Albert Fedchenko

I got my education in the south of Russia in Krasnodar city. I studied at the Art and Graphic Faculty, my occupation is a teacher of fine arts. At that time in Russia there was no education related to digital design and work at computers. However, all the fundamental sciences studied there now are the most important in my work as a designer. Almost immediately after graduation and despite my age I was invited to teach at the Faculty of Architecture and Design, where directions in Digital had just opened. Due to this, I have been practicing self-education so far almost every week. After all, the field of design is very dynamic in terms of exercises and methods. Moreover, one needs to keep in practice.

At the beginning of my career, when I have just graduated from university, this sphere in our country was very unfilled. Then I saw the prospect of an interesting and well-paid job. I treated it like craft. But when the Internet broke into our lives, we all saw the work of designers from other countries. It had very strong impact on me, I wanted to attain their highest level. It was at that moment I switched from making money to creating works of art in which I would pursue my ambitions.

Well, that is quite a story! In my youth I played football and made serious plans for participating in professional sports. But when it came to higher education, I did not really like the curriculum offered by the Institute of Physical Education and Sports. And the case was that I went to the wrong faculty and there was not a word about football. Then I returned to drawing as my hobby, but already at the university level. So I became an artist at first, and then transformed into a designer. But football involuntarily haunts me throughout my life. :) Not so long ago I made break bumpers for the football clubs of the English Premier League. Moreover, I have been helping the school of young football players in my city for a long time.

Now I have a small studio where we professionally practice a wide enough range of graphic design: brand visualization, corporate identity, printing design, packaging and web design. This makes our work very diverse and comprehensive. After all, if you work only in one direction at some point you get tired of it. And it takes time to restore interest. Therefore, I like not the type, but the theme of design, the type of client's business.

Of course, an important aspect is the education of a designer. And if it’s not too late, you need to pay special attention to this. You need to take everything that teachers give you and even more. Having reached a professional level, a designer must take advantage of his hard work nature and ability to analyze the good work of designers of the highest level. This way he can accumulate a large number of exercises, methods and styles in his arsenal. He do not need to wait for "fat" orders, but try to realize his highest level in every interesting project.

Great designer is in constant search. He is not interested in walking along an already beaten trail. He craves experimentation and innovation. He is bound up in his projects. But with all this, he uses knowledge and accumulated experience to achieve not just beautiful packaging, but to make it for the consumer as interesting and convenient as possible. To make it profitable from the customer’s point of view. A compilation of these properties makes the designer's work great.

Of course, the idea and its concept are evaluated in the first place. Indeed, the first impression plays an important role in the selection of goods by the consumer. In the second place is the level of performance and work on the details. And in the third place, it is the functionality in the consumer environment, how competitive it will be in the market. Of course, this is not so easy to do without knowing the target audience and marketing tasks of the contractor, but this analytics becomes possible with experience.

Excellent and technically correct design directly affects on customer’s sales. It is very important not only to make a beautiful interesting picture, but also to prepare a file according to all the requirements of a printing house or other production. And experience is therefore essential. For this reason customers are interested in working with professional designers, and are willing to adequately pay for these competencies.

In fact, not so long ago, I just implemented the project of my dream. What is more, this is a dream of my early childhood. I made a poster for the new James Bond film “James Bond - No time to die.” And it was fantastically interesting and even exciting. In my work I try to approach to each project as to the project of my dream. This very often brings unexpected results. Therefore, everything is still ahead!

There is no secret. All professional designers know these ingredients: to love their work, not to measure projects in amounts, to work hard and constantly self-educate.

I cannot single out any specific names. There are so many great designers that the list of names would be more than my interview. First of all, I memorize their projects. In the modern world, we can daily monitor all new and previous works of a high level.

I analyze many top-level works of other designers. I mentally set them up in terms of ideas and technical performance. Almost every day I look through 100-200 works, from illustration to packaging.

I fond of cinema! And I think it would be cool to be an actor, to act in Hollywood films, to play roles with the legends of world cinema. However, this is all fantasy :)

Well, of course this is my family, wife, daughters, my parents, my brother. All of them will support you not only in the hour of triumph, but also in the moment of difficulty and disappointment.