Yurko Gutsulyak

“我们热爱我们所做的，并相信任何工作的结果只有在有趣的过程之下才可能有趣。”这是Yurko Gutsulyak创办的平面设计工作室的一句介绍。

这位来自乌克兰的设计师，在十几年前原本做着营销的工作，本着对设计的误解而入了行。如今，他已成为一个拥有16年经验的职业设计师以及艺术总监，对设计也有了自己的理解。

Narkii:

您大学专业是营销，毕业后也有一年在做本专业的工作，之后转作为设计师，您当时是怎么做的呢？

You graduated from university as a marketing manager and worked according to your education just for one year, then you started your creative career. How did you make it?

Yurko: 

这是一个非常自然，甚至偶然的决定。在一家服装厂（位于一个省城）的营销部门工作后，为了实现了我的创意梦想，我搬到了首都。一开始没有生计，任何我能找到的工作我都得去做。一个朋友告诉我，这个世界上最简单的职业就是设计师，因为你不需要特殊的教育或知识，也不受任何责任约束……那时，我甚至没有意识到我有多么错，这位给我提建议的朋友有多么错。就这样，在我到基辅后的第四天，我开始在打印店做设计师。半年后，我成了一家虽小但有发展潜力的设计公司的主要设计师。在那工作的一年里，我渐渐了解什么是真正的平面设计，我的项目也为公司赢得了许多奖项。获得成功后，我被邀请加入一家著名的乌克兰葡萄酒和白兰地品牌公司的营销部门。所以我就有了机会同时作为设计公司以及公司内部的设计师；也有了勇气去创新，有了耐心去改进。我学着把我的营销知识与设计经验结合起来。最后，为了能够自由地发挥创意，我创立了自己的工作室。

It was very spontaneous or even random decision. After working in the marketing department of a garment factory (in a provincial city) I moved to the capital aiming to realize my creative dreams. Without livelihood, I had to find any possible job right from the beginning. A friend of mine told me that the easiest profession in this world is a designer as you do not need special education or knowledge and it is not bound by any responsibility… At that moment I didn't even realize how wrong was I and how wrong was my adviser. This way I started my work in a print shop as a designer on the fourth day after arriving in Kyiv. A half year later I started working in small but very progressive design agency as a leading designer. During one year of working there, I started to understand what is real graphic design and my projects had won the majority of awards for this agency. Being successful I was invited to join the marketing department of a famous Ukrainian wine and brandy brand. So I had a chance to be an agency designer as well as an in-house designer; to have courage for creating something new and patience to evolve already created things. I was learning to combine my marketing education and design experience. Finally, I started my own agency inspired with the idea of creative freedom.

Fairy Milk

Narkii: 

营销在你后来的设计生涯中扮演什么角色呢？

What kind of role does marketing play in your design career?

Yurko: 

在我开启我的设计生涯时，我低估了我的教育背景的力量，它虽然是独立地工作，但却非常有用。在开展和分析工作室的每个项目时，我都一人分饰两角——设计师和营销经理。它让我能够明白真正的客户需求，并在设计的所有流程中紧盯住目标人群。我并不认为设计是艺术，我关注的是设计对于品牌、环境和幸福的影响。这也是客户信任我的主要原因。最终，设计工作室是一种商业，是需要营销的支持的。

At the beginning of my design career, I underestimated my educational background though while working independently it appeared very useful knowledge to be. Each of studio’s projects I develop and analyze like a team of two different persons – designer and marketing manager. It helps me to understand real client’s needs and stay focused on target audience during all steps of a design process. I do not take design as an art and I care about design impact on brands, environment, and well-being. This is the main reason my clients trust me. Eventually, the design studio is a business and it needs marketing support as well.

Narkii: 

成立平面设计工作室，遇到的最大的困难是什么呢

What was the biggest difficulty you had encountered during the period when you established your studio?

Yurko:

由于平面设计当时在乌克兰是一个比较新的行业，最大的困难和最无聊的事情就是解释什么是平面设计，为什么人们需要它，为什么它这么昂贵。许多客户将设计视为他们对业务的装饰，并以喜好来评价设计。现在还到处都是这种类型的客户，尽管现在我有可能会去挑选合作的对象。

As the graphic design was a comparatively new industry at that period in Ukraine, the biggest difficulty and the most boring thing were explanations on what is graphic design, why do people need it and why is it so expensive. Many clients perceived design as a decoration of their businesses and rated design with likes and dislikes. This type of clients is still widely spread today as well though now I have a possibility to choose with whom do I want to work.

Brun'ka

Narkii:

“我们热爱我们所做的，并相信任何工作的结果只有在有趣的过程之下才可能有趣。”——这是从您的网站中引用而来的。您能解释一下或者举个例子吗？

“We love what we do and believe that any work could be interesting as a result only provided that it is interesting as a process.” --I quote this from your website. Can you explain this or give me an example?

Yurko:

“您对这个项目感兴趣吗？”这个问题在业界挺流行，这听起来就像设计师是小孩子，而客户需要用有趣的东西来让他们开心。这个问题无论对哪方来讲都不对。这样问的客户试图增加灵感的成分，而减少财务的成分。回答问题的设计师则是试着只关注创意的愉快部分，而减少额外研究、分析以及试验的困难。这问题的正确回答之一是“如果一个项目本身就有趣，那么它是不需要设计解决方案的”。我相信，也用我的设计证明了只有设计师才能让项目有趣起来。设计流程对我来说非常重要，而我的一个秘密就是我热爱我所做的每一个项目。我喜欢设计过程中每个小小的步骤，也试着尽可能去完善小细节。热爱不能仅限在你工作的早上九点到下午六点里。在我内心深处一直有这种感觉。

The question “Is this project interesting to you?” is quite popular in design sphere and it sounds like designers are kids and clients have to entertain them with something interesting. This question is totally wrong for both sides. Asking this question, clients try to arise inspiration constituent hoping to reduce financial constituent. Answering this question, designers try to concentrate only on a pleasant part of creativity and reduce difficulties connected with additional research, analysis, and experimenting. One of the right answers to this question is “If a project is interesting itself, it does not need design solution”. I believe and I proved it with my design that only designer can make a project to be interesting. The design process is very important for me and one of my secrets is that I am in love with every project I do. I adore every little step of development and try to perfect every tiny detail while I can do it. Love cannot last from 9 AM to 6 PM. I have this feeling inside of me all the time.

这种方式能够做出高质量的设计，但同时也要付出代价。因为我对团队成员在态度上也有相同要求，所以合作起来常常会有困难。所以我只和最热情的人合作。 

This approach allows getting high-quality design but it has the price. Collaboration with other creative people is often difficult, as I demand the same attitude from other team members. That is why I work only with the most passionate people.

开个玩笑，我想说懂得营销帮助我活了下来。它总是迫使我去比较我的疲惫程度和我的银行账目。

As a joke, I would say that knowing marketing helps me to survive biologically. It always forces me to compare the level of my exhaustion and my bank account statement.

JUSTA

Narkii:

关于设计风格，有人说一个设计师需要花上多年时间才能形成自己的风格，而有的设计师并不愿意自己局限于某种特定风格，对此您怎么看？

About design style, some people say it takes years for a designer to form his or her own style, while some designers are not willing to confine themselves in a specific style. What do you think about it?

Yurko: 

这些年间我与一些设计师朋友讨论过这个问题。在之后我还会反复讨论它，因为在设计师的发展生涯中这非常重要。我认为设计师不应该有特定的风格。如果你有了自己的风格，那么你就是在冒着风险一再重复相似的项目。然而项目不应该是相似的，它们有不同的背景，市场，目标受众等。预设好的风格对于那些想要复制他人成功而不想自己创造的客户来说很方便。有个人风格的设计师一生就做一种项目，项目的名气就是设计师的名气。这样有点无聊。我喜欢多样性，我喜欢引起不同的情绪，这就是为什么我要在每个新的项目中尝试新的风格。我得承认，随着尝试越多，这变得越来越难，我也被一些特定的方法和技巧所吸引，但我没有放弃创新、试验和探索新东西。正因为我选择成为一个设计师。

I discussed this topic with a few mates-designers during the years. And I will do it again and again because it is one of the most important questions in designer’s development. My belief is that designer should not have a specific style. If you have the own style you risk creating similar projects over and over. But projects cannot be similar as they have different backgrounds, markets, target audiences, etc. The predicted style is convenient to clients who just want to copy the success of someone else and not to create their own. Designer with individual style creates one project all his/her life and name of this project is the name of the designer. At least this is boring. I like diversity and I like to evoke different emotions that are why I try to make every new project with a new style. I have to admit it becomes harder and harder as I already tried a lot and I started feeling attracted to some certain methods and techniques but I do not give up and try to innovate, experiment and discover something new. This is the reason I chose to be a designer.

Narkii: 

过去五年您专注于包装设计，您觉得包装设计，你通常抓住哪些方面作为创新的切入点呢？

In the past five years, you have been focusing on packaging design. For this area, what aspects do you usually take as the entry to innovation?

Yurko:

首先，我会收集消费者信息，他们的偏好或担心，以及包装生产中可能或可以达到的技术相关信息。接着预算包装，理清可以应用哪些创新材料或技术。根据这些，我就限定了范围。再者我会分析特定领域以及全球的竞争者和类似产品。这样我就制定了我需要达到或是超越的设计标准。此外，我还看到了许多已经使用过或者很明显的点子。我试着去寻找在其他设计和艺术领域中运用而未用于包装的成功方法。最后就是制造惊喜，问我自己“我该怎么做才能抓住人们的注意力呢？”

First of all, I gather information about consumers and their preferences or fears, about the possible and available technologies of packaging production. I figure out how expensive this packaging could be and what innovative materials or techniques could be used if any. Based on this information I build restrictions’ area. Then I analyze all competitors and similar products on chosen territory and worldwide. Based on this information I set a level of design quality I need to reach or overcome. In addition, I see a scope of ideas that are already used or obvious. I try to find successful approaches that were used in other spheres of design and art but never were used in packaging. Now it is time to surprise and I ask myself “What can I do to steal people’s attention?”

Narkii: 

您觉得什么样的包装能一下子抓住消费者的眼球呢？ 

In your opinion, what kind of package can catch consumers' eyes immediately?

Yurko:

现代消费者被设计行业宠坏了，为了给他们留下深刻印象，我便要更加任性。这意味着我需要非常批判性地评估自己的想法，而且我需要展示人们先前没有看过的东西，或者至少要出人意料。消费者对待看起来昂贵的包装态度是积极的，因为这使他们觉得包装内的产品比他们所花的钱来得更有价值。也许，典型的包装比起平面设计是更接近于广告的。成功的诀窍在于平衡和知道哪些规则可以破坏。

Modern consumers are spoiled by design industry and to impress them I need to be even more spoiled and capricious. It means I need to evaluate my own ideas very critically and I need to show something nobody has seen before or at least nobody expected to see. Consumers positively react on the packaging that looks expensive as it makes them feel that product inside is more valuable than the money they spend to purchase it. Probably, typical packaging design is closer to advertising than to graphic design. The trick of success is in balancing and knowing which rules you can break.

Sunrise Card

Narkii: 

您拥有超过16年的工作经验并作为设计课程的讲师，为学生上课时最强调什么呢？

With more than 16 years of working experience and as a lector on design topics, what do you emphasize most in class for students?

Yurko:

我上课的时候，总是在讲受众如何看待我的设计。我在设计中放进了什么信息，人们又获得了哪些信息？我分析这些过程和其中的利弊。设计流程并不是在设计师向客户提交方案后就结束。我不教学生怎么做设计，因为我不认为课程适合用来讲这个。我试着让人们去思考设计，思考这个职业本身，思考感知和沟通。分析，倾听，提问，理解，这些能力在设计中比画图更重要。年轻的设计师不知道或是忽略这些，这正是早期遇到困难和误解的主要原因。

During my lectures, I always try to give information on how my design was taken by the audience. What messages did I put in design and what messages people get? I analyze why did it happen and was it good or bad. The design process is not finished after the designer has sent layout to the client. I do not try to teach how to design, as I do not believe that lectures are a good source for this purpose. I try to make people think about design, about the profession itself, about perception and communication. Analysis, ability to listen, to hear, to ask a question and to understand takes much bigger part of design than drawing. Young designers do not know it or ignore it and this is the main reason of early stage difficulties and misunderstanding.

Narkii: 

乌克兰设计业为设计师们提供了怎样的环境呢？

What kind of environment for designers does design industry provide in Ukraine?

Yurko:

乌克兰的设计环境可以说越来越好了。在这里有新的一代人，他们渴望并尝试着去改进生活，包括设计与艺术方面。我起步那会儿还没有一间现代的设计学校，除了少数在做过时无用的苏维埃项目的机构。如今乌克兰有好几家私立的设计学校，提供长期的课程以及单课或讲习班。这些学校不只位于首都地区，在西部东部和南部的一些大城市也有所分布。关于设计的会议，聚会，评论，比赛也越来越常有。不好的是，乌克兰的经济和政治情况仍然不佳，它们阻碍了商业的发展，国外的投资，迫使许多商人和创意人士移民或是在国外工作。这种情况强烈得影响了设计产业。结果造成现在这里并没有大型的，赋有抱负的或长期的设计项目。设计师主要都在进行短期，中小型无风险的项目。志愿无偿项目成为一种趋势。

Design scene in Ukraine is definitely becoming better and better. There is a new generation of people that want and try to improve life in Ukraine, including design and art spheres. When I started there was no single contemporary design school except few institutes with outdated and useless Soviet programs. Now there are several private design schools in Ukraine that offer long-lasting courses as well as single lectures or workshops. These schools cover not the capital area only but also a few big cities on the west, east and south of the country. Design conferences, meetups, reviews, competitions became regular events in Ukraine. Unfortunately, the economic and political situation in Ukraine is remaining hard and it prevents business development, foreign investments and forces numerous businessmen and creative people to immigrate or work abroad. This situation strongly affects design industry. As a result, there are no big, ambitious or long-lasting design projects in Ukraine. Designers mainly work for short time, small to middle-sized non-risky projects. Volunteering and non-profit projects become trendy.

本文为艺家人原创，如需转载请注明出处及回链