Jobs: Nikita Obukhov, designer and founder of the Tilda Publishing service

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Visiting Lifehacker is an incredibly original person. He is in love with his work and figured out how to put content in a beautiful form, - created Tilda Publishing. He made a desktop with his own hands for himself and his colleagues. Deliberately gave up the car so as not to get stuck in traffic jams and walk. He works out and eats porridge in the morning. Meet the designer Nikita Obukhov.

What do you do in your work?

I am a web designer and art director. Now my main job is connected with - this is a service that allows you to create cool sites in a matter of days, with little money and without a large team. I believe that he has a great future, so Tilda inspires me a lot and completely absorbs me.

But, besides this, I run a design studio that makes websites to order. I also teach an intensive course “Web design. Digital Storytelling”at the British Higher School of Art and Design. It takes place twice a year: in winter and summer.

I am inspired by mountains, pretty girls and good typography.

What is your profession?

I graduated from the British Higher School of Art and Design. Twice. The main course I studied was Visual Communication. This is a two-year training course for art directors, curated by Leonid Feigin. Now he doesn't teach, but he is the coolest art director, I learned a lot from him and figured out what to do. It's scary to think, but that was already seven years ago.

Before I came to Britain, I had already worked as a designer for five years and was able to do a lot of things, but I felt a gag with creative implementation. A lot of questions have accumulated, and when I came to British with this baggage, the training in the end turned out to be super effective.

That model, when you sit at your desk for five years and just study, no longer works - everything changes too quickly.

My first higher education is a classical technical education. I graduated from the polytechnic. But, if in the first year I had not got a job as a designer in a studio, perhaps I would have regretted the time spent. Although I received universal knowledge and skills, thinking became more systemic and social connections appeared, but everything is getting old too quickly, you need to learn and at the same time apply knowledge in practice. Just learning is not enough.

What must a designer be able to do?

I love web design because it is one of the most multidisciplinary professions around. There is such a concept that a professional is a T-shaped person. The vertical stick symbolizes that you are an expert in a certain field, and the horizontal one - that you are able to communicate with experts in other fields. In web design, this horizontal line is very wide: photographers, editors, illustrators, video designers, programmers, a lot of things.

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

I am sick. I think I'm a workaholic. On the one hand, this is good for the profession. I am focused on work and work hard. But it also bothers me, because personal hobbies and communication on non-work topics suffer.

I dream of a summer residence, a small country house that I will build myself.

What does your workplace look like?

I have a wonderful office at Artplay and I am very happy with it. This is a cool studio with 6m ceilings and 5m wall-to-wall windows. There is a pleasant atmosphere, many green plants, bright colored furniture and, of course, people who work with me and also set the mood.

When we moved, there were bare walls. At first we just put a few tables from IKEA, but gradually everything was overgrown with details, came to life. I made a large wooden table with my own hands, at which we work, drink tea or hold meetings and negotiations. But the coolest thing is the flowers in the office, we have a lot of them.

For large projects, we always put together a moodboard - these are pictures that set the style of the project.

We also write down new ideas and draw projects on a large board.

As such, I do not have a workplace, because I move around the studio all the time: I sit at one table, then at another, then on the couch. My workplace is everywhere. The most important thing is a laptop.

I use a 15”Macbook Pro, Wacom Intuos4 tablet. The phone is, of course, an iPhone.

As for the software, this is a must-have.

• Tilda. Now we make almost all sites in it. We follow the Content First rule. Tilda gives us all the tools to make a great website presentation and we focus on content: text, photos, videos and illustrations. Greatly saves money and time.
• Browser. Only Chrome, I like it more and more.
• Mail. I don’t use Gmail in a browser, and I don’t recommend it to anyone because it’s not as fast as an email client.

Push notifications are included. I receive payment notifications at Tilda. It is important to know that the process is going on, everything is fine and nothing has turned off, whether it is possible to relax or, conversely, it is time to strain. Previously, there were still notifications about contacting the support service, but, thank God, now another person is engaged in this, and push falls to him. Also, notifications are configured for mail to quickly respond to something urgent.

I have always done design in Photoshop, but while developing Tilda, I remembered the skills I got at the Polytechnic Institute and started programming. Gradually, I move to design in the browser. I use a text editor for code - and draw with code. It turned out to be convenient and pleasant.

I have two main businesses on my phone: Tilda and FunkyPunky. Through the Gmail application, I receive mail for FunkyPunky, and Yandex receives something related to Tilda.

I don't use any schedulers. For me, a regular text editor works much more efficiently. I create many, many notes that are all stored in iCloud.

Another important thing in the phone is Notes. A versatile thing to quickly jot down ideas, plans, movies to watch, and so on. Such a simple thing turned out to be so convenient. For example, you go to Berlin, open a file that says what you took to London before, and quickly throw everything into your backpack. Very cool.

Also a good service aimed at those who are engaged in the field of design -. It allows you to share files and conveniently comment on edits. You take a screenshot, write comments on it that need to be corrected, and send the link to the designer - it's super convenient.

I removed Facebook from my phone so I could look at it less, but I still watch Instagram a lot.

I love podcasts. There is an application, few people know about it and few people use it, which is strange. I subscribed to the Model to Build podcast, and recently found a cool Funk Functions podcast, now I listen to it all the time, there is great music. And another useful thing is the Music for Falling asleep podcast. If you are agitated and unable to sleep, drink motherwort, put on this podcast, and after a while you will have a sound, healthy sleep.

Recently in the studio we have been playing a game - we compete to see who knows the design theory best.

Finally, the phone has a button for Tilda to always know if everything is working. And I keep asking Siri what the weather is like today.

How do you organize your time?

A startup has trillions of tasks, and all of them are interesting, so it's easy to get carried away with routine. But planning is super important. In order to have time for it, we somehow formed the format of business breakfasts by itself.

Monday morning begins pleasantly: we meet in a cafe, drink coffee with cinnamon buns and at the same time discuss what was done last week, what are the plans for the coming, next and next month.

It is very good to start your work week by analyzing what has been done and planning what is to come. Some tasks are then adjusted during the day, but the general direction remains. There are also long-term plans, when I just keep in mind that the next month needs to be devoted, for example, to improving the Help section in order to reduce the load on the support service. This is a general task, which is then concretized into smaller ones.

Do you have a daily morning ritual?

My morning ritual is porridge. Be sure to eat porridge. This is the perfect dish. You swallow it like an astronaut, space food - full and satisfied. Eat porridge.

I am happy when I eat fish cookies and wash them down with milk.

How do you while away the time in traffic jams?

I have given up on the car recently. It is parked and I rarely use it. This is, in general, complete idiocy - to stand in traffic jams. Plus I lack movement, so I walk.

The closest metro to Artplay is Kurskaya, but I specially go to Taganskaya. Firstly, there is a pleasant route: past the Yauza, Sergievskaya Church and the Andronikov Monastery. Secondly, in this way I gain those very 10,000 steps - the minimum level of physical activity that a person working in an office needs.

In summer, I sometimes ride a bike to work, and in winter I take a tram. The trams are cool, especially now that there is an application "": you look where your tram is, and, if anything, walk into the subway.

Is there a place for paper in your work?

There are a lot of pieces of paper. I am an active paper user: I draw prototypes, write down tasks and ideas. Moreover, an ordinary A4 leaflet is much better than diaries. It is thin, lightweight, you can take it with you. I keep the leaves, after a while it's funny to see what I did.

What place does sport take in your life?

Workout! Not so long ago, the guys and I discovered that there are many cool free sports grounds in Moscow. There is one next to Artplay, on the school grounds. This is very cool: all you need is yourself, a minimum of effort. Fresh air, cheap, affordable and fun because you can go after work with the whole studio. Much better than any fitness center.

Life hacking from Nikita Obukhov

1. Books. If you are an aspiring designer, it is very important to read professional books in a certain sequence. I think we need to start with Victor Papanek Design for the Real World. But in general, I made up which I recommend to my students. There are just books in the order in which you need to read.
2. Films and serials. There is such a site - all the most mega-trash cartoons are there. I love Mr. Pickles.
3. If creativity is close to you, but you are not an advanced web designer, discover an additional source of income. Use Tilda and earn by creating custom websites. I have a friend Roma, a motion designer. Three months ago, he didn't know much about web design at all. I recommended that he make himself a portfolio. He made it on Tilda. Then friends asked to make a page about their performance. It turned out great. As if he had been working on websites for five years. Now, for good money, he makes a website for a client about traveling in Georgia.

What is your life credo?

First. I am sure that a person always needs some kind of challenge. Everything is working out, you feel comfortable, things are going, everything seems to be OK … Suddenly depression begins. Therefore, you need to listen to yourself and understand that as soon as sadness begins, it is a bell that it is time to leave your comfort zone.

Second. Here is a quote from Solaris. "Man does not need Space … Man needs man." It is most important. If it seems that there are not enough yachts, cars, apartments - in general, material goods, then think about the people around you. It is they who create the feeling of being full.