In September MILDBERRY INSPIRATION guests will be the first spectators of “Phoenix night”, the performance of “Dramatics and Direction Center” theater. Premiere is scheduled in the theatre itself later this autumn, so has not been shown to wide audience yet.

“Phoenix night” consists of three performances-stories, each telling about freedom and its significance in life and creativity, about what happens to those who can not dare to become free, and about how do truly free people look like. The performance will be divided in three parts for MILDBERRY INSPIRATION guests so that they could profoundly go through each story.

The first story is based on Yuri Bujda’s tale “Blue Lips”. It tells about a man happy in his folly, who found a way to return to the most striking moment of his life in order to die excited.

Stage Director — Viktoriya Zvyagina. Cast: Yevgeniy Antropov and Marina Vorozhischeva.
The performance lasts 40 minutes, without interval.

The performance will take place in MILDBERRY office at 7.30 p.m.
The seats are the subject of availability! To participate, please, register here.

Yevgeniy Maslov is, probably, the most mysterious industrial designer in Russia. Having acquired a huge experience from various projects at home he has been generating ideas for BMW Group Designworks USA, design sub-division of BMW involved in strategic projects for BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce.

Last time Maslov came to Russia more than two years ago. Industrial design market has changed a lot since those times. Yevgeniy will be very interested to learn “what’s going on here, in Russia”, and in his turn will share his own vision of “the world’s scene”. Being a Russian professional working for European company, he will also share his view on industrial design.

“As a matter of fact, we, as industrial and subject designers, speak absolutely strange language. This is the language of things. One can see everything in the subject being used for years and not even being noticed. One can see it from the moment when the subject appeared to the moment when it is thrown to garbage; from the predecessors of the subject to its analogues in a very remote country; from emotions of its creators to emotions of its actual owner. It is a special cast of mind — to be always somewhere “in between”. I would love to talk and to tell about it, to covert it into a simple language — the language I communicate with good people, the language of little stories, seen by an industrial designer himself.”

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. The seats are the subject of availability!
To participate, please, register here.

This 29-year-old Arshak Sarkissian is already well known in the world of contemporary art. His works were exhibited in Armenia, USA, England, Germany and Cyprus.

Arshak Sarkissian in his works tells us a story of deliverance from prejudices of society, about different people, their freedom and limitations, their pain and joy, loneliness and happiness… Weird freaky people, unusual details, bizarre scenes created by Sarkissian, acting as a stage director, hold the spectator’s attention for a long time.

Sarkissian’s works are a parallel world; and the guide to it is a man with a chicken’s head appearing in various corners of the paintings-shows.

At the opening of exhibition the author told about his art, answered questions and surprised MILDBERRY INSPIRATION guests with a mini-performance playing in it himself.

More details about the artist and his exhibition you’ll find on MILDBERRY GALLERY.

In addition to the project “Fashion Journalism Summer School”, the organizers of MILDBERRY INSPIRATION seriously took care of the problems of the Russian fashion industry. They decided to investigate gradually and started with the mass media presentation of fashion events: who writes? what do they write about? why do they write?

The first meeting, on July 15, was dedicated to printed glossy magazines, which were represented by:

Vladimir Gridin, Editor of the fashion section of the Shopping Guide magazine, winner of the National Fashion Industry Award (2005), member of the Union of Journalists of the Russian Federation and of the MEDIASOYUZ Fashion Journalism Union; Anna Rykova, director of the Cosmopolitan magazine fashion section, who has already studied in practice all the secrets and tricks of glossy journalism during her career from assistant to director of the fashion section.

The meeting was like a press conference where the speakers answered the main question: what qualities must a fashion journalist have? Vladimir spoke about the sense of style, about how important it is to read books with a beautiful turn of phrase, to be erudite, to surprise people not with “who-did-what-with-whom” tales, but with the own distinctive writing manner, the taste for letters and sentences… Related business areas were discussed as well: competition with Internet media, collaboration between the magazine and fashionable brands as well as with PR specialists. The participants also discussed the amount of advertising materials in a magazine.

A week later, on July 22, we met again to discuss the interrelations between the Russian fashion and the Internet media.

Evgeny Malyshev, general director of Icon Communications and founder of the first daily fashion online magazine, FashionGuide.ru, had the honor to open the discussion. Evgeny spoke of the history and development of Russian fashion Internet resources. The second speaker was Dmitry Babushkin, director of the InterModa.ru portal, launched half a year after FashionGuide. Dmitry shared his creative plans with the participants saying that enhancement of a site can attract not only more users, but more advertisers as well. Denis Solopov, founder of the site MNOGOMODNOGO, spoke about his research of Russian designers’ sites and characteristics of making a personal representation on the Internet. The Editor-in-Chief of RIA Moda press agency Valentina Kuznetsova pointed at the low quality of press releases published on fashion Internet portals and stressed the importance of finding real professionals for fashion journalism.

The final speech was made by Irina Karimova, the director of the Fashion Journalism Summer School and of the portal FashionEducation.ru. She pointed out the necessity for mutual support of people involved in the Internet segment for improving the quality of fashion journalists’ education and acceleration of the development of the national fashion industry.

Both meetings resulted in lively discussions on the key problem of the Russian fashion industry — catastrophic lack of professional managers. Economists, financial experts, managers, marketing specialists: it is not a whim, but a necessity; only with their help fashion can become a really profitable business. The quality of business management and future of the industry depend on the quality of preparation of the team… At the end of the meeting, the participants agreed to continue soon the discussions of the vital issues of the Russian fashion industry.

The round table “The image of Russian fashion” completed the series of our fashion-meetings. On July 28, fashion industry professionals and Russian government representatives got together at MILDBERRY office. The discussion was very hot as always: MILDBERRY INSPIRATION guests — excited by a very arguable, yet interesting NTV reportage about Russian fashion industry — disputed about this business in this country, its perspectives, new projects and shared their vision of how common issues could be solved.
The detailed report on the event is available on our friends’ website FashionEducation.

The city music festival — it’s not just a simple party but it’s own genre that calls for a special approach and attitude towards the organisation. This is a complex process of creating a general concept, gathering right information, and carrying out long-term negotiations with representatives from the city administration. A successful festival has to be adjusted to the city’s environment and please the local community. Each festival is like a megaphone for modern trends in music, an opportunity to introduce new names and stimulate creativity in already succeeded professional performers. On June 22, at MILDBERRY INSIRATION round table, the organisers of the city’s most vibrant musical events came together to discuss issues related to music festivals in Moscow.

That evening, the guests of MILDBERRY INSPIRATION were:

Maria Semushkina, the organiser of the city’s biggest annual Russian jazz festival “Usadba Jazz”; Yuri Saprykin and Dmitry Stepanov, representatives of the legendary summer event “Afisha Picnic”; Maxim Silva–Vega, the irreplaceable organiser of the independent music festival “Avant”; Alexei Shcherbina, creator of the international modern music festival and MIGZ media arts; Phillip Mironov, organiser and press-agent of the French festival “Transmusicales” in Moscow; Mikhail Kozyrev, creator and organiser of “Nashestviye” and “Maxidrom”; Evgeny Medvedev, Moscow Government, Director of Cultural Programs Center.

In the spirit of open debate, the guests addressed the problems of organising musical festivals in the city; they discussed the tastes and preferences of the modern Russian public and the festival format’s perception in general. The meeting’s participants analysed western experience of organising city festivals, discussed the festivals’ educational mission and the interaction of organisers with the press as well as the event’s funding from private sponsors and government representatives. It was unanimously pointed out that the festival is a great way to attract attention and create a positive image of the city or even the nation as well as to increase revenue in the sector of tourism. The festival’s organisers discussed their typical mistakes in dealing with the city’s administration and with documents, which makes it possible to hold almost any musical event in the city, as well as the criteria for selecting events that are in need of support. They presented guests and city administration’s representatives with their new ideas and proposals. With great enthusiasm, the guests recalled already existing and devised new city grounds for holding musical festivals in various formats. Thus, we hope that musical festivals will become even bigger, gaining greater significance and finally reaching the “city” scale.

The round table was attended by the people whose projects are appreciated for the concept harmony. All of the projects were created not only for a profit, but also for the pleasure and joy of the authors. There are not so many places like this in Moscow, and the audience has taken a sincere fancy for them. They attract creative people and are capable of creating an atmosphere. The ideologists of the new-type stores told why their projects enjoyed so great a success and popularity, told stories of their projects creation and shared their personal professional gimmicks.

David Yan, founder of the ArteFAQ, FAQ-cafe and Squat chain, told how to attract the audience to the joint work over the project, how to make people be very pleased to invite their friends and impress them with their work. David thinks that the modern successful places, be them clubs or stores, should be created according to the social network principle, but only offline. And in David’s opinion, a good place is a place, where the conversation at the next table “does not get on your nerves”.

Andrey Samonayev, director and ideological inspirer of the DesignBoom project, considers it important to travel and pay attention to the arrangement of the creative retail projects in other parts of the world. The visitors of the DesignBoom store tour through the modern culture and design of Europe, Asia and America.

Shashy Martynova, the concept author and co-owner of the Dodo Space, Magic Bookroom and Jaberwalkie book stores comes to her stores as if she comes home. She thinks it’s important to treat visitors like guests: “to offer tea and leave them alone”; and the grateful guests reciprocate staying in the store to read the newly bought books.

Nina Khodzinskaya, Development Director of the Globus Gourmet concept, tried to create a food store, which would make the daily shopping joyful.
Nastya Kolesnikova, owner of the Mesto store, demonstrated a whole research, which she carried out to understand the Russian consumer of the creative retail projects, to trace stages of development and find common features of such places.

And, naturally, the talk would not have been so dynamic and exciting without Alexander Gavrilov, talented anchorman, director of the Book Institute and co-owner of the Dodo Space, Magic Bookroom and Jaberwalkie book stores.

All the participants of the round table agreed about one thing: to create a successful creative retail project you have to sincerely enjoy what you are doing and make your business they way you like, to understand clearly what you are striving for, share interests of your future visitors and forget about days-off and vacations for a couple of years in order to combine them with the work over the project of your dream.

MILDBERRY has started collaborating with The Institute for Media, Architecture and Design “Strelka”. MILDBERRY INSPIRATION will act as a curator of the lectures series “Sensorium” including in the summer program “Summer at Strelka”.

The series of lectures we participate in is devoted to the influence of city on people’s feelings. The first lecture was focused on the palette designers and architects use to produce the desired impression on the perception of their viewers and fans. We’ll talk about color, texture and materials.

Sandra Boberg is an industrial designer.She has worked for Pininfarina where she was responsible for the Colour and Material development of various international projects, both mass produced cars, for example Alfa Romeo and Maserati, as well as one-off custom-built cars, for example the Ferrari P4/5 and the Rolls-Royce Hyperion. She has also managed different Interior and Material development projects for private and commercial airplanes, trains, and luxury yachts. Today Sandra works with Business Development for the Special Projects Division at Maggiora Automobili in Italy.

During the seminar Sandra presented an overview of global trends in materials, textures and colors. She also shared her vision of what colour and material development is all about, how it works and how you, as a designer, can go on from here.

Beau McClellan, one of the world’s most respected light designers, came to Russia to present for the first time the ‘making’ of Reflective Flow to some select guests at the Moscow office of MILDBERRY in Royal Yacht Club, on Friday 28th May 2010.

Beau McClellan, who could easily be found in his recording studio, on a film set or in a blacksmith’s workshop, is currently basking in the glow of his biggest project by far: Reflective Flow, a feat of mammoth proportions in Doha, Qatar. The best teams in the world were selected by Beau to bring his concept to life: an interactive sculpture made up of 2,300 optical crystals and 82,000 LED lights to make an organic art sculpture by day and a striking, ever-changing chandelier by night.

Now, the culmination of an award-winning career filled with high-end projects throughout the world, nobody can say that it has been a straightforward journey. In fact, listing Beau’s achievements and tracing his career path is almost as intricate as most of his designs. Having left school not knowing what to do, a short stint at art college introduced Beau to the wonders of metal work. With a newfound ambition to become an artist blacksmith, he learnt the traditional techniques and classical forms to create modern sculpture pieces.

Beau was building sets after doing production for still photography for high fashion magazines. And as something of a pattern with everything he turns his hand to, the skilfully constructed sets were well received and led to set production for companies such as Coca-Cola. Soon at one of the Italian design fairs Beau wandered onto the stand of German lighting company Brumberg, where the aspiring lighting designer became fascinated by the use of LED lights and fibre optics. He asked the company to send him their leftover material and with “this huge collection of junk and a bit of information”, he made his first LED chandelier — Icicle. After rave reviews, Brumberg invited him to design his own range for the company and, in 2007, pieces from the Beau McClellan range, which comprised 14 different lights, went on to win four Red Dots at the prestigious annual design awards, an unprecedented feat for a self-taught designer. Beau McClellan had arrived.

As he established himself in the design world once and for all, he became the go-to man for some of the world’s biggest projects, such as Dubai’s Maritime City and Donald Trump’s Trump Hotel. But it was Reflective Flow to become a pioneering interactive project, the sculpture comprises low resolution screens with ever-changing content that reacts to movement and temperature, and as it’s made of mirrored glass, reflects everything around it. As night falls, the art piece lights up and takes on a whole new meaning.

The guests of the event were told by Beau about this project, about new technologies and materials used in light design, as well as about new trends in lighting.

Leading architects and designers, owners and managers of the most successful companies at the lighting technology market, both media and show-biz representatives came to see Beau in MILDBERRY office that night.

Beau McClellan Design official website: http://www.beaumcclellan.com

Rolph Gobits is a world-renowned English photographer, famous for his unique landscapes, portraits and genre photos. His works are included in manuals on photography in many countries. Rolph follows the classic tradition in photography: he still uses the large format and a classic camera with unique optics.
His photos chosen personally by Queen Elizabeth are on the stamps of the British Royal Mail. Rolph Gobits’s name is included in the top 100 of people who made the most significant contribution to Great Britain’s culture according to “People of Today”. His clientelle embraces the most famous people in the world: Jean Muir, Joan Osborne, Jenny Saville, Lee Hooker, Lord Foster, Damien Hirst and many others, as well as the largest companies in the world: Apple, Hyatt Hotels, Mariott Hotels, Sotheby’s, Lloyds Bank, BMW, Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, Chrysler, British Airways, Canada Airways, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Miele, Levi’s, Carl F.Bucherer, American Express, Evian, Bacardi, Jameson…

Rolph’s parents gave him his first camera when he was 9. Being the guest of MILDBERRY INSPIRATION, where a lot of fans of contemporary photography gathered, Rolph said that he bought his first digital camera only one month ago, just to meet a client’s request to see the result immediately. During the workshop Gobits spoke much about the problems related to modernization of photography, complained that photography lost the audience’s trust, that a great number of technological innovations and software programs nowadays make it possible to change the reality in the picture. A picture now depends less and less on the talent of its creator, the pre-shooting process becomes a formality, term and cost of the projects decrease. Now when shooting it takes more time to choose the best picture among thousands of mediocre ones, while earlier all the time one had to spend to set the framу. Rolph never uses Photoshop, but the quality of his advertisement photos is of a such level that one doesn’t need to add any “selling” slogans to them: the photographer has already said it all.

Rolph Gobits is a co-founder of Lensmodern photobank, where it is possible to buy photos made according to Rolph’s artistic principles: respect to the profession of photographer and refusal to use digital photo processing.

Rolph likes to photograph in countries where he has never been, which his eyes are not used to yet. “A photographer is a researcher. When you photograph you get to know yourself, you understand what you like or do not like, what inspires you and attracts your attention”, — he says. He believes that children are the best photographers, as they do not have fear or prejudices, and they have a particular perception.

“If you want an easy life, become an accountant, art is not for you… Be honest to yourself, do what you love, and you will succeed!”

MILDBERRY INSPIRATION hosted Alexander Ganyushin and Anton Murad of the New Media and Communication Theory Department of the faculty of journalism of the Moscow State University.

The lecture delivered by Alexander and Anton gave us a possibility to look at the notions of “Media” and “New Media” from a scientific point of view. These notions were brilliantly explained and systematized by the lecturers. Here is a useful and comprehensible summary.

“Media” (lat. medium) means an instrument or an intermediary. According to a scientific theory, there are five natural media: hearing, sight, touch, smell and taste which help a human being to build up its subjective worldview.

The development of media goes hand by hand with the scientific and technical progress, that is why the history of media inventions looks like that: about 150,000 years ago language and oral speech appeared; about 1,000 AD alphabet was created; in 1457 Gutenberg invented the printing press; in the XX century electronic media were invented, and at the end of the XX century digital media appeared.

There exists a notion of media convergence which was developing step-by-step: 1) 1950-70 – the technological stage; 2) 1970-90 – the economic stage; 3) since 1990 – the cultural stage. The properties of new media are as follows: digitality, interactivity, network structure, hyper-textuality, simulation, virtuality.

The contemporary characteristics of the new media are as follows: new media carriers, hybrid content, different contact time and space, multiple reality, collective perception. Contemporary media make us more creative, more socialized, more dedicated and involved, yet more… accessible.

At the end of the meeting a lively discussion started which dealt with the influence of media on the inner world of an individual, on his ability to think, remember and memorize, feel and sympathize… The participants of the discussion did not come to a unanimous conclusion, but there was one thing that became absolutely clear: continuously emerging of new media is inevitable… And that gives us optimism.

Kirill Serebrennikov is a theater and film director. He has been awarded prizes in the fields of theater, cinema and TV, including Triumf, Chayka, TEFI, Kinotavr, Festa del Cinema. Kirill is a director of the movies “The Swallow”, “Mysteries of the Storm”, “Rostov-Daddy”, “The Undressed”, “The Diary of a Murderer”, “Bed Stories”, “Playing the Victim”, “Yuriev Den”. He works with the leading theaters of Moscow and Saint Petersburg, directs plays abroad. He directed M. Ravenhill’s “Some Explicit Polaroids”, Presnyakov brothers’ “Terrorism” and “Playing the Victim”, M. Gorky’s “Philistines”, M. Saltykov-Shchedrin’s “The Golovlyov Family”, A. Ostrovsky’s “The Forest”, M. McDonagh’s “The Pillowman”, “Kije”, based on Yu. Tynyanov’s novella, B. Brecht’s “The Threepenny Opera”, T. Williams’s “Sweet Bird of Youth”, M. Kononov’s “The Naked Pioneer Girl”, “Anthony and Cleopatra. A Version” based on W. Shakespeare’s works, G. Verdi’s opera “Falstaff”, Gogol’s “Dead Souls”. Since 2008 he’s been teaching acting and directing at the Moscow Art Theater Studio School. He is one of the founders and art director of the contemporary art Territory Festival.

Kirill started the meeting by explaining the theme “Where’s the Trick?”: the trick is to focus attention on the stage. And it has been like this since the times of Roman amphitheaters: all the audience’s attention must be focused on one point. The stage is a perfect lens that captures the audience’s energy and gives this energy back. Theater people, investigating the human soul, constantly perfected this “mechanism” so that after several centuries of trials and errors theater finally acquired its current aspect.

In cinema, there is a technique called “zooming”: enlargement of an important detail, camera dolly-in. In theater, if the stage has the proper architecture, this can be done without any equipment. Actors who feel the stage always know the “ideal point” where the whole audience hears and sees them. The perception of an object changes depending on the distance: when we are close, not always we do see what we can see zooming the object out. This is also true in regards with any situation in life.

Now, in the IT era, it is no longer possible to create a worldwide focus lens. It has been broken into many small focus lenses, and the audience’s attention scattered. Technological discoveries changed our perception and the form of receiving and transmitting information. Nowadays people have to be transparent to avoid conflict with the information flow, let it pass through them, and this information “attrition” makes perception even dimmer. And, perhaps, the more the focus fades on the whole humanity scale, the more we will shift it to each person’s internal world.

Kirill kept on answering the questions for a long time. His answers formed a new lecture about relations between people and art in modern society. Russia is still faithful, Kirill believes, to its consideration of theater as a temple.

He also said, that cinema and theater are a peculiar but necessary “fitness” for the soul. And due to high prices of tickets in Russia we are losing a whole generation of audience: in Europe there are no tickets that cost more than 30 euros. The second year of the Studio School at the Moscow Art Theater, directed by Kirill, sets and plays free shows. True theater is always unprofitable. It lives or, better, develops, when state financing is available, like in Germany and France now. In countries where theater becomes commercial, the art of theater dies. And these are not mere assertions, but a scientifically proved theory.

Dima Barbanel designs layouts for glossy magazines, titles for movies; he consults, organises design processes and teaches. Dima is one of today’s best magazine designers in Russia; he designs layouts for Esquire, Interni, Company Secret, the new Around the World magazine and many others. He has recently started his own Workshop® where he offers professional development and creative freedom courses for designers. The impact of these courses we were able to feel in full measure that evening.

“Yo!” and “People make each other happy!” – this is how Dima opened the seminar and immedeately set the tone for everything that followed. What does inspire him? Roads, the Gulf of Finland, Scandinavia, Japan, Marshak, Dima’s son, daughter and wife, Yevgeny Charushin’s book, Zakharov’s “Automobiles”, Pisarevsky’s “Fonts and how they are built”, children’s magazine Anorak, Soviet magazines Noviy Mir and Za Rulyom, modern publications Carl*s cars, Intersection, New York, Time, Brutus Casa and about a million of other beautiful and harmonious phenomena. He also derives his inspiration from his own work, including the new design for Vokrug magazine, with the presentation of the last to be held in the area of Strelka project in the end of May, as well as from a new project with the State Hermitage Museum, where Dima will be in charge of design for print publications.

The evening became an inspiration not only for Dima but also for all the guests of MILDBERRY INSPIRATION; during the second part of the workshop the participants were given special tasks. And even though completing some of them could take several days.., the participants were only given one hour. As a result the workshop turned into a feast of creativity and improvisation; there was no limit for the variety of techniques used; photography, graphics, video, collages, clip art. The results were so good that Dima took them home to prepare methodological materials for future workshops.

MILDBERRY INSPIRATION hosted Mikhail Kozyrev, producer, radio-DJ and actor. He is one of those who provided the creation and subsequent success of “Radio Maximum”, “Nashe Radio” and “Ultra” broadcasting stations as well as the emergence of “Maxidrom and “Nashestvie” festivals different TV-shows. Mikhail played himself in play and movie “Radio Day” created by “Kvartet I”. Today he is an author and host of “Mishanina” program on “Silver Rain” radio and is launching a series of shows on “Rain”-TV also cooperating with Chulpan Khamatova’s charity Foundation “Give Life”.

It was a unique evening, a here-and-now moment for everyone who came to Mildberry Inspiration.

Mikhail Kozyrev is an inspirational person. The energy we get from hearing his voice on the radio is multiplied hundredfold when we see his eyes. No wonder he succeeds at everything he does, whether it’s implementing incredibly huge projects or uniting and guiding hundreeds of people. Mikhail talked about things that are important to him; they’re simple things but they actually work, help and inspire. There’s no point to wasting time on something you’re as good as the next guy is, one has to focus on what he can do better than anyone else. You shouldn’t be afraid to be outrageous, on the contrary, whatever you do you’ve got to try and make it stand out, because that’s what gets a really good project noticed against a background of mediocrity. It’s also important to be able to see and feel when it’s time to stop and make a U-turn, maintaining good relations with your partners and colleagues; a good reputation and a clear conscience are the two ingredients that will keep you moving forward smoothly.

Michael is convinced that it’s important to remain human being and remember those who do need your help; it’s his help that made possible the opening of Le Petite Prince on the stage of the Mikhailovsky theatre in Saint Petersburg. In this production famous actors and musicians were casted together with children who are getting help from the “Give Life” charity Foundation. Even today good deeds and interesting ideas don’t need very much money to be invested; you just have to be honest, responsible and trust your partners and friends.

And then Mikhail was off to another interview with another hero, because one has to meet with his heroes. As a rule they turn out to be even more awesome in real life.

Mildberry hosted Vasily Esmanov – founder and ideologist of such projects as Look At Me and The Villages.
It was an unusual meeting, carried as an improvisation. Vasya wasn’t reading the lecture: he simply answered questions on various subjects, easily supporting a fascinating talk about everything in the world. We decided that the meeting report should be unusual as well, should conform to the spirit an philosophy of Vasily Esmanov’s projects. Let’s look at the meeting with it’s guest’s eyes, not as the organizers. Here are the words from LiveJournal of one of our guests.
Thank you, nerpa-on-line! We also liked it!
“What can I say? I DO NOT KNOW another man who can be more clear about things RIGHT HERE AND NOW. Vasya is beautiful! He said so many things I completely agreed with.
— that every man desires a self-actualization, because he wants to dominate (this does not mean “dominate” in some negative way, aggressively. No. But to have the recognition and credibility in some field also means “to dominate”)
— that the state differs from the organized crime, only by legality of it’s activities.
— that the main advantage of education, in general, is possibility to enjoy life more fully (if you don’t know the rules of tennis, watching a game is boring, but if you know them, you understand what is happening, there is an exciting drama. The same thing is with art , and with anything.)
— that Moscow is not a big city, it’s just a village, where only 5 streets, and everyone knows each other. Every man is living in his own small group, walks the same way everyday in familiar places and meet with old friends or friends of friends (and we even happen to meet them abroad). And the world at the same time becoming smaller and smaller, everything is so close and compact: communications and aircraft compressed space, and someone in London or South East Asia is closer to you than people from another parts of your city.
I also liked how Vasya telling tales and how he was livened up when the conversation turned to subjects important for him. In short, Vasya unrealistically cool, Vasya dominate!”

Dmitri Pantyushin – “Goznak” graphic artist, one of the founders of the project Clevermoto visited MILDBERRY INSPIRATION.
Thanks to Dmitri, we learned a lot of fascinating details about one of the most secret state-owned enterprises – “Goznak”. For example, there is no designers, only artists, engravers and technicians; great secret is the identity of the person (or perhaps of the entire Council), who approves design of the domestic currency, the author of a design usually remains anonymous , and the image copyright belongs to the state; positions at “Goznak” are often inherited, and it’s impossible to get there “from the street”, dismissal is something even hard to imagine. All this strongly distinguish us from Europe and America, where annual competitions for the banknotes design are usual, and you can find out the name of each designer. Creative directors approve design in foreign “Goznak” and unconventional approach to the visual solutions is welcomed.

Dmitry also brought his collection of favorite banknotes and a lot of visual material, as a case study of technological and artistic features of currencies from all over the world. It turned out that the 100 rubles bill from 1910 with the image of Catherine II, or simply “Katya,” is still the benchmark for money design, and the first paper money in Russia looked like a receipt and was manually signed by the cashier. We learned that the graphics on banknotes are exceptionally self-expression of an artist, abstract lines on the background as well as the picture. Colors for the notes should be more “complex”: so they are harder to falsify. White fields at the edges allows watermarks to be more visible. Size of the bills depends on the practical and economic factors: consumption of paper, notes duration, etc. – no “secret meanings”. These and many other fascinating facts learned our guests and Twitter audience this evening. At the same time, the lecturer managed to keep all the professional and state secrets. Although the guests were asking tricky questions, Dmitry remained firm and unyielding.