Artemy Lebedev is the most famous Russian designer and blogger, who in 1992 founded the largest web studio in Russia, which is considered "No. 1" in the country's design field. His company focuses on graphic, industrial and urban design. Artemy Lebedev Studio, under the guidance of its creative founder, is the developer of many popular projects, including the design of the Yandex search engine and rubber sites stretching across the width of the window, which are still very rare on the Runet today.

The biography of Artemy Lebedev is full of his active work in the blogosphere, which is replete with obscene and expressive expressions. This style makes the personality of Russia's highest paid designer ambiguous in the eyes of society - some consider him a witty professional with high intelligence, while others see Lebedev as a person unworthy of being an example to follow.

Childhood and youth

Lebedev Artemy Andreevich was born on February 13, 1975 in Moscow in the family of a TV presenter and writer and professor-philologist Andrei Lebedev. Having the writer and Colonel-General Valentin Lebedev in his genealogical roots, the profession of designer and publicist for Artemy was quite predictable. From childhood, he showed his creative potential in the design direction, already in elementary school he came up with “logos” for his peers from their initials.

Artemy Lebedev did not receive preschool education - his parents were engaged in raising their son at home, which, in their opinion, should have a positive effect on his character. But, the result turned out to be different - in the first four years of schooling, Artemy changed three schools, as he was a bad student and constantly skipped classes, for which he was expelled from educational institutions. In 1989, the Lebedev family moved to America for permanent residence, where the future web designer entered the Parkville school in Baltimore. Moving to another country and a radical change in the conditions of study did not make Lebedev fall in love with the school - a year later he hated his new place of residence and returned to Moscow without his parents.

At home, Artemy became a student of the humanitarian class of school No. 57, and in 1991 he entered the Moscow State University. at the Faculty of Journalism. According to the designer himself, he decided to become a journalist not by vocation, but because the lowest passing score was required to enter this profession. At the university, he never changed his attitude to study, therefore, for constant absenteeism and violations of discipline, he was expelled from the second year.

After that, he became a student of the art director of Itogi, Arkady Troyanker, who is one of the best book illustrators, designers and graphic artists in Russia. In this direction, Lebedev showed all his perseverance and ability to master the design direction that was interesting to him. Thanks to this, at the age of 17, without parental support, Artemy founded his first design business project, which brought him to a high professional level not only in Russia, but also abroad.

Art. Lebedev Studio

Artemy Lebedev founded the first design studio together with a partner in 1992, but he worked in it for no more than a year. The designer wanted more scope and independence, and therefore, in 1993, he created his own printing studio Artographics, whose activities were based on the publication of books and magazines. Then he got a job as an art director at MakTsentr, where he strengthened his professionalism in the creative field.

In 1995, the designer expanded his holdings and founded the WebDesign studio, which in 1998 was renamed Art. Lebedev Studio. It was then that they started talking about him as "the first designer of the Russian Internet", who was the only employee of his company. His first design project cost $3,000, which he did at home. Having earned the first 30 thousand dollars, Artemy rented an office and hired employees who increased the company's turnover to 100 thousand dollars a month.

By the early 2000s, Art. Lebedev Studio became the largest web design company, which expanded its capabilities and introduced industrial design, which is in great demand, into the category of services provided. Lebedev's clients today are Microsoft, Yandex, Euroset, the Central Bank of Russia, General Motors, Procter & Gamble, Nissan and many other well-known companies that, thanks to Artemy's professionalism, were able to obtain unique logos and service designs recognizable all over the world .

Blogging and travel

The designer is best known for his non-commercial projects. In particular, Artemy Lebedev's LiveJournal blog is one of the most widely read in Runet according to Yandex. In the blog, the designer expresses his opinion frankly with the use of profanity and fascinatingly talks about his travels in different countries.

During his ethnographic expeditions, the designer especially pays attention to the local features of cities, namely traffic lights, trash cans, curbs, road signs and signboards of various establishments, which he describes in his extravagant style on his personal website and in the LiveJournal blog.

According to Lebedev's personal statement, in September 2015 he became the only native of the USSR who visited 193 countries of the world that are members of the UN. Despite the fact that Artemy’s activities at first glance are quite positive, he has repeatedly become a defendant in scandals because of his political and religious attitude, or rather his absence.

He is a categorical opponent of politics and the church, as a result of which some of his posts aroused the indignation of Orthodox experts, who even filed criminal suits against the blogger. At the same time, Lebedev himself considers such a reaction an excellent PR campaign for his website and blog.

In addition to creating design, blogging, and traveling, Artemy Lebedev is responsible for the Leadership project, dedicated to recommendations and advice on interface design, semiotics and typography, as well as graphic and industrial design. Here he shares his professionalism and talks about the realities of Russian design, thereby trying to bring the Russian design industry to a decent level.

Personal life

The personal life of Artemy Lebedev is carefully hidden from prying eyes. Everything that goes beyond his professional activities, the designer does not discuss with society, which causes numerous rumors around his person.

It is known that Artemy Lebedev was married to journalist Marina Litvinovich, who in 2001 gave birth to her first-born wife Savva. The family life of the spouses did not work out, so their marriage broke up. Information also appeared in the media that after a divorce from Litvinovich, Lebedev became the father of three more children, but the designer himself never officially confirmed this information.

Artemy devotes his free time from traveling and design to social projects, and also travels around Russia with master classes and lectures on design and the creation of beautiful and comfortable things. He is also fond of photography, thanks to which Lebedev's blog is full of high-quality photos from the cities he visits.

The main office of the Art. Lebedev Studio is more like a junk museum. Dozens of old TVs, hundreds of Soviet signs, sewing and typewriters, posters, dishes, street signs, car signs and thousands more design items from different years are collected here. The office is already 10 years old, but it is constantly changing. New exhibits appear every day, studio employees change the space around them. If you come to the studio office in a month, it will be different. I fixed the office state to .

The studio was founded in 1995 and was originally called "WebDesign", and received its current name in 1998. In accordance with its rules, the studio does not work with individuals, as well as with political, religious organizations and assholes. The company's motto is "Design will save the world."

The main office of the studio is located in Moscow on Gazetny Lane, the studio moved here 10 years ago.

01. At the entrance there is a telephone booth that was specially delivered from England, by the way, it was originally green, it was painted red already in the studio. Employees' bicycles are also at the entrance.

02. The famous wall with Polaroid photos of studio visitors. The wall stopped growing when the camera cassettes ran out. In the center is a photo of Ilya Lagutenko.

03. On the ground floor, there is a meeting room where clients are received.

04. To make it fun for managers to negotiate, they came up with a little game.

05. Designer passed here...

06. Room of system administrators, on the right on the floor there is a tool that solves many issues.

07. Lives here russo .

08. Also on the first floor there are many unremarkable rooms in which various managers sit.

09.

10. I don’t remember exactly who is sitting in this office, but, judging by the design, they are programmers. By the way, the employees decorate their offices themselves, and for Lebedev it is often a discovery of a new design solution of his subordinates.

11. "We exist the way we like. We work the way we ourselves think is right. We saw all the corporate values ​​​​combined in the coffin. We hang all award boards in the toilet. We are allergic to the phrases "creative solution" and "optimization business processes."

12. The main part of the studio is located on the fifth floor, everything is much more interesting here. The studio is more like a junk museum.

13. Main hall. Here, both a photo studio and a warehouse for shops, the letters "D" and "K" were removed from the Children's World before reconstruction.

14. One of the walls is decorated with a fragment of the map of the Moscow metro lines after many years (http://www.artlebedev.ru/everything/metro/map-2100/).

15. Now the studio employs 250 people. The only reason why a person can be denied a job other than professional qualities is the smell.

16. There are more than 40 old TVs in the studio's collection, many of them work.

17. Artemy scolds the designer.

18. Egor's working place zhgun . In the summer we won a regatta with him, and the organizing company squeezed our prize. If their conscience does not awaken before December, they will have to write an outrageous post.

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25. Entrance to Lebedev's office.

26. View from the other side.

27. - Why don't you give interviews?
- Everything I want to say, I can say through the blog. And interviews are a complete waste of time. At work, I perform a non-decorative function, so I save time. Besides, all journalists are assholes.

28. On the shelves there is a huge collection of street design elements, old dishes, diagrams, equipment, books and much more. The copper rings are a fragment of the old ceiling of the Sheremetyevo-2 airport, now it has been replaced with a cheap hanging grid, the sign "Transition" is visible on the right. Most of the exhibits are donated to Lebedev by readers, some of which he brings himself. The crossing sign came from Yegorievsk.

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30. "I'm not afraid to be half an hour late for a meeting - while a person is waiting for me in my office, he takes himself looking at a ton of shit, placed on the shelves."

31. The topic reads all the comments that they write to him in LiveJournal, but rarely answers. Even less often writes in other blogs.
- Whom do you read in LiveJournal and with what frequency?
- Every day - entries from the top. teh_nomad -a and ibigdan - I don't read. Once a week - petrosphotos , navalny , drugoi . Once a month - sergeydolya , mi3ch . Semiannually - tebe_interestingno , radulova .
- How many letters a day do you receive?
- About 200 letters and 2000 comments in LiveJournal. I answer about every fifth letter.
Do you comment on other blogs?
- If it works, I write dolboeb at and nl at the "firsts".

32. A large file cabinet, here small exhibits are arranged on shelves. For example, metro travel cards, military tickets, traffic rules, badges, leaflets, notebooks, banknotes, passports, credit cards, cigarettes and much more.

33. "I go to bed at 5 am and have breakfast when everyone has lunch."

34. Art director Ludwig Bystronovsky. He has 1214 versions of "Summer Time" on his computer.

What do they call you in the studio?
- I used to use the caption "Punishing Batman Hate Relevance Mug with Fire Sword" from time to time in studio mail. But those days are long forgotten. Probably called "our fat man", or some other fluffy.

35. For employees in the studio there is a small cafe, prices are lower than in the dining room of the State Duma. Card payment.

36. Chief coffee boss.

37. - Often people on the streets recognize?
- Often, but I recently asked in a blog not to find out, they stopped. When driving by car, some take pictures on the phone.
- Do you have any enemies?
- Not in life. Why not love me? I am a designer, I have done nothing wrong to anyone. Forum wars are one thing, a person can flare up, and then he goes out into the street and immediately cools down.
- And what, you never had unpleasant meetings?
- Recently I was sitting in a cafe on the summer veranda, drinking coffee. I see a guy coming up and clenching his fists. As it turned out, he really didn’t like the post where I wrote “Someone fucking reminds me of this fucker” (http://tema.livejournal.com/93701.html) and there was a photo from the userpic of the user. The man did not understand the joke, he thought that all 5000 commentators were laughing at him, he deleted his magazine, he was very worried for 2 years. I had to explain that it was a joke, in fact, like a mirror, and no one was laughing at him.

38. Tablets.

39. "You can't create a good design or write a good program when the table is falling apart, the phone is not working, and the coffee is rubbish."

40. A wall where employees post their homework, then everyone discusses the result together.

41. Rooms where industrial designers sit cannot be filmed, sketches of new developments are everywhere. These are boxes with molds for studio products.

Which of your developments sells best?
- Cups and Ridibundus.
What didn't live up to your expectations?
- "Pazlus" I really liked the project, but people do not buy it well.

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43. Models of mobile phones.

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45. And here sit graphic designers.

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47. The place on the balcony, they say, is unfortunate. Recently, 3 employees who were sitting on it were fired. The new owner, Lesha Luri, does not lose heart, says it's good to work here, there are even 2 exits.

48. To cut costs, Lebedev plays various board games with employees for pay.

49. Plays...

50. And wins! Still, the place on the balcony is not happy.

51. This is the first Ridibundus that the Chinese sent for approval, he has terrible plastic eyes and a disgusting skin.

52. In the room of graphic designers everything is bright and light.

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54. While I was renting a studio, employees constantly approached Theme and got to know each other, he saw many for the first time, although he claims that he knows half for sure.

55. "In all our work, we are guided by a single two-word rule: "no bullshit."

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57. The beginning of the working day in the studio at 12:00, but you can come at any time, some employees stay overnight, there are toothbrushes in the toilets.

58. Studio library.

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60. Prototype of a new product of the studio, there will be 2 stickers.

62. There is a huge globe in the hall in front of Tema's office, probably on it he chooses new countries for travel, while he visited 106 countries.

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64. Recently, Tema and Ludwig decided to lose weight and made a bet. According to the conditions, every month you need to lose at least 5 kg. The loser will pay $2,000.

65. 4 toilet cubicles on the 5th floor of the studio are decorated in different styles.

Want more? Sergey Mukhamedov made a new entry about the contest:

I ordered a logo from Tyoma, Artemy Lebedev's studio has an Express Design option for young startups - you can buy a logo not for millions, as usual, but for a modest 100,000 rubles. Like, the studio sometimes needs printer cartridges and other stationery, but it doesn’t always remain with large contracts.

So, I did not stay aside and wrote a letter to the studio:

I liked the logo, and after a few days I got so used to it that I can't wait to make the whole site for it.

Well, all the insides, as before, on my Telegram channel

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This journal is a personal diary containing the private opinions of the author. In accordance with Article 29 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, each person can have his own point of view regarding its textual, graphic, audio and video content, as well as express it in any format. The journal does not have a license from the Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation and is not a mass media, and, therefore, the author does not guarantee the provision of reliable, unbiased and meaningful information. The information contained in this diary, as well as the comments of the author of this diary in other diaries, do not have any legal meaning and cannot be used in the course of legal proceedings. The author of the journal is not responsible for the content of comments to his entries.

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