Readymag Design Almanac: Animation

I completed my bachelor’s degree in illustration at the British Higher School of Art and Design in Moscow in 2015. My studies included several workshops touching on the basic principles of animation, which served as the jumping-off place for my entry into this totally new world. From there I continued studying on my own.

My graduation project was a cartoon, Gde-to (Somewhere), which won in the category of the Year’s Most Personal Project, as it was based on my life. I had moved from the southern city of Gelendzhik to Moscow, and my father and I would drive back to Gelendzhik to visit every year. The move to Moscow changed my way of thinking about home. Shifting between two cities, I tried to figure out where I fit in. I attempted to convey these feelings in the cartoon. A year later I sent Somewhere to a number of festivals and, unexpectedly, people were interested, both here and abroad.

As a student I’d begun doing illustrations for L’Officiel Russia but after graduation an online Russian magazine about entrepreneurs, Hopes And Fears, approached me. I was very lucky: despite the fact that I was just starting out, I was allowed to experiment.

I didn’t try to create a style of my own; I simply made lot of work and, very gradually, my characters began to show shared features. I love geometry, balance, structure, and logic in illustration. As a rule my characters stand firmly on their feet and fit comfortably in the frame. Viktor Melamed, who supervised my work at the Brit, once told me “Arina, you draw like a peasant!” I think he meant my illustrations are very dashing and confident—I took it as a compliment.

Our attention these days is scattered and chaotic because of the overload of information we receive from the internet. The competition for readers’ and users’ attention continues to increase, making our choice of design instruments and devices that focus attention even more important.

First among these, we have animation. People look at what moves—this is one of the central principles of human psychology. It’s why explanatory videos, moving buttons on apps, gif illustrations, and animated headlines are so popular on the web. Because I’d picked up animation as a student I quickly caught the wave and began getting interesting assignments. Second, we have simplicity. My commissions these days tend to be for increasingly minimalist illustrations. These allow me to create visual effects that are clear and uncluttered. The eye wearies of excess but returns with pleasure to accessible, legible content. Third, there is the tactic of inducing surprise through a visual image. This is a very tricky and difficult business. For me in this regard my eyes were opened by a video called The Junction, which American animator Kyle Mowat, created for Red Bull Music Academy. Every second of it surprises the viewer.