10 Internationally Recognized Ukrainian Designers You Probably Don’t Know

August 22, 2018
Mass production of many goods is dominated by China, but sophisticated consumers prefer one-of-a-kind things. Countries like Italy and the Netherlands have proved to be among the best manufacturers of designer products, but what you buy at the best Italian furniture store can sometimes be actually designed by Ukrainian artists. Check out the label and remember these names.
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Photo credit: candleholders DNIPRO by Nott Design

Kateryna Sokolova

A 33-year-old designer from Kharkiv, Kateryna Sokolova has 7 awards of the international designers association ‘Design and Design’, she won an international contest of industrial design INDUSTART and a Red Dot Design Award in 2015. In her design portfolio: lightning, home and office furniture, audio speakers, and decorative accessories. Her collection of lamps entitled Talisman for famous French brand Forestier, was presented during Paris Design Week in 2015 and grabbed the attention of all design magazines. Products designed by Sokolova are manufactured and sold around the world by Danish Bolia, French Ligne Roset, Jarre Technologies, Forestier, Dutch Palau and many young but promising Ukrainian brands. The designer is based in Kyiv.

Hochu rayu

Unique design company from Lviv, Hochu rayu, was founded by brothers Vitalii and Yura Kyryliv in 2007. Since that time the company has evolved from product design to microworld construction from scratch. Hochu rayu creates interiors for concept stores, supermarkets, restaurants, office space, and many more facilities. They participated and were the prizewinners of many Ukrainian and international contests in Kyiv, Moscow, Lodz, Poznan, Wroclaw. In the area of product design, the company made an international statement on Kickstarter with the concept of the portable voice assistant Senstone. The project reached its goal in just 36 hours and instead of getting pledges totaling $50,000, they received $302.000. The company is based in Lviv.

Pavlo Vetrov

This young designer from Donetsk can boast of many Ukrainian and international awards: the Red Dot Award, Design and Design, German Design Award and many others. He works in the main with furniture and lightning and his concepts are manufactured by Ukrainian and European companies: Portuguese TemaHome, Two Six, Russian Premier Group, Ukrainian Tivoli, Zegen, Cube 44, D-Borisov, etc. Vetrov design is presented at the main design exhibitions of the world: Maison & Objet, Paris Design Week, Canadian Furniture Show, Salone del Mobile Milano, IMM Cologne, London Design Fair. The designer also creates interior design projects for various clients around the globe. He is based in Kyiv.

Serhiy Makhno

Serhiy Makhno is a contemporary Ukrainian designer born and based in Kyiv. In 2003 he founded an architectural studio and since then has been working in product design, interior design, and architecture. The projects designed by the studio are mainly located in Ukraine, but the awards for them garnered international recognition: in the 2018 year alone he became a finalist of the world’s most prestigious award from The Society of British & International Design and won the European Property Awards. For product design, the studio was also the recipient of the 2 Red Dot Design Awards in 2017. The same year Makhno’s designs were presented at Paris Design Week. The studio is located in Kyiv.

Dmytro Aranchii

Kyiv-born designer Dmytro Aranchii made a name for himself in parametric architecture. He studied software engineering at Kyiv Polytechnical Institute and architecture in Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture and later earned his Ph.D. at the London Architectural Association. His graduation project was about modular mobile robotics. Currently, his studio, Dmytro Aranchii Architects, designs interior and architecture projects in Ukraine and takes part in international competitions in Spain, Poland, Germany and many others. One of the studio’s projects was selected for the design of a book by Chinese publishing house Artpower. Dmytro Aranchii is also an author of the book Algorithmic Methods of Architectural Morphogenesis, the first ever book on parametric designing to be published in Ukraine.

Dmytro Kozinenko

The industrial designer lives in Kyiv but creates design not only for Ukrainian manufacturers but European brands too: Italian Durame, Linea Cali, French Roche Bobois, Austrian Breitenthaler. Products bearing his design were exhibited on various international design events, this year – during Salone del Mobile in Milan, where Kozinenko also won the Cristalplant Design Contest. Concept design by Dmytro Kozinenko is frequently published in Asian and European design magazines. He is interested mainly in designing furniture and prefers to work with natural materials like metal and wood.

Nott Design

The Ukrainian design studio from Dnipro was founded by brothers Serhiy and Olexandr Gotvyansky in 2008. The studio works in industrial design, architecture, and interior design and creates projects in Ukraine and abroad, focusing on private and commercial space. For the product and concept design Nott received 2 Red Dot Design Awards and the Silver A’Design Award. Their projects also appear in foreign design magazines. In 2017 Nott Design presented one of their latest and most interesting product designs during Dutch Design Week. The designers are currently working on the first art project.

Svoya Studio

Svoya Studio is another young and prospective design company from Dnipro. Their concept of a kitchen, designed in 2016, won Red Dot Design Award and was later produced by Ukrainian manufacturer Borisov. In the area of product design, the studio got their share of world fame during Paris Design Week in 2017, when CNN named their chair among the 10 most interesting products of the exhibition. This year Svoya Studio, as well as Makhno Architects, were finalists of the most prestigious design award from the Society of British & International Design, the project was a design for Pechersk School International in Kyiv.

Azovskiy & Pahomova architects

Dnipro is proving to be the real design capital of Ukraine. Another notable studio comes from that city, namely Azovskiy & Pahomova architects. This is a family business and art project of Oleg Azovsky and Anna Pahomova. The studio works in interior design and architecture, carrying out projects for private and commercial space in Ukraine and overseas. Last year Azovskiy & Pahomova created a design for a cafe in the Spanish city of San Sebastian, which was widely covered in Russian and Ukrainian design outlets. Earlier this year the studio’s interior design for the bar Garden in Kryvyi Rih was nominated for the Building of the Year Award, organized by one of the most authoritative and influential architectural portals ArchDaily.

Olena Fateeva

The queen of small spaces, Ukrainian interior designer Olena Fateeva is known for rethinking small apartments. Thus, her project for the 17.3 square meters student apartment located in an old building in the very center of Odesa appeared in many European and Asian design magazines. Fateeva is currently working on designing an interior for a cafe in Poland and a private apartment in Germany. The designer is based in Kyiv.

This is not the whole story, as many, many more Ukrainian designers and architects create new and inspiring projects, little by little building what one day might be called Ukrainian Design. Let’s wait and see.

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Anna Kyslytska
An analyst at UkraineWorld, an information and networking initiative.