The
Shapes
and
Furniture
Design

I was born in USSR and grew up during the fall of the Soviet era. That era was very square - like the Red Square. The shapes and designs in architecture, consumer and household items and furniture were all rectangular, more rectangular than an old Volvo. Those shapes were very unforgiving and uncompromising. A desk or a chair would try to catch and bruise their owner. Anything more than a bare nesessity was considered "frills".

When the Soviet Union collapsed artists and designers felt liberated and had a field day with shapes and forms. I have entered furniture design at precisely that time. My customers were looking for a new style, oblong or rounded shapes, irregular assimetrical curves and there was a great demand and plenty of work for a professional with an eye for new, off the beaten track design.

I was creating interiors and funiture overseeing my creations from the drawing board through the production cycle. Everything had to be custom built and I had to learn the limits of our technology team, "triangulating" between customer's wishes, my vision and the production specialists' capabilities as well as available materials. In spite of many challenges the end result was always gratifying and at times inspiring! That work gave me a lot of freedom and shaped my coming of age as a designer.