That’s me right now.
I have a wonderful wife, and together we’re raising two amazing kids. I truly enjoy my work. At the moment, I’m Head of Design at Brighty.
But before that…
19 years ago, I discovered Photoshop. It all started with custom avatars for forums and collages with my classmates. God, it was terrible, but it was the very beginning.
A few years later, I got into web design thanks to a friend who was a front-end developer, and that’s when, four years later, my career truly began.
I’m 18
I only now realize that it was work that gave me an understanding of the importance of social life, which I almost did not have.
From the very start of my career I was a workaholic, and that is why these photos matter here, they are rare moments of me spending time outside the house and away from the laptop.
For a long time I did not know how to rest, and only my wife taught me this essential part of life.
My first startup and a lead designer role
Years later, after moving between a few companies, I joined a startup.
We worked around the clock, held team meetings, made collective decisions. We covered the windows with black film to see less sunlight.
And this is how I met your mother my wife
I poured my whole self into that product, and even though I wasn’t seeing the light, she brought it to me — my future wife, who joined us as the editor-in-chief.
We worked together a lot, and it was an amazing match. I fell in love with her mind, her sense of humor, her beauty. Every day she showed me what a wonderful person she is.
Because of her, I become a better version of myself. I am deeply grateful to fate for bringing her into my life!
Love at first sight
She kept dropping me hints, just look at this! This is definitely love, I’m telling you!
Social activity and the design community
If in the first 5–6 years of my career I was not part of the community and did not know anyone, now I realized that I should get to know people and the design field more deeply. To listen to others’ experiences and share my own.
That is how I started going to meetups and conferences.
I even tried working from Starbucks a couple of times. That’s supposed to be cool, right? Well, I didn’t like it. How was that supposed to help me socialize? I have no idea.
First corporation
After my wife and I quit our jobs, I joined the largest bank in the region. I had never been in offices that big before and was amazed by how many people worked there.
At Sber I was responsible for several areas and managed to set up a UX lab. Despite the corporation being slow in many aspects, we were able to push our solutions through quite efficiently.
Dress code and a bright future
I do not like strict dress codes, especially in corporations. They kill creativity and the desire to create. And while I was catching people’s looks with my T-shirt among those in suits, someone was measuring distances on a terminal screen with a ruler. I had to present my work a lot and promote design culture.
But in any case, I felt the future was very bright and that I would succeed…
2020
But life had its own plans. In 2020 I got seriously ill, and just a couple of weeks after recovering I ended up in the hospital again, this time for surgery. I thought things would finally get better and went on vacation. When I came back, the coronavirus hit, and that is how I first experienced remote work.
It turned out that the office kept people disciplined, while many had no idea how to work from home. After a while we were all locked in our apartments, with a terrible smell of chemicals used to disinfect the buildings.
For someone who had never been very social, forced isolation felt like pure hell.
New opportunities
But I thought I should not lose hope, and to keep my communication skills sharp I bought some equipment and started inviting people to a podcast. I wanted interaction, and I got it. Along with that, I wanted to share knowledge, and that is how my blog began.
As a bonus, I built a strong network and started getting invited to work on projects or give lectures inside companies.
Time wasted?
It did not work out right away. I recorded short videos on my 70th try, I wrote for five readers for almost half a year and nobody was reading me, I could not speak on camera.
I genuinely wanted to quit. But I am glad I did not.
More effort and less energy
I realized that to succeed I had to put in even more effort.
I gave talks, explained complex things to beginners, worked on my blog, podcast, mentoring, and much more. I had no energy left, but thanks to people’s feedback I knew I was on the right track.
How about more?
I had no free time at all, and I did not always know how to even spend time with my family.
And what do we do to make sure our relationship stays strong? We start a renovation. Silly? Maybe. But we are very proud that we did it together.
The aftertaste of coronavirus
A few years later offline events started coming back, and it turned out that because I had begun my media work during the pandemic, I started receiving invitations to speak at conferences.
I was terrified the first time, but once I stepped on stage I realized I felt great. And thanks to the blog and the podcast, I already had trust and support in the eyes of the audience.
spreent Academy
I launched my own educational product, going against the trends of online education — I was actually giving practical knowledge.
Around the same time, I co-organized an offline conference. Tickets sold out in an hour, and even more people showed up than we expected. I was happy to the point of tears!
Not to lose myself
From the very beginning of my public journey, my goal was to stay true to myself. I do not put on a mask or try to pretend.
I like talking about my failures, one of my talks was entirely dedicated to that. It helps convey the idea that no matter how much experience someone has, anyone can make mistakes. What matters is the lesson you take away from them.
So far I have managed to speak on topics that truly resonate with the audience.
Community recognition
In addition to being ranked among the most popular professionals in my region over the past three years, I am truly grateful to the community for their recognition through their edits and collages. That is super cool! Thank you so much!
Work life balance
As I said in the beginning, I did not know how to rest. On my first vacation I kept working, and on the second I had a constant nervous twitch to reply to messages.
I realized that there is no such thing as perfect balance — you just shift your focus between work, relationships, or health. Switching focus from time to time. It is in those moments you might catch me staring at a wall or at least off into the horizon.
The power of remote work
But I found an advantage in working remotely. I started working from Istanbul, Valencia, the Maldives, and other cities and countries.
It turned out that time management is my superpower, and it makes no difference where on the planet I work from. I do not see a trip as a vacation, it is just a trip. My office was a sunbed, a hanging chair, a rooftop, a basement, a seat at the airport, and many other places. A laptop, Wi-Fi, and headphones — that is all I need.
My passion
I truly love art. And among all the great artists, my favorite is Vincent van Gogh. His unique vision of the world has deeply touched my heart.
A new chapter in the family
In 2024 my wife gave birth to a wonderful daughter. She takes after her mom completely. There is nothing more to add…
Petrolhead
Oh, I almost forgot to say how much I love cars. I am sure that even right now, as you are reading this, my family and I are driving somewhere. For me, those are the best kinds of trips.
When it comes to this, I am anything but rational. Buy a Porsche and spend a fortune on gas? Who cares, let’s do it!
Photography
This is another one of my passions.
I love taking random shots that capture unique moments in life. I would not say I am good at it, but I enjoy it.
Photographing people is harder
My wife often complains about how I take pictures of her. You have got to be kidding me!
Tell me, is this really a bad photo?
That's all Folks
Thank you for reading to the end. It was not easy to piece my whole life together. I hope you found it interesting.
I will end with a quote:
"But I already told you my whole life story
Not just based on my description
’Cause where you see it from where you’re sittin’
It’s probably a 110% different"
