Name
Tema Semenov

Age
24

Company
Vectorized Me, since 2001

Website
Visit Homepage

Home
Moscow (Russia)

Education
State Pedagogical University; British Higher School of Art & Design, “Visual Communications” course.

Motto
Believe in your own potential and enjoy what you create. The rest will follow.

Tema dreamed of becoming an artist since childhood. He always painted: at school, at home, even when he was out with my friends or relatives. During his study, teachers noticed his desire to design and illustrate. He got the opportunity to make illustrations and cover images for books they published. Tema started to work as a freelance designer\illustrator in 2001 and got noticed by an ad agency, situated in Syracuse, NY, where he got to work in motion/flash design as well. Now Tema is studying art and visual communications at the British Higher School of Art & Design, and working as a senior designer at a design studio.

A brief overview of what your company does:
The studio has a large list of clients, including Nestle, Mars, Russian government, NTV broad-casting channel and TV Center, as well. There’re many more. The studio works with motion design for TV channels, flash presentations, web sites, graphic design, packaging design, 3D graphics, illustrations.

How did you get into business?
At first, I worked for my own pleasure. Then, studios noticed my work and offered me freelance jobs. That where everything began for me.

Which achievements are you proud of?
Desiging my website, I noticed many people love it. I’ve also won many awards; I won the Plastic Pilots Award, Dope Award, American Design Award, Q-Award, New Web Pick and many more. I’ve also been featured at many design resources, which I’m prerry proud of.

Did you run into many obstacles?
Actually, yes. In late 2001, when I started my career, I only created websites. I wanted to draw illustrations but couldn’t understand how people made those beautiful illustrations. I gave it a try everyday, but alas. After a month of daily practice, I noticed better and better results. So, I went from simple illustrations of people and cars, furniture, to some difficult ones with own concepts and a story behind. That’s it.

What differentiates you from other entrepreneurs?
Three or four years ago, I would’ve said my style. But now, my style you can be found everywhere, on almost every site or illustration. It became so popular that new designers eclipsed me.

What have been the keys in bringing your company to the present level?
To be one of the best in creating something new and original.

Has your age given you an advantage in getting where you are now?
I don’t think there’s an advantage. It doesn’t matter whether you’re 13 or 25. If you have a creative streak and passion to be the best and create gorgeous things, you’ll get everything you dream about. Remember: work hard and don’t lose courage, when something won’t come in. It will.

How do you keep yourself motivated to work hard and to get even better at what you do?
The world changes with every minute, so you need to be in stream with new trends in design and do even better. Create something new and exciting. Only after that, you’ll get noticed.

What are the most important lessons you have learned along the way?
To work hard and not to lose yourself, if you want your dreams come true.

What is your goal in life?
To live the life I like, to look around, try to notice the rhythm, sounds and people surrounding me.

Who inspires you?
I get inspired by taking notice of the world around me and listening to music. By playing PSP games (there’s a lot of inspiration in them) and watching the movies. Also, by browsing design magazine and books.

Who are your role-models?
I like works of Robert Lindstroem (Design Chapel), Joost Korngold’s motion graphics (Renascent) and animation of the guys from Tokyo Plastic.

How important do you consider networking to be?
I think this is one of the most important things in designing. You build a good network by making your customer happy. Good communication is key. Without good communication with your clients, or you won’t be able to make a great design.

Apart from running your business, are there any other things you’re passionate about?
I love cars. I’m mad about them. I also, like music, as it gives me ‘the food’ to create. Among other things, I like PSP, snowboarding, movies, books and interior design.

What would you advise people who dream of doing what you do now?
I’m completely self-taught. I learned all the skills from surfing, working day & night and annoying people, who knew more than I did (e.g. forums, tutorials) and of course, by looking through such magazines, as “Computer Arts”, “Vektorika”, “Filter”, etc. I think, that’s the best way for people who are starting: to examine and analyze others’ works. Plus, you need a passion to create.

Any websites/ books or other resources you can recommend beginners?
FlashKit, Kirupa and Ultra Shock.I think, these are the most privileged resources about design, especially web and flash design.

What can we expect from you in the future?
I don’t know. I’m mostly doing graphic design now, so new logos, packages and such. I hope, there will be some more illustrations, which I’m passionate about, but I don’t always have time to create them.

Who would you like to be contacted by?
If you have any questions, need help, or just feel good, you can e-mail me from my website. Looking forward to your comments.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 23rd, 2007 at 5:25 am and is filed under Articles, Europe, Artist. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.