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Showcase of Web Design in Russia
This article is the first of our new series “Global Web Design“. Over the next months we’ll be covering various continents, featuring web developers and web designs from different countries of the world and taking a close look of what is happening in the web design scene worldwide. We start today with an article about web design in Russia. We will continue with Ireland (Lee Munroe) and Brazil (Fabio Sasso) upcoming weeks. Hence, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed 
for more similar posts.
If you’d like to prepare an article for this series, please contact us and we’ll discuss the details.
Web Design in Russia
The land mass that is one-sixth of the Earth is always surprising. As the founder of one of design-related magazines in Russia (Designcollector.net), I am happy to present the hidden force that is Russia. I won’t dwell on the classic stereotypes but will rather look at the creativity flowing through.
The era of professional and commercial online design started in Russia about a decade ago. We’re now seeing an increase in professional design and development. I won’t concentrate much on the history of Web design in Russia; that has been happening for ages. Like everywhere in the world, Web design came to Russia as a modern way to present any kind of information to an audience online. So, principles such as simplicity, accessibility and eye-catching design have been cultivated for several years.
Russian Web Design: Mospromstroy
Web development as a profession was relegated to the elite for years until geek heads and artists took it over. For a few years there was a boom of home pages and tiny corporate websites that were built with any regard for the end user. This trend ended thankfully, in large part due to the highly scaled websites that came out the original and still unique studio founded by Artemy Lebedev, which has produced more than 760 websites.
Today, the professional scene of web design consists of thousands of freelancers, studios, agencies and large media companies, along with offshore and outsourcing businesses. I won’t do a “Top 20″ this or that rating, but I will try to touch on the most established parts of Russian Web design, including agencies, freelancers, portals and so on.
State Of Things
Measuring a Web design market by the products of its agencies is not quite fair. Russian agencies have also proven their management technologies and quality-control processes. As someone once said, “The best way to understand a new city is to go to the central market.” And in Russia, Web design is still concentrated in the hands of freelancers and small studios. To get a better picture of freelancing in Russia and the bordering Ukraine, I have asked two freelancers to talk about their work.
I spoke with Gennady V. Osypenko, who is the rather famous Kiev-based designer working with companies from Eastern Europe (he is also known as Genn), and Dmitry Sulliwan, a Russian freelance Web designer.
Q: Could you please describe the life of a freelancer, developer and designer?
Gennady Osypenko: You do work, get inspiration and then do more work: that is freelancing. For sure, you meet clients and collaborate a lot. Compared with an office job, you travel around the city a lot, wasting your time on that. Freelance designers become the center of the project, and even oversees developers, acting as a kind of art director. Designers in offices just do the routine, yelling at account managers and listening to art directors. Hence, I am a freelancer, and I do not remain at one job for long.
Dmitry Sulliwan: The work of freelancer is very interesting. You get new experiences from working with different companies on diverse projects, and some of those experiences may not even be related to design. Different cultural and professional events make the life of the freelancer easier and allow him to share his experience and understand the value of his job. A freelancer’s life is good because he manages himself, which allows you to get more pleasure from your work. But that does not mean you work any less. From my perspective, freelancers work one-and-a-half times more than permanent contractors. The only barrier to getting the best results is laziness. Hence, there are not a whole lot of true professionals in the freelancing space.
Q: Are there any regular meetings or events?
Genn: We hold festivals and different advertisement exhibitions. The only exhibition I have visited abroad was the designers market in Budapest (Sziget). Web-oriented conferences were very popular last year. Not all of them were about design, but some were useful and interesting anyway. I’ve done things like short master classes at some of them, and I plan to do that in future; I’ve been invited at the end of October to say something about being a freelance designer. I like talking about what I do to people who are eager to listen.
Dmitry: There is a good set of conferences in Russia. I can name the last ones: DesignAct in Moscow, and the 404 Web Designers Conference in Samara. Many Russians also visit foreign events in Europe and around the world.
Q: Where do you get inspiration from?
Genn: I get inspiration from everything around me. That is a typical answer, but any object could lead my imagination to the unique and perfect idea. It is like in the House M.D. series on TV, when House is stuck on a diagnosis and suddenly gets inspiration to solve it. I got inspiration for my last project from the Wipeout Pulse game on PSP. I played it for hours and eventually got an idea for a website architecture.
Dmitry: Design books, magazines and Internet resources. Nowadays, we have a nice bunch of local design blogs on which they share their experiences and thoughts.
Q: What’s the situation with the market? How much do designers earn?
Genn: I don’t know the situation in the market, but I know for sure that a lot of people want to make a website or establish an online identity. As a freelance designer or creative process supervisor, I prefer more interesting and specific projects, ones that don’t reflect the whole market situation.
Dmitry: True designers, like any other good specialists, cost a good amount of money. The question is whether there are enough positions. There are many agencies and studios, and so fewer of them would be able to provide a good experience or take on interesting projects.
Q: Is being a Web designer considered high-level, sophisticated work?
Genn: When you see an ad on every (literally every) open surface saying, “Site for $100,” how could you regard Web designers or anyone connected with website creation to be high level or sophisticated? Luckily for us, customers who really need complex, functional websites understand that they have to work with professionals. Just because you can illustrate something does not mean you are a Web designer. If you can organize the craziest information in a usable and readable way, and then decorate it, then you are a Web designer. So, we could say that being a Web designer is both high level and not high level at the same time. Actually a lot of Web designers also create perfect identities and motions, so I’d better call them designers, even though we create beautiful websites.
Dmitry: Unfortunately, not always. Mostly because people still confuse Web designers with system administrators [Interviewer note: That's true, because most Russian Web designers can do Shell and Apache tasks, hosting stuff and email management and develop a reputation for mixing them together. When a Russian customer orders a website, they want it 100% with domains, parking, hosting, support. This is the main issue with the profession.] But in most IT and related companies, the position of Web designer (and developer, UI designer and visual designer) is valued and respected because of the high-level skills and usually complex work involved. These days, the Web design profession has cut out its own place in the market and is recognized for it.
Q: There are rumours that many designers in Russia still use tables, and that most designs are 100% fluid, regardless of screen resolution?
Genn: Are you referring to HTML coders and Web developers? As far as I know, the trend is to use semantic code and follow accessibility and other compliance standards. One Ukrainian HTML coder even coded his own blog in HTML 5 and met all standards requirements, even if only for a few browsers. So they’re all progressive and forward-looking. As for 100% fluid width, there was an assumption that all websites had to be 100% wide and fill the whole browser window. As I explain in my training and master classes, the width of websites should fit the requirements. As I can tell, incorrect use of fluid widths is declining and used in only specific instances.
Dmitry: Those are only rumors. Professional Web developers follow standards and adopt the latest trends in coding. Fluid width is a distinction of Russian Web development and a common standard. Good fluid layouts are usable, dynamic and look good at different resolutions. And good Web developers can avoid common issues, such as those related to floating and typography, by using fluid width.
Q: What about typography and Web standards?
Genn: It’s a common joke that all designers hate Cyrillic letters. The letters really look odd if you want to create something fancy, but we adapt to it. I like the story of one logo made in the US for some candy trademark. The designer decided to add a feature to the logo and name, so he made ö out of o. Years later, he found out that Scandinavian designers hate umlauts, but he used them as decoration and it worked well. We have to abstract and not see hieroglyphs in letters but rather understand their nature and use them in the best way.
Dmitry: Cyrillic type has far-reaching issues. The main illusion is that Cyrillic type is not better than Latin. That issue is outdated. We have great Russian typography designers who do amazing type that fits certain designs well and win awards. Nowadays, even Web editorials order custom typography for their titles. Typography on the Web has become user-friendly and readable.
Q: Are there any issues unique to Russian Web design?
Genn: Yeah, there might be some difference between design in Ukraine and in Russia. As long as designers are not regarded as high-level specialists in the community, then customers will continue to believe that they are perfect designers, too. So, they will always want to move this a bit, repaint that a touch, and change the whole layout five minutes before the deadline. With any project, I try to be as specific as possible in explaining almost every pixel (or dot, if we are talking about print) so that the customer can see why the product is the way it is. It’s surprising, but it works more than half the time. The other problem is that no one wants to part with their money, so you could end up waiting some time before getting money for a project that is done, implemented and working.
Dmitry: Russian customers still do not understand that designers do not blindly follow their ideas but are rather themselves highly motivated workers who want to produce the best results for the given job. Whoever the customer, whether foreign or local, every time it is a minor war. Designer-client relations are not stable in Russia and are not even regulated. We have no professional unions and, of course, no support from the government. Newcomers to freelancing are often not aware that some customers are unfair, but they find out when they do not get paid.
Q: Do you see any remarkable differences between Russian designs and ones in the US and Western Europe?
Genn: I am happy that distinguishing between designs in Russia and those on the worldwide scene is becoming harder and harder. The designs here are unique in their own way, but then the work of every good designer is unique.
Dmitry: As mentioned, the main difference is fluid layouts. Good Russian websites have a clear and semantic structure, and they don’t follow strict grids, which make the layouts dynamic and fresh. They use modern Web technologies, combining unobtrusive JavaScript with clean xHTML.
Q: How does all of this work?
Genn: I don’t know. I didn’t like physics in university much. When I ask myself that question, I start reading British science fiction. It doesn’t answer the question, but it has a lot of funny jokes.
Dmitry: Briefly, the situation is good. Russian Web designers are always looking forward and no longer do clumsy, heavy Flash-based websites. We have started to concentrate on usability and accessibility and become more integrated with the rest of the professional world.
DC: Russian Web designers are even starting to organize professional unions (like WSG Russia) and visit local conferences, such as 404, RIT, Drupal Camp and many others.
Showcase Of Creative Agencies
Let’s turn now from the freelancing life in Russia to the FMCG and promotional sectors, where Russian creative agencies live. They do their best to impress consumers with their products and corporate websites. The results are meant to impress visitors and make them spread the news like a virus. Here are some agencies that have gained public attention as well as prestigious awards, such as the FWA, ADCR and even the Cyber Lions shortlist.
Showcase Of Web Agencies
These guys create great websites and form the foundation of the Russian Web design scene. They’re not necessarily the best; they just do their work better than most.
As mentioned, ArtLebedev Studio is still the largest studio in the Russian market, based on portfolio size. To date, it has done more than 760 websites, 725 graphic designs, 113 product designs, 44 interfaces, 32 environmental designs and 30 presentations. This record is still unbeaten, and its brand is something of a guarantee on the Russian Web design scene. Also worthy of mention is its Bronze Cannes Cyber Lion award (the only studio in Russia to win it), and its internship program, which helps international students realize their ideas.
ArtLebedev Studio’s work
The next largest studio in Russia is DEFA Interaktiv. It was founded by Dmitry Kozlov eight years ago and has made a success of its customers’ businesses with its highly professional skills.
DEFA Interaktiv’s work
The quite new and fast-moving creative agency Deluxe Interactive has already been mentioned at the Favorite Web Awards (FWA) and continues to produce great promotional Flash websites.
Deluxe Interactive’s work
Showcase Of Freelancers
Freelancers are the hidden force of Russian creativity. As we mentioned, anyone who can successfully freelance in Russia could handle art direction at any agency with no problem. To grow as professionals, freelancers need a decent place to showcase their work and share insight. Such places include Deforum.ru, free-lance.ru, illustrators.ru, behance.net, revision.ru and russiancreators.ru. Quite a few magazines and blogs profile the best practitioners: kak.ru, Designet.ru, Designlenta.com, Revision.ru, Creativenews.ru, Peopleofdesign.ru, Omami.ru, ru.designeast.eu, designwar.net, djournal.com.ua and Designcollector Network
Web Developers Online
The Web developer scene in Russia is well represented on blogs, too. We’ll cherry-pick the best ones here among the dozens that exist. On them, Web developers and intelligent commentators share their thoughts on various topics and host friendly communities. Vadim Makeev and Constantine Osnos chose these ones for us.
The particular nature of Russian communication has produced these huge community platforms, where any topic can rise or fall according to the “vox populi.” Everything IT-related, from Web 2.0 to Web development, is discussed on Habrahabr. The best place to talk about Russian Web standards is Webmascon magazine. And Deforum is the place to share your creative work and welcome a crowd of decent, and sometimes obscene, critics.
Also worthy of mention is Injun, a Flash and ColdFusion development blog, as well as Inforedesign and SEOBaby, for their useful content. Nbsp and Internet Things are great for their professional content related to Web design, development and promotion.
Creative Formations
To round out our picture of Russian creativity, we’ll mention some online resources related to other design industries. For example, advertising: Adme and Advertka. For fashion: LookAtMe and Fashion Communication. And the 3-D and CG arts: Render Ru and CGTalk.
Russian creativity bears fruit every day, and the best way to stay on top of it is to read our Designcollector Network and stay connected to Russia’s magic networks.
Showcase of Russian Web Designs
Would you like to see more similar posts on SM?
Hopefully you’ll find this new format inspirational and interesting. What do you think? Please let us know and comment on this article! Your feedback is very valuable for us and it helps us to meet your expectations. Thank you.
Stay Tuned and Get in Touch!
This article is the first of our new series “Global Web Design“. Over the next months we’ll be covering various continents, featuring web developers and web designs from different countries of the world and taking a close look of what is happening in the web design scene worldwide. We start today with an article about web design in Russia. We will continue with Ireland (Lee Munroe) and Brazil (Fabio Sasso) upcoming weeks. Hence, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed for more similar posts.
If you’d like to prepare an article for this series, please contact us and we’ll discuss the details.
About the author
Arseny Vesnin is the founder and creative mind behind Designcollector.net, a blog that showcases designs created by artists from Russia and other countries of the world.
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(5 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ...- 160 Comments
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October 17th, 2009 12:46 amThank you Arseny. Very intresting post about web design in Russia.
Eldar, Moscow.
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October 17th, 2009 12:57 amreally cool! to bad I can’t read it…
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October 17th, 2009 12:57 amThis article is huge! In every way you can think of.
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October 17th, 2009 1:04 amСпасибо за пост, приятно видеть родную речь на просторах SM =)
(SM) Всегда пожалуйста ;-) Рады видеть российских читателей на SM :)
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October 17th, 2009 1:12 amSo much talent !!
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October 17th, 2009 1:14 amХороший обзор, но странно почему нет ни слова о ведущей студии рунета?
(SM) Which design studio would it be? Lebedev’s? It is mentioned in the post!
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October 17th, 2009 1:15 amRussian webdesign. They definitely have somethig different style in design, color, style. cool for me
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October 17th, 2009 1:17 amThey have some really beautiful website designs, although cyrilic text’ll never look as good as ‘normal’ :)
- 10
October 17th, 2009 1:23 amThis article should have title “Showcase of Web Design in Russia and Ukraine”, otherwise a good overview.
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October 17th, 2009 1:25 amHey! I am jealous! I am Russian too, I’m most famous “Vlad” in Internet (according to Google) and I was not mentioned in this article :-) Seriously speaking, nice overview!
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October 17th, 2009 1:27 amReal Lovely
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October 17th, 2009 1:49 amThe russian people always do amazing things, silently ;-)
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October 17th, 2009 1:49 amInteresting article. Looking at the links, there’s obviously a lot of creative talent over there but I don’t see a great deal of emphasis on usability, which is pretty key to web design.
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October 17th, 2009 1:53 amI know I’m gonna love this series, for two reasons.
One. You get to meet designs you otherwise would never have heard of or seen.
Two. You can compare styles from region to region. It can’t be so that every design works in every region of the world.
I do however doubt if you’ll be dedicating a post to Belgian design.
Jayb - 16
October 17th, 2009 2:02 amWow, what a post… my scroll wheel is smoking from all the scrolling :)
Anyway, a big thumbs up for Russian designers – they really are top notch!
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October 17th, 2009 2:04 amGreat article! Keep it up!
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October 17th, 2009 2:05 amI Love Ony
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October 17th, 2009 2:08 amСпасибо! Классно!
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October 17th, 2009 2:08 amNot Kiev, but Kyiv.
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October 17th, 2009 2:14 amVery, very interesting article! Thanks.
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October 17th, 2009 2:17 amGreat article, good looking examples. But what’s so Russian (or Ukrainian) about these? I think these could be designed anywhere.
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October 17th, 2009 2:38 amActually this is kind of what I’ve been looking for. I’ve been looking for European design trends, and would love to see more in this set (such as Germany, Australia, etc).
I know Australia isn’t European, but that’s where I’m from ;)
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October 17th, 2009 2:49 amVery dark & cold..tipically russian..
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October 17th, 2009 2:55 amHello, lovely community of SM)
I’m wondered of this article, I realized that I don’t know Web Design in Russia at all!
Over some years of learning web development I haven’t read any article in russian, and I visit only a couple of russian web sites usually.
Well, Russia has a very good future in web development), I really like it, and I want to make some points.
I’m agree with kimee, that art style is different, I think that’s because of the difference in graphic design in Europe and Russia. We can see that interfaces are often complex and there is a lot of Flash in russian web design, and on the other hand such terms as “simplicity”, “clean”, “plain” are the leading principles in Europe web design (the most distinctive designer is Mark Boulton, I think).
Kemo, everything is OK with Cyrillic alphabet), although I had similar opinion as you before. I often notice that my friends are to learn typography a little bit more), and I can suggest some articles, as well as sources mentioned there (maybe it will be helpful for somebody):
Compose to a Vertical Rhythm
Incremental leading
A Guide To Web Typography
Typographic Contrast and FlowSM
I think that Alex had in mind Бюро Пюрогова)
And, finally, I want to ask you, lovely SM, to write an article about online graphic design schools, that can study people, who are not graphic designers (as me), to get skills in that area, I would really appreciate it, as many others, I’m sure.
And, it will be interesting to see an overview of Web Design in New Zealand)Good luck, and hello from Odessa, Ukraine)
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October 17th, 2009 3:00 amReal creative people in Russia. I am very impressed.
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October 17th, 2009 3:20 amGreat, but a little bit too many.
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October 17th, 2009 3:47 amNice designs.
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October 17th, 2009 3:53 amGreat work there!
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October 17th, 2009 4:11 amОтличный обзор. Спасибо!
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October 17th, 2009 4:24 amОй ! Как приятно знать что русский дизайн ценят ^^ (и показывают)
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October 17th, 2009 4:33 amOne of the best post around! Russian web design rules.
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October 17th, 2009 4:47 amДа уж, в России уровень веб дизайна очень сильно повысился за последние 2 года.
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October 17th, 2009 5:01 amamazing, russian were good in these!
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October 17th, 2009 5:14 amQuite a lot of thses link to http://www.revision.ru
I can’t read russian but it appears to be a russian showcase site. Its quite awesome that whoever authored this just picked through the best and posted them here taking credit.
Not to metion I cannot even find links from the showcase site to the sites in question. Bizzare article.
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October 17th, 2009 5:25 am… wow!
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October 17th, 2009 6:51 amNice collection! There are some really great website designs in the list :)
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October 17th, 2009 7:03 amОчень хорошая статья, спасибо Вам.
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October 17th, 2009 7:14 amVery impressive! Thanks for putting this together!
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October 17th, 2009 7:27 amamazing, thanks for post!
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October 17th, 2009 7:31 amOutstanding! What a wonderful and inspiring collection of design! I’m personally thrilled to see such a good article (with well chosen examples and commentary) which is focused on a particular area of the world.
Being a Brit, I’d LOVE to see an article here on Smashing about British web design. We have some truly talented designers and to read a similarly inspiring article which is focused on home territory would be a certain bookmarked site!
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October 17th, 2009 7:56 amО, да тут одни наши xD
Сначала глазам не поверил, потом присмотрелся, точно: рашка на смешниге. - 43
October 17th, 2009 8:23 amооо как хорошо! спасибо за труд)
- 44
October 17th, 2009 9:03 amспасибо за комментарии друзья очень интересно читать фидбэк
Спасибо Смэшингам за добавку в статью в виде кучи классных ссылок и скриншотов!
thank you for all comments guys, really a great feedback! - 45
October 17th, 2009 9:06 amУра, товарищи! :D
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October 17th, 2009 9:32 amWow, that was a really awesome collection. I can’t wait for the next ones.
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October 17th, 2009 9:56 amAwsome post by you guyz again you have done a great job.
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October 17th, 2009 10:07 amA great collection, there is some really beautiful work in there.
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October 17th, 2009 10:55 am:) Очень приятно) Да, в последнее время мы преуспели. Если посмотреть совсем недавно было стыдно за нашу веб школу. Можно отметить что фрилансеры делают круче чем студии, наверное доводят свою идею до конца. Кстати всем русским привет)
Very nice. It is possible to proud of our designers!
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October 17th, 2009 11:05 amИспытываешь гордость…! Правда, для точности, наверное нужно поправить – в подборке не только российские дизайнеры, а и украинские. Пример – Юрий Дегтярь, Киев. В подборке его сайт Светланы Лободы. И не только он. А так – очень хороший материал.
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October 17th, 2009 11:22 amсо-ть у России :)
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October 17th, 2009 12:14 pmGreat article.
What about http://www.deepmix.eu? A russian radio website, minimal style.
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October 17th, 2009 12:17 pmthere goes my job in the states.
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October 17th, 2009 12:27 pmWaiting for Ukrainian studios. Some of them were mentioned here but we want more :) !
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October 17th, 2009 12:28 pmBrilliant:)
Очень здорово, очень приятный сюрприз. - 57
October 17th, 2009 12:46 pmСпасибо! I really enjoyed these designs! I can definitely feel the Russian sense of style. Great collection, Arseny.
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October 17th, 2009 1:07 pmI love it :)
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October 17th, 2009 1:22 pmIncredible¡¡¡¡
- 60October 17th, 2009 1:28 pm
Хах. интересно) ВСЕМ РУССКОГОВОРЯЩИМ ПРИВЕТ) скоро на SM будут сверкать наши работы)!
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October 17th, 2009 2:29 pmAbsolutely fascinating.
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October 17th, 2009 3:03 pmThanks for the article. As I can see, the main idea behind all Russian designs mentioned here — “to look luxury” or “to look design-rich”. Instead of western designs, which are trying “to look clean” or “to look usable”. It’s quite understandable, because web-design in Russia is still “young”, and designers try to show customer, what he pays his money for. A “good design” in Russia is still a kind of “luxury product” (not like bread or toothpaste), so customers want more “luxury” and more “imperial” style in design. I think, we’ll see the same trend in Arabian or Turkish (or Asian) web-design :).
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October 17th, 2009 3:24 pmPerhaps visual design is pushing content aside a bit too much!
- 64
October 17th, 2009 3:31 pmAbsolutely amazing. This portfolios are incredible…
- 65
October 17th, 2009 4:24 pmThat is nice article.
By the way i am from Afghanistan and i would love to see article on the Afghanistan Web Design. they still like to go with the old style designs.
- 66
October 17th, 2009 4:33 pmGreat post. If this is representative, the Russians have mastered the art of magazine-style design for the web. I’m looking forward to the rest of the series.
- 67
October 17th, 2009 4:51 pmnice design web collection!
there are the webs of beautiful or nice design or nice sense that is
stimulated . - 68
October 17th, 2009 5:05 pmВсегда обзоры на отлично! А этот еще и про нас :)
- 69
October 17th, 2009 7:35 pmWow, so much ART! Definitely eyes of the people are in the Net. Cool. I hope the pages are not too heavy. And hope content is as good… Visuals are amazing!
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October 17th, 2009 7:54 pmoh, you did not mention Vlad! he is the best Russian designer I have ever known.. [http://www.vladstudio.com/]
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October 17th, 2009 8:53 pmAwesome! Thanks for the inspiration. Now I’m going to be up late!
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October 17th, 2009 9:08 pmОбалденно!
Спасибо, хорошая подборка!
Нашим привет! ;)
- 73
October 17th, 2009 9:35 pmну надо было Лебедевские работы побольше показать. А то скрин Турбомилка прошелся два раза а Темыча совсем не много в сравнение с тем сколько можно было показать.
- 74
October 17th, 2009 9:41 pmОчень детальная и информативная статья.) Спасибо.)
Кстати, вас на Хабре пропиарили, так что теперь тут будет хабраэффект.) - 75
- 76October 17th, 2009 11:15 pm
На хабре походу переводят статьи с SM, заметил когда выложили артикл про explore 7,8
- 77
October 17th, 2009 11:24 pmНе ожидал:)
- 78
October 18th, 2009 12:16 amthats was really nice post :) was really good reading all that
thakns for sharing Russia does have some really professional working force :) - 79
October 18th, 2009 12:30 amVery good article. I found the interviews very interesting.
As usual, and understandably, most of the design work featured is show-off stuff, rather than practical everyday web design. The artwork is fantastic, but little of it has any application to the needs, and budgets of the type of clients that I work for. They might be willing to pay for a fancy design at the outset, yes, but generally they hit a point in the financial cycle during which they can’t afford the ongoing cost of maintaining it, such as the cost of new design work each time they want to accommodate an unexpected requirement that has not been allowed for in the exisitng layout.
- 80
October 18th, 2009 12:36 amI love the creative people one that one rocks
- 81
October 18th, 2009 2:16 amYeah!
- 82
October 18th, 2009 2:29 amI live in russia and working on a blog with this type of content – showcase of russian webdesign, couse it’s really different from what you can see in Europe or US …
- 83
October 18th, 2009 2:42 amMost of the works are actually impressive, however the showcase doesn’t tell us much about the overall condition of web design in Russia – simply because these websites were mostly made for large companies, or for designers themselves. The real factor is the everyday-design for regular customers – medium and small businesses. Anyway I was really happy to read the interview and hoping to see the next one soon.
BTW, thumbs up for Russians and Ukrainians for amazing Opera’s popularity in their countries – over 20% of browser market share. Greetings from Poland :) - 84
October 18th, 2009 3:14 amЕсть интересные скрины, понравилось.
Приветствую всех Россиян на SM.Hello, wild west :)))!
- 85
October 18th, 2009 4:43 amGreat article. Great designs. Great people.
- 86
October 18th, 2009 5:43 amTurbomilk is fantastic!
- 87
October 18th, 2009 6:13 amWhile I hate russian politicians and their vision of Russia, I greatly admire russian creators.
World knows too little about their ingenious music, literature, painting…and now, web design:)
Very good article. Thanks!
- 88
October 18th, 2009 6:52 amЕсть чем гордиться :)
Но где Лебедев? - 89
October 18th, 2009 7:13 amPonomarev Anton from Kiev, Ukraine %)
- 90
October 18th, 2009 7:33 amКласная статья, очень приятно видеть Русскую работу на SM.
So much inspiration, I kept scrolling and scrolling and scrolling (I think I still am ;)). Thanks for the great article.
(Ony’s site totally blew my mind) - 91
- 92
October 18th, 2009 9:07 amVery nice inspiring collection !
- 93
October 18th, 2009 9:24 amотличнейшая и полезнейшая статья. well done.
бросается в глаза только ошибка на сайте клиента Дениса Драчева: не инфрОкрасные, а инфрАкрасные. досадно.
- 94
October 18th, 2009 10:14 amОчень хорошая подборка, привет всем русским! :)
Awesome collection! ;) - 95
October 18th, 2009 10:47 amADV.RU and Actis Wunderman (actis.ru) must be in paragraph of “Web Agencies” – they are in TOP-3 of largest Russian web-agencies (and Art Lebedev Group, of course): http://2009.tagline.ru/results/top100.html
- 96
October 18th, 2009 11:01 amAmazing collection!
Illya Mikhailov is a freelancer? Since when? Thought the Federation Tower website was created under ArtLebedev studio.
Unfortunately not many can really read it and see the sense of each detail on these web pages. Western webdesign lack sense badly. Russian webdesigners rock! They give some life to their works.
Love you guys ^-^ - 97
October 18th, 2009 12:09 pmAs for me, thematicmedia.ru is my trend of russian web usability and design. I like their habr.ru, autokadabra.ru, dribbler.ru, respectiva.ru. Really, TM’s style is simply simple.
Hey, Smashing, what about latvian design? ;) There are some studios as True Vision and Scada that are my favourite and big in Latvia…
ЗЫ. Приятно видеть текст про русский дизайн на SM.
- 98
October 18th, 2009 12:13 pmв этом посте международные симпы, хаги и лаффки)))
great!
- 99
October 18th, 2009 2:44 pmAwesome designs!
- 100
October 18th, 2009 4:37 pmWell it shows that we have not only bears-balalaika-vodka but vodka-design made by vodka-studios, and we are proud of that.
- 101
October 18th, 2009 5:27 pmgreat extensive post .. top notch
- 102
October 18th, 2009 5:35 pmGreat post, I really liked the designs. Great professionals there.
- 103
October 18th, 2009 6:56 pmGreat! More showcases like this, please!
What about brazilian style? - 104
October 18th, 2009 8:35 pmЗнакомые все лица. Наконец-то Смэш до нас добрался :)
- 105
October 18th, 2009 10:09 pmCool one, and very impressive. Also a biiiiig list
- 106
October 18th, 2009 10:55 pmNice post.
http://pirogov.ru/flash/
These guys are more than worthy to be mentioned here! - 107
October 18th, 2009 11:04 pmVery good idea.
Do one for Australia, been struggling to find all the agencies in Aus,Brilliant I dea
- 108
October 18th, 2009 11:06 pmvery inspiring Links.. Russia have some really good designer, dev´s and thinkers there.. really amazing!
- 109
October 18th, 2009 11:41 pmSpasiva! Russia kicks butt.
- 110
October 18th, 2009 11:43 pmСпасибо за статью, приятно, что начали с России.
Ищущим: Да есть там про Лебедева, есть :) - 111
October 18th, 2009 11:44 pmWhat a great article! I didn’t even think that Russia would be so creative with web design – I still think of it as the iron curtain, KGB, etc. Might be time to investigate further….
- 112
October 19th, 2009 12:25 amThe thing is even small business in Russia like to show of like a mega Ferrari corporation :)… We don’t have this thing as a cheep design to sell cheep stuff like you guys in europe. Even second hand cloths shop makes a website like hugo boss. its a paradise for us illustrators in Russia :)
- 113
October 19th, 2009 1:31 amIn communist russia the web designs you!
- 114
October 19th, 2009 1:53 amVery cool idea for an article series. There’s a long history of poster art and aesthetics in Eastern Europe (Poland, Russia, etc), interesting to see how some of that translates to the screen.
- 115
October 19th, 2009 2:13 amНу иак притно видеть что-то родное…..
Супер! Нет слов. - 116
October 19th, 2009 2:16 amПо моему нам пока рано обольщаться, большинство дизайнов перенасыщено графикой, чаще не к месту. Достойных европейского уровня единицы – турбомилк и еще парочка. Так что еще развиваться и развиваться.
- 117
October 19th, 2009 2:37 amРусский дизайн, бессмысленный и беспощадный
- 118
October 19th, 2009 4:01 amА где iji-design.ru ?
- 119
October 19th, 2009 5:15 amsweet
- 120
October 19th, 2009 5:19 amInteresting, please keep posting articles like this :)
- 121
October 19th, 2009 5:51 amEh, DEFA Interaktiv’s work on the kia site, is a clearly inspired by E3 Medias http://www.kia.co.uk
Not very original really :( - 122
October 19th, 2009 6:27 amRussia smokes the US in designs. period.
- 123
October 19th, 2009 6:38 ambeautiful design!
- 124
October 19th, 2009 9:37 amSuperb!
- 125
October 19th, 2009 1:28 pmNice to see some new sites, not the same ones floating around on every css gallery (minus a couple) and not being able to understand the text lets you focus on the overall design
- 126
October 19th, 2009 8:28 pmUseful article… :)
Hope to see an article from Indian Web Designers - 127
October 19th, 2009 8:55 pmGreat list, russian sites are beautiful!!!
I have one more for your list, http://www.adproject.ru/ it’s amazing!!
- 128
October 20th, 2009 1:46 amamazing post! great seletion of works! keep them coming! A worldwide webdesign roundup! ;)
- 129
October 20th, 2009 5:24 amLots of flash, lots of magazine-style graphics and layouts, but there don’t seem to be much in the way of content-heavy sites or particularly usable sites. The designs in this showcase are a bit monotonous and same-y.
- 130
October 20th, 2009 5:38 amMuy bueno, muy visual y rayando en la perfeccion del pixel.
- 131
October 20th, 2009 5:45 amАрсений, мега респект и огромное спасибо!!!!
- 132
October 20th, 2009 7:07 amone only word… wow!
- 133
October 20th, 2009 8:13 amjust… wow! )
очень хорошо все это и отрадно ) - 134
October 20th, 2009 11:29 amto 62. >> it is not that Russian design is young, That is pure bullshit. Russina people are like this – they love luxury, richness of decorations and Russian webdesign has reached the masterlevel of webdesign ever. Because their websites (the best ones of course) are still clean, readebla, functional and also colourful, rich, decorative and full of eye candies. This is the pure Russian way of thinking implemented on the top high level in webdesign. This is very unique style of webdesign. I was always suprised by Russina webpages, the high level of artism in them. And to cap it all i must admit that in general I personaly dislike Russians as a nation, their rusted hegemony – they caused my nation so much harm and still are breaking any rules. But their webdesing is the best.
- 135
October 20th, 2009 12:52 pmхех … пишут, что уровень развития Российского веб-дизайна еще молод … дизайнеры хотят показать заказчику то, за что он платит … визуальный дизайн отбивает контент … и прочее. А мне все понравилось !!! Статья супер-гуд. Привет всем ))
- 136
October 20th, 2009 6:53 pmGreat informative article! Thanks!
As I live in Kyiv ) still have to note – most of designs based on visual presentation – a heavy nice pics. But we have to remember – that is Web, not a street gallery and sometimes transport can be random and slow, and sometimes there are people which doesn’t see well and can’t recognize what that beautiful color splash does. Also more and more people got to use a mobile gears with a tiny screens. I guess why bright pictures dominate – is a willing to impress studio clients. Western style of design – is willing to be good for site audience. - 137
October 20th, 2009 8:09 pmJust great! I love this article!
- 138
October 20th, 2009 11:00 pmОтличный обзор, спасибо!
- 139
October 21st, 2009 12:56 amМега круто! SM таки захватили рашн аудитори.
- 140
October 21st, 2009 4:35 amAwsome ….. Thanks to SM…
- 141
October 21st, 2009 4:12 pmну могли бы побольше украинских сайтов показать :)
а так не плохая подборка получилась - 142
October 21st, 2009 10:17 pmКруто было бы почитать такую же статьо об украинских студиях
- 143
October 21st, 2009 11:36 pmsite a lot of work with Ukraine! who do not belong to Russia! even have a job in which I personally participated
- 144
October 22nd, 2009 1:51 amGood article and good idea to make such reviews.
Web design in Ukraine is worthy of another article… - 145
October 22nd, 2009 11:34 amУх-ты сколько Русско-говорящих! Замечательная подборка. Спасибо SM! Я читаю тебя каждый день!
На самом деле вполне приличный уровень работ!
Неплохо было бы увидеть подборки других стран – можно даже тренды оценить - 146
October 22nd, 2009 2:03 pmНормально) Россия №1
- 147
October 22nd, 2009 4:13 pmWOW! That’s one hell of a great showcase :) Keep up the good work guys.
- 148October 22nd, 2009 4:39 pm
can u do another post about Ukraine design? =) it will be great
- 149
October 22nd, 2009 6:47 pmToo much flash, too pompous, and I am wondering what happened to Russian language within last 18 years… almost all the comments are written in some disgusting slang I hardly understand…
- 150
October 23rd, 2009 6:51 pmWOW! What and awesome display of art. Those designs really get the wheels spinning.
- 151
October 24th, 2009 11:12 pmI was glad to see Vlad Gerasimov at least put a comment in here – it seems he wasn’t asked anything for this article! It’s a beautiful article, but Vlad is kinda synonymous (to the western world at least?) with Russian web design.
That said, awesome article.
- 152
October 25th, 2009 1:43 amпочему “ОНИ” – 2 раза?
- 153
October 26th, 2009 6:18 amWhere Lebedev?
- 154
October 26th, 2009 11:49 amI love the Russians! they are so creatively talented, these sites are some of the best ever…EVER! Keep it coming SM
- 155
October 26th, 2009 12:03 pmYes, and I’m agreeing with aravind and Vlad himself. Vlad G. is the best Russian designer ever – the Russians are awesome, man
- 156
October 27th, 2009 7:23 amSuch interest to Russian designers was a pleasant surprise for me!
If someone wants to see more cool webdesigns from Russia, you are welcome TheBestRussianSite - 157
October 27th, 2009 9:35 amI love the Russian style, it is different from the stuff the US and the UK churn out on a daily basis. I think I will try to study more Russian web design and perhaps web design from Eastern Europe. Anyone who slates what we’ve seen are clearly jealous.
- 158
October 28th, 2009 2:01 amинтересно, много ли иностранцев удивилось узнав, что наравне с медведями и водкой в россии есть компьютеры? :)
- 159
November 12th, 2009 11:10 amСупер! Спасибо SM! Я бы еще добавил Попова (Kurilshik).
- 160
November 14th, 2009 5:01 amOh wow! These are some awesome designs! I’ll most definitely be getting in touch with Russian freelancers! Thanks for sharing this Arseny & SM.
- 00
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