreported is just how seminal Ukraine has been to Europe’s cultural output. The preservation of artists and artwork is deeply personal for Ukrainians. Their homeland is the birthplace of legendary artists who run the gamut from writers Mykola Gogol and Anton Chekhov to film director Otto Preminger, to legendary dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, to the Strugatsky brothers, the leading authors of Soviet sci-fi.
As a result, protecting the country’s art has become a cause for many. As an example, Artsy writes that Cornélia Schmidmayr, co-founder and managing director at ArtEast Gallery, based in both Kyiv and Berlin, “aims to ensure that we will be taking Ukrainian art to different corners of the world. If we can’t by plane, we’ll go by truck from Kyiv to Berlin. And from there, to other countries. Ukraine is a wonderful country with talented people and rich art.” Beyond painting, literature, and the performing arts is an entire tier of creatives, including web designers, brand strategists, animators, and visual communication designers, who embody their native land’s allegiance to beauty and style. Led by our Ukrainian-born lead designer, Yuliya Fedorvych, we are helping to make available to the public a list of Ukrainian-born designers and strategists you can hire for your next project: https://tinyurl.com/2p8n4juw. This list was started by Tetiana Khodakivska, a Ukrainian film editor based in NY, and it was further developed by Ukrainian Creative Director Dmytro Klischik and Fedorvych.
Award-winning Talent
Awwwards, a website that features design competitions, is one institution that has recognized Ukrainians for their contributions to digital aesthetics. For example, in October 2021 the Ukraine-based firm Obys won Awwwards’ Site of the Month designation for its graphic design of the Grids website. On its website, Obys’ team says its firm is “about people who love creating, designing and developing wow projects” and that it is “a boutique agency that is more than the collective.” Another Ukrainian firm that received recognition from Awwwards is Advanced Team. Its website states that “with many years of experience in digital product development, [it] understand[s] how to create user-friendly and memorable interfaces for the leading world companies.” On January 20, 2022, Advanced Team won Site of the Day for a website designed for Ukrainian real estate company, Alef Estate. The website incorporates the developer’s attributes of aesthetics, energy, and ambitions.
Illustrators
One of the many areas where Ukrainian creatives excel is the world of illustrators. The country has produced numerous artists whose styles are eclectic but their commitment to originality and imagination unites them. They draw upon diverse aspects of common humanity to fuel their projects. For example, Ukraine Now says that illustrator and native Oksana Drachkovska “calls travel and nature her greatest inspiration when she can discover new countries and people.” Her pictures include a humorous piece showing mice using a boot as a sled on a snowy day and another one showing outsized people walking across a minuscule globe. Her work is a celebration of the planet that people and animals share-alike. Another visual talent is Kyiv illustrator Sergiy Maidukov who Ukraine Now says is known for his work on “books, events and even buildings” and who has made “Ukrainian graphics and cubism famous all over the world.” One of his pieces is an expressionistic sketch of a crowd with dashes of blue and yellow, Ukraine’s national colors, thrown in.
Television Design
Another area in which Ukrainian designers have left an indelible mark is television design. In the ’90s and ’00s, Ukrainian design firms received numerous awards from Promax, which is the preeminent organization that oversees television promotion, development, and marketing. Last year, for example, TV Channel Ukraine ’ was nominated in two categories of the prestigious Promax Europe Awards 2021,” writes Media Group Ukraine. In addition to this recognition, Ukraine’s government-approved brand “Ukraine NOW” created by Banda agency received the prestigious Red Dot Award. As evidenced by these many accolades, Ukraine’s digital designers and branding artists continue to preserve the country’s place as a creative powerhouse.