Arina Verzakova Portfolio

ARINA VERZAKOVA

PORTFOLIO

ARINA VERZAKOVA

My name is Arina. I am 21 years old and I am from Russia. I was born in a small mountain city that led me to be surrounded by nature and magnificent landscapes. It gave me a sense of freedom and taught me the skill of observation that I try to apply to everything I do as a human being and future designer. I think everything in life, including design, should be simple and functional, just like nature.

I’ve always been creative and curious. I believe that the best designs stem from curiosity. It can drive us to find the best solutions to any problem.

In my free time, I like to do photography, read classical Russian literature, and visit museums and galleries, I’ve always been fond of the history of arts and design. However, what people fail to realize is that the greatest museum is everything around us, that’s why I like to observe and explore even the most basic daily things. I believe that we should always be in search of the unusual in the ordinary, this is how beautiful things are made.

Good at Working in team

Creating concept

Researching

Prototyping

Sketching

3D modeling

3D printing

Languages

Russian (native)

English (C1)

Spanish (A2)

Programs

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Illustrator

Abode InDesign

Adobe Premier

Rhino

KeyShot

BCN3D Stratos

Blender

Keynote

Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint and Excel)

Canva

Part-time experience

June-August 2019

Assistant of translator (Russian-English) in Magnezit (Satka, Russia)

June-July 2022

Interior design project for school (collaboration with Magnezit)

Education

2010-2021

General education school №14 - Satka, Russia

2013-2020

Art school

Base studies in arts and design- Satka, Russia

2021-now

European Institute of Design (IED)

Product design 4 years- Barcelona, Spain

Contact +34666433450

arina.verzakova@ied.edu

LINEA

A simple dot of light brings a line of ambiance. LINEA represents a simple black line, but at the beginning, there is a spotlight, which gives a start for a light in the main body of the lamp.

LINEA means line in Latin.

The dot is the beginning of everything and line is its continuation.

Simplicity is a key to a lot of problems that we have in our daily lives. And LINEA lamp is a simple construction that can give solutions for a lot of needs. For example, creating a relaxing atmosphere before going to sleep or having an adjustable source of light above the bed for reading. The lamp has two parts. One is moving and has a spotlight, and another is still and has an ambient light.

Spotlight in LINEA is for reading in your bed or other activities that need a better source of light. Ambient light is for creating a relaxing atmosphere before bedtime. Users can move the spotlight in any direction needed or put it in the original position to create a continuation of ambient light. The intensity of the spotlight and ambient light can be regulated with a sensor switch on the spotlight part of the lamp.

Modular furniture pieces that can be stacked together. Different compositions can be made with only several pieces of HIVE. Inside each small table, there is a cushion for sitting.

HIVE is a furniture piece that can be easily adaptive to any situation and place. With 5 pieces user can create any composition for a table and sit depending only on his creativity and need.

For this group project, we had a brief to create a furniture piece that would be connected with a ritual. We chose a ritual of gathering with friends. Everyone does this differently, but most of the time there are always drinks and nice talks. HIVE is a modular table that can be used in different situations, either you need a high table for a cocktail party or a long low table for a cozy evening with close ones. HIVE is a set of 5 equal tables that can be stacked together, you can adapt it to your needs and events.

In one set there are 5 small tables with cushions inside. Tables are made of birch wood and have an angle of 45 degrees at the top part and bottom of the sides, so pieces can be stable and stacked together. Each table has a cushion inside, which has handles so it can be easily taken out when it’s needed. Cushions are made of canvas upholstery. The design of HIVE is simple and functional, it’s inspired by Danish furniture design.

CARTIER XMAS TREE

Collaboration with Cartier to create a Christmas tree for an annual Solidarity Xmas tree charity campaign for luxury brands.

Treasure pays homage to the iconic Cartier red boxes.

The Cartier red Christmas tree reflects an abundance of love, joy and giving.

Cartier gave us an opportunity, a group of IED students, to present different ideas of Christmas trees for the annual Solidarity Xmas tree charity event in Madrid, Spain. Treasure is a Christmas tree that is inspired by iconic Cartier boxes. Receiving a Cartier red box for Christmas is a delightful experience that anyone would enjoy, so why not have an abundance of Cartier gifts? Treasure resembles values and ideas Cartier has, love, joy, and giving. All of that is very important, especially during Christmas. The idea is very simple but shown with new materials and effects.

The Cartier team wanted to see something fresh, that’s why we decided to use epoxy resin as the main material for boxes. They are made with special molds, which allow them to have emptiness inside. This detail creates extra transparency which makes a beautiful effect with light inside. Red epoxy resin and light in the middle of the tree allowed us to create the effect of a real glow from the inside, which makes the tree dreamier. The base has an engraving of Cartier’s name and completes a composition, so Treasure looks like a gift that everyone dreams of for Christmas.

LIBRARY IN SCHOOL

Redesign of existing school library with the main concept of modular space that can be easily changed for special events.

School library that can be adapted to different events. And become a place for children to spend their free time.

This project is made during one of my summer internships in Russia. One of the schools in my hometown needed to redesign their library. They wanted to create a space not only with smart storage of books but also a space for different types of events that the school can hold. The design should have been simple and understandable, so it wouldn’t distract children.

I am not an interior design student, that’s why this project was a challenge for me. I decided to focus more on what I know better and it is furniture. In the library, there are a lot of modular pieces of furniture that allow the school to change space at any time. Tables can be stacked differently or even completely removed because they’re lightweight. Chairs are also can be easily removed. The library has smart storage of books because of bookshelves that integrated moving parts, which allows to place more books there. The overall design is very simple but the library is well used by the school now and they organize a lot of different events there.

OMNIS

OMNIS is a concept of sink that can be used by different groups of people. People who struggle to use a normal sink can find their solution in it.

OMNIS is an adaptive sink that implements the best principles of inclusivity.

OMIS is a proposal that we did for the Roca Challenge. The brief for this challenge was to create a sink that can be as inclusive as it can be and be suitable for as many groups of people as possible. OMNIS is our solution to this problem. We created a sink that can be turned down to make it more comfortable to use for example for kids or people for whom normal sinks are too high. Because of its ergonomic shape, it makes an experience of washing hands easier for certain groups of people, such as pregnant women, disabled people, elderly people and others.

OMNIS is very easy to use, if you want to turn it up or down, you just need to hold an edge and move it up or down. This makes it very adaptive. There are also storage places beside it. They have special handles that are easy to use for people who have problems with moving their hands. In this project, we tried to create solutions for as many groups of people as it was possible with simple and ergonomic design. It was an interesting experience to participate in the Roca challenge because we had to create a concept in just 8 hours.

SLEEPPACK

A stealthy transformable backpack that is disguised as a sleeping bag. Made first for homeless people but became something more in the final.

Transformable backpack that can become a sleeping bag. Solves some of the most important problems of homeless people

During an Interdisciplinary project, which allowed us to work with people from different degrees and in different fields of design, we had a subject about inclusivity and social innovations. Me and girls from interior design degree decided to work with homeless people and their needs. One of the biggest problems of homeless people is bad sleep, stolen belongings, and lack of privacy. That’s why we had an idea to create a backpack that disguises itself into a sleeping bag and has an inflatable mattress inside.

The backpack and sleeping bag are made as one piece which keeps belongings inside safer. We did a prototype of SleepPack by sewing together a real backpack and sleeping bag. We had to rethink existing products to create new templates for sleeping bag, so it would be possible to place inflatable mattress inside. In this project, we worked with different textiles and materials, which allowed us to develop a working prototype that can be used outside. In the end, SleepPack became also an initiative that would allow people who like camping to buy our product, and their money would go to a donation of another SleepPack to a homeless person.

Arina Verzakova