New York, December 4, 2014

Tatyana shows a big smile in her face, framed by her curly hair. Her sympathy is quickly perceived, it seems that the Design Director of Blue Fountain Media enjoys being immersed in a creative atmosphere.

Born in Uzbekistan, Tatyana moved to United States eight years ago, country that opened the doors to her fondest dreams. She worked in a bank before discovering that creativity was her passion. As you can see, meeting Tatyana is priceless.

How you decided that you wanted to be a creative?
Actually, I started working in a bank and I was always trying not to fell asleep. I was a member of the technical department and I was so bored! All people talked about the problems that happened with the software and I realized that I needed something more interesting. Some of my friends were designers, and they encouraged me to try it. I started learning Photoshop at home and this was how all this adventure started.

Where do you look for inspiration before you start a project?
Before I start doing anything, I make a deep research. Nowadays is hard to find something extremely unique, and is not possible to know if your project is original unless you make a research and move around. There’s something that helps my imagination: looking around, being curious. You can get boundless ideas just looking around in a bus. Besides, is important to take into account that, even though you can create the best design, the website is not useful if the content isn’t easily organized for users. That’s why I’m always thinking how we can make information easier to find, and in this sense I find inspiration by paying attention to the way information is organized, for example, in a menu.

What was your most creative project?
One of our most creative projects was redesigning Benihana World’s website. We had to illustrate Rocky, the man that started the restaurant, who is the main character on that site. Lots of illustrations were done because it was quite hard to represent him the way they wanted. On the other hand, an interesting technical challenge is creating a website for any university. These are big sites with a lot of content, and you have to figure out how to fit information right. The users of this websites are so diverse, that you have to design something accessible for all of them. I believe every site is unique. Sometimes you have creative challenges and other times technical ones, but I find both of them interesting.

Do you find that counting with a small budget is as a limitation to your creativity?
I think you can always be creative and come up with something interesting; you don’t need a huge budget. Sometimes you go to You Tube and a simple video has 5 millions views. This is a proof that budget is not a limit to creativity.

Do you think that an agency has also the responsibility of improving the world’s conditions? Where does the power of creativity lie? I believe that if we make people happier, we improve the world. Creativity encourages you to do this, by constructing something that people enjoy. I even feel that creating is the most exciting part of the process, because clients can join in this phase. Instead, when the development starts, they can’t participate that much. When customers look at something that was created for them, their mood changes a lot. Besides, you can also make great things working together with charity foundations.

Today, mobiles are the main source of communication. Do you think this will change in the future? When you plan a campaign, is it the same for smartphones than for laptops?
The way of consuming is different in laptops and smartphones. When people are sitting with their laptops, they are more relaxed, they have time. But when people are using the phone, they don’t have time to waste. All mobile applications should be much focused on users and show information in a very accessible way. For example, if there’s a phone number in the website, users should be able to click there and call. You have to rethink mobile websites a little bit to make it easier for users.

What tools do you think are necessary to lead a team? How do you do in order to unite different ideas and give space to each member’s creativity?
I think that when you lead a team you have to be a leader and not a boss. The most important thing is listening to people; is essential to know them, in order to assign the most suitable project for them. I don’t think is always right to assign the coolest project to the most senior person, but to assign it to the person that would fit the project the best. Besides, our design team shares the same room and they work as a team, not as competitors. So when someone needs a hand, he can ask for it, and suggestions and opinions are always welcome. That’s why I think people enjoy working in Blue Fountain Media and can grow a lot here. As a leader, the most challenging job is to keep people happy but also ensure that projects are delivered on time and that the final work makes customers happy.

Technology is constantly mutating. I would like you to take the risk, and predict which important changes will take place in the near future.
I think everything is going to be about users; everybody should direct their focus on them. This happens because people are realizing that users and customers now have a lot of power of choice, and if you don’t make content easy for them, they will move to another web site. Thank you, Tatyana.

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