George Kvasnikov

George is a senior interface and graphic designer from Russia, currently living in Berlin. He was working as freelance UX/UI and graphic designer for over 10 years. Recently worked for agencies like We Do and Fantasy Interactive. Passionate about creating innovative, problem-solving and beautiful design. Tend to spend time to create smarter solution for any UX problem, even if the problem was already successfully solved before. Love to invest his time in experimental projects.

10 questions for George Kvasnikov:

• What did you do before becoming a designer?

  I have studied Sociology in University and wanted to be a political figure. I was working as freelance, self-educated web-developer and designer with my friend to be able to pay for my studies.

• Where do you turn for inspiration?

  I am not original and I spend a lot of time looking at work from others, following different web-awards winners etc. But I also have a folder on my computer, called “Inspiration from everywhere”, where I collect cool stuff from nature, architecture, product design. Nature always has such beautiful colours, from architecture we can learn about composition, from product design about functional design.

• Which are your favorite studios, designers or agencies?

  I know a lot of good agencies and designers but I would not name them, because it would be a very long list and I could forget someone. But there are a lot and every day more and more and I am excited about that.

• Is your city a good place for designers?

  I was born and grew up in St. Petersburg which is not such a good place for designers. Now I live in Berlin which has a very strong design scene and huge potential.

• Which technologies are you excited about in 2015?

  I am excited about the future of material design, about self-building websites and, in general, the potential of web-technologies which make websites as powerful as apps.

• Do you listen to music while you work? Describe your playlist.

  I really like acoustic guitar, piano and acoustic covers. Recently I started to use moods in Spotify. Usually I choose something from “Focus” mood, sometime Jazz, sometimes Acoustic.

• What are you cultural influences? (Music, books, films, ideologies, etc.)

  My biggest cultural influences are the people I meet.

• Have you got an academic background or are you self taught?

  I graduated from University of Applied Sciences Potsdam as Interface Designer.

• What do you do in your free time?

  Fitness, play the guitar, sing and meet my friends. I never work in my free time!

• Where do you see the industry in 5 years?

  I think it will be more interactive than now. I guess, there will not be websites and apps anymore, but websites will be as powerful as apps. I am also excited about modular cell phone from Google and I think this technology is the future as well.

• Are you working on any personal projects?

  Not yet.

• If you could give one piece of advice to newbie designers, what would it be?

  Well, however it’s pretty long way, I definitely would suggest them to study design. It brings a lot. Except that there are no secrets. Work a lot, be passionate, listen to critiqued, be very self-critical and don’t fall in love with your work. If you have the chance, work with other designers. But my most important advice would be to always make your designs well thought-out and be self-critical.