“Remember why you started”

In 2002, after few successful graphic design students exhibitions I curated during my study, and several commercial websites, I decide to move on and fulfil my dream to run personal website.

During next few years I’ve run Designcollector on a pioneer CMS Drupal being the first Drupaler in Russia and monitoring the official forum for developers together with their founders.

I have dedicated myself to review Russian creative scene in all its finest and had a several publications including the break-through article made for Smashing Magazine about Russian Web Design that has changed a lot of careers and even helped to established few leading agencies

It was 2008 and 2009 a breaking point in my dedication to Designcollector when I first visited OFFF Festival and became an official media partner of it. In 2009 I decided to run “Designcollector 6” - a first collaboration with artists dedicated to our 6th anniversary with guerrilla-drop of stickers and pins during OFFF 2009.

It was 2010 when I released the first ever catalogues of Russian illustrators featuring 100+ artists in two big books that are still available via Amazon and Blurb. Then I released the fist Designcollector printed Magazine having a lot of interviews and collaborations with selected artist including Sara Blake doing a cover on Oleg Dou.

Between 2010 and 2012 I was the first Behance Ambassador in Russia promoting the platform and organising first offline meetups with creative people in Saint Petersburg and Moscow with the help of a lot partners and friends

That was 2011 a turning point in my speaker career when OFFF Festival invited me, Vladimir Tomin and Evgeny Kiselev to showcase Top Russian Motion and Graphic design. Later same year we received our first ever FWA Award for the iPad version of Designcollector Magazine created with Fiodor Sumkin. The FWA is celebrating 21 years this May!

Digital Decade x OFFF Festival 2013-2015

In 2013, to celebrate 10 years of Designcollector I decided to run a dedicated platform for digital art collaborations and exhibitions. With the help of Hector Ayuso, OFFF festival founder, and support from Depositphotos I curated competition and then exhibition during OFFF 2013 festival.

During the same year I was invited to judge European Design Awards that I am still doing with a great pleasure. At the end of the year I was invited by them to speak about Russian Motion Designers during Filmteractive Festival 2013 with the showcase compiled by Alex Frukta

In 2014 the team behind IKRA Education Center managed to hold first ever Russian OFFF on Tour Festival in Saint Petersburg. Following up their message “Give me a Future” we ran a competition on Digital Decade supported by Depositphotos and best work joined OFFF SPB in July. This was a first time also we did a digital version of the gallery in VR.
At the end of the year I was invited to Digitized 2014 Conference in Athens to represent Russian Creative Startups including Glitche App and Readymag

In 2015 I was invited by OFFF Russia to make an art direction of festival identity we created with Nord Collective (Vladimir Tomin and Alex Frukta). OFFF Russia festival took place at Mail.ru workspace 10-11 of October 2015 in Moscow.

Same year in Barcelona I curated a massive collaboration for Digital Decade “His Majesty the Glitch” calling up amazing artists and showcasing best works during OFFF 2015.

In 2015 my speaker experience paid off and I was invited to travel to magic Argentina to represent Russian Creative community during Trimarchi Festival in southern city of Mar del Plata. This was the most impressive experience I’ve ever had, speaking in-front of 8K stadium with 10 minutes ovation and after party with design legends like Lance Wyman and Carl Sprague. The showcase video was again compiled by Alex Frukta.

Digital Decade Exhibitions

In 2016 I partnered with Sedition Art Platform and The FWA to become guest curator on both platforms.
In summer I was brave enough to curate and coordinate first standalone exhibition of Digital Decade in London in a gallery we hired with the help of Depositphotos. Digital Decade 4 “There is No Planet B” was a great challenge for selected artist and competition winners. The whole show won’t happen without a team of LUWA, Youth World Wide, and of course Underdog Gallery London

Starting in January 2017 till the release date in August I did the biggest ever show in my life featuring 50 artists with 10 partners and a huge win of Ugly Duck Gallery London grant win. That was Digital Decade Cyberia - I teamed up with the leading creative platforms Ello Network and Curioos to bring 35 digital artists together engaged in creating print artworks to take a part in a London exhibition. One third of these artists made a cut from a huge shortlist selected by the prominent Jury during “Ello x Digital Decade” Open Call. Another addition to upcoming event is a new challenge made together with Sedition Art Platform that will feature the work of selected video artists. Also a number of interactive and phygital artists to join the exhibition to create an immersive atmosphere.

In 2018 I have teamed up with FutureFest in London organised by NESTA to be a part of their conference during the hot July days in Tobacco Docks, London opened for two days of discussions, debates, performances and immersive experiences exploring alternative futures and innovative solutions to the challenges that lay ahead.
With the help of Ello Network and Curioos we managed to setup a pop-up gallery of Digital Decade Future Selves artworks and provide a strong competition with the winner you are all already know - Maalavida

During 2019 I travelled a lot (like I did we knew what 2020 can bring us) and due to my work schedule had not produced any activity but instead was a part of Elements Talk conference and European Design Awards in Warsaw, meeting people in London within my side activities as art mediator on my self-initiated Instagram @artfrontrow

Digital Decade 2020 Special Edition

Digital Decade SE (Special Edition) 2020 was our first virtual show happening entirely online. In 2020, digital media have become a significant part of our lives, bringing everyday challenges and new opportunities in all layers of our global society. Nobody’s left behind by this whirlpool of change. There is no doubt that the influence of digital media has provided much food for thought for artists. Together with Sedition Art London we ran a virtual group show inside online gallery through the whole lockdown summer

2021

We survived 2020 and went into our full blossom 18 years of online existence! Should I mention NFT is a biggest surprise of the recent era? Yes, and we are all in, helping our artists (can you imagine we collaborated with 150+ since then?) to find their voice inside a cacophony of Crypto Renaissance. Recently we teamed up with the leading platform Superrare and helping them with curation and edtiorial

It won’t be complete without sharing our funny NFT work that you may purchase to support our further journey and dedication to art, and help us to promote new artists

And “remember why you started”!

Follow Designcollector

On Twitter, Instagram (@designcollector, @post.visual, @digital.decade, @artfrontrow, @arseny.vesnin), Superrare, Rarible, Foundation

Yours truly,