Instagram story viewer> @pushkarev> Posts

Aleksey Pushkarev

@pushkarev

2.3K

followers

1762

following

Design partner @noddef.type @oddworks.studio @designworkout

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

odd works is growing.

We’re excited to welcome our long-time collaborator and friend Alina Golubeva ( @alinago ) as our third partner and Executive Producer.

Based in London, Alina brings over a decade of cross-disciplinary experience in creative production. Her background spans cultural and commercial work — from producing large-scale sound and art projects for global brands to developing performances and events across music and contemporary art.

Together, we’re expanding what a design studio can be.

Visuals made in collaboration with @whoisheezus

#oddworks by @pushkarev

3

19

a year ago

Hello world, we are open!

Odd works is a multidisciplinary design studio based in Lisbon and Saint-Petersburg, founded by Pavel Ripley and Alex Pushkarev.

Working with clients around the world, we provide design and art services, creative direction, visual identities, website and book design, packaging, motion design and video direction (and many more). by @pushkarev

2k

39

2 years ago

It has been almost six months since our return. We have been caught up in a whirlwind of new, exciting, inspiring and thrilling events. These include our eldest son's first year of school, and moving to the most beautiful city on earth - my native St. Petersburg. And educational collaborations with DesignWorkout and ITMO, and a promising opportunity to start teaching at Vyshka (HSE), and much more. But often, in the evenings, we sit in the kitchen and reminisce about Fethiye.

Our Turkish trip, which lasted for two years, new acquaintances that became the most important in our lives, emotions, sun, nature, fresh fruit - all this will remain in our hearts forever. It was a truly life-changing moment that made us think differently and act differently. We were able to re-evaluate many life situations, attitudes, aspirations. Finally, we were able to engage in creativity - or rather, to make it visible not only to ourselves, but to everyone around us. This turned out to be an important moment, because what we were doing really turned out to be interesting to others, inspiring someone to make their own achievements.

One of such important stories I would like to share.
I met Andrei Rymarev @andreyrymarev at a skateboard park in Fethiye.
At some point, quite unexpectedly, Andrei wrote to us and told us that he had a video project. He decided to make short documentaries about families that inspire him and may be of interest to others. He noticed our family and offered to participate in this project. So began our filming days and our participation in Where Art Begins.

I won't write much about the process. I can only say that it was very exciting, unusual and inspiring. We are immensely grateful to Andrei for drawing our attention and inviting us to participate.
Now it is the best memory of a time that changed everything.

The film can be viewed at the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELfuqPHUkw0 by @pushkarev

173

7

2 years ago

Today I gave an online lecture at @yandex , talking about the things I love and what’s been inspiring me lately.

While showing the work of students from my type design course at HSE Art and Design School, I caught myself thinking once again about how incredibly good they are.

Bold, original, unpredictable. They’re not afraid to experiment, to search for their own voice, or to venture into strange and controversial territory. Every time I look at what they create, I find myself learning something new and feeling inspired all over again.

Thank you for your honesty, openness, and trust. And for joining me on this sometimes rather strange journey into type and beyond.

I’m genuinely grateful to be part of it. ❤️

#TypeDesign #ExperimentalTypography #Typography #GraphicDesign #DesignEducation #StudentWork #CreativeExploration #HSEArtAndDesignSchool by @pushkarev

87

1

3 days ago

104

3

4 days ago

Two independent visual research projects came together in a series of illustrations created for @garagemca’s online zine: Popova Modular, a typeface by @pushkarev , and Curves of the Day by @pavelripley. by @pushkarev

3

8

2 months ago

В августе впервые попробую провести «Буквогород» онлайн.

Мы будем исследовать свои города, собирать личные архивы наблюдений, искать закономерности, проектировать собственные модульные системы и постепенно превращать их в шрифты. Мне кажется, получится интересный эксперимент. Десятки разных городов — одновременно.

В конце курса каждый участник соберет свой модульный шрифтовой драфт, получит изготовленную модульную линейку собственного дизайна, а самые интересные проекты попадут на витрину .noddef.

Если вы давно хотели попасть на курс, но жили далеко — кажется, наконец появился такой шанс.

Старт — 4 августа.
Подробности и ссылка на чат — в профиле.

Очень хочется собрать хорошую компанию.
Let's rock.
———
This summer I planned to run the course only in Saint Petersburg. But after receiving messages from people living in different cities, I realized something.
The course isn't really about Saint Petersburg. It's about learning to notice.

To notice your city, your surroundings, your own curiosity—and translate all of that into modular typography. So this August I'll be running Bukvogorod online for the first time. We'll explore our own cities, build visual archives, develop modular systems and transform them into experimental type.

Different cities. Different people. One shared way of seeing.

If you've wanted to join but lived too far away, this is your chance.

Starts August 4. by @pushkarev

87

0

3 months ago

A few days ago, @grisha_mag and I announced our summer intensive about letters, the city, and ourselves @puhto.dev .

The more I think about it, the more I realize that this course isn’t really about typography.

We’re not going to learn how to invent ideas.
We’re going to learn how to notice.

To notice ourselves.
To notice the city.
To notice the things that quietly catch our attention without us even understanding why.

For us, the city is a context.
The letter is simply a tool for expression.

We’ll walk through Saint Petersburg, photograph, observe, argue, collect fragments, and build our own visual archives. Then we’ll ask a simple question: Why did this particular thing stay with me?

Only after that do we begin designing.

Not just a typeface, but a way of thinking. A visual system that grows from personal observation rather than trends.

Over the last few years this process has taught me something I keep returning to:

The most meaningful projects rarely begin with inspiration found online. They begin with genuine curiosity.

If you’ve been looking for a reason to step outside your usual design routine, explore a more research-driven approach, or simply spend a few summer evenings walking through the city with people who love paying attention to details, we’d be happy to have you with us.

The group is still open this week.
Join our course chat if you’d like to be part of it. by @pushkarev

79

0

3 months ago

#observation #education

I've been thinking a lot about how children develop visual thinking. One of the first recognizable drawings children make almost everywhere in the world is the famous "tadpole figure" — a large head with lines for legs. Later those figures evolve into animals, monsters, superheroes, imaginary creatures. Every character gets its own personality, emotions, and story. But somehow letters remain an exception.

Children begin learning and copying letters at almost the same age, yet we rarely invite them to imagine what a letter is. Unlike copying familiar objects, a letter is already an abstraction. It doesn't represent the world directly—it asks us to invent one.

Over the past few years I've been running lettering workshops for children as part of my calligraphy course and the Design Playground program. Recently I gathered hundreds of the letters they created, and I realized that every single one feels alive.
Some are heavy, others light. Some are soft, prickly, shy, loud, anxious, joyful, slow or energetic.

Children aren't interested in reproducing the structural skeleton of a letter. They're interested in telling stories through letters. They instinctively treat them as living forms rather than signs.

That made me realize that the letter might be one of the most powerful tools for developing visual imagination.

A letter can become a character. It can have temperament. It can feel fragile, stubborn, playful, dangerous, calm or curious. It isn't only a symbol for language—it's a vessel for metaphor.

Unlike drawing predefined characters, working with letters asks children to project meaning onto an abstract visual structure. They aren't illustrating something they already know—they're inventing personality inside a system. To me, that's a very different kind of visual thinking. Looking at this growing collection, I have a feeling it wants to become something more than an archive.

Perhaps a letter is the smallest unit of visual imagination.

#typography #lettering #typedesign #graphicdesign #visualthinking #designeducation #creativeeducation #calligraphy #experimentaltype #letters #alphabet #education #designresearch #childrensart by @pushkarev

88

5

4 months ago

#observation #process

Recently, while reviewing the final projects from this year’s type design group (one of the strongest cohorts so far), I noticed an interesting shift.

Several students moved beyond type design in its conventional sense and treated the alphabet as a tool for visual research. They were still drawing letters, building type systems, and working in font editors—but the outcome was no longer just a typeface. It became a way of observing and interpreting the city.

Letters emerged from found objects, street details, signage, fences, and fragments of the urban environment. The font editor stopped being merely a tool for designing type and became a framework for organizing observations into a new visual system.

This reminded me of the work of Argentine artist Mirtha Dermisache. Throughout her life, she created texts that cannot be read. Her focus was never on linguistic meaning, but on the visual form of writing itself. Her newspapers, letters, and books look unmistakably like text—we recognize columns, paragraphs, rhythm, and structure—yet they remain unreadable.

What fascinates me is how many experimental type projects today occupy a similar space between writing and image. Formally, they remain alphabets. Functionally, they become tools for exploring places, collecting visual evidence, and transforming it into graphic systems.

Perhaps this is the most interesting shift: we begin with type as a tool for recording language and arrive at type as a tool for graphic thinking.

#typedesign #experimentaltype #letterforms #graphicdesign #visualresearch #typography #typeculture #fontdesign #visualthinking #graphicthinking #urbanresearch #citygraphics #designprocess #designeducation #typecommunity #mirthadermisache #contemporarydesign #visualculture #designobservation #creativepractice by @pushkarev

153

1

4 months ago

#reflection #observation

I’ve been pretty quiet here lately.
Work, moving apartments, endless processes, boxes, deadlines, new spaces, new thoughts. Sometimes life starts sounding too loud, and it becomes difficult to formulate anything outwardly.

But throughout all this time, ideas, conversations and fragments kept quietly gathering inside. And recently I caught myself thinking again: if you truly believe in what you’re building, the world slowly starts gathering around that idea too.

People appear who somehow care about it as well. Someone helps with words, someone with time, attention or simply says: “this resonates with me.” And at some point the project stops being just your own internal impulse — it starts living on its own.

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the importance of people around us. Not only professionally, but humanly. Because at some point it matters less how “strong” someone is as a specialist and more whether there’s a real connection between you.

Do you hear each other?
Do you trust each other?
Do you share attention toward something meaningful?

Most of the truly alive things in my life were born not from efficiency or strategy, but from shared sensitivity. From feeling understood with all your strange details and imperfections included.

And it feels like something new is slowly starting to come together from exactly that.

Coming soon.
#graphicdesign #creativeprocess #visualresearch #designthinking #typography #designculture #creativepractice #reflection #processoverresult #visualdiary #experimentaldesign #designcommunity #creativejourney by @pushkarev

98

2

5 months ago

Recently, I’ve been asked a few times how I met @pavelripley and how I ended up at @odd.works I think I’ve mentioned it before, but it feels like a good moment to revisit the story — especially since Pasha is launching a new round of his course “Reflection in Design. Visual Diary.”

That’s exactly where we met.

Before the course, I had been following his Instagram for a while — saving collages and typographic pieces, collecting them into a reference folder for snowboard graphics. His visual language really resonated with me: attention to detail, micro typography, slightly strange compositions. It all translated perfectly into board design, adding that extra layer you can’t fully explain but can definitely feel.

The funny part is — at that time I didn’t even think about who was behind those works. I was just collecting. Only later I randomly came across the course announcement on @werkstatt.school read about Pasha, and signed up imm

Pasha has a very unique ability to “transmit” his state. You quickly get infected by this sensitivity to form, process, and accidental discoveries. And when he flips through his sketchbooks and comments on them — it’s almost like ASMR. Be careful, it’s very easy to get stuck there for hours.

The course itself is less about skills and more about inner research. It’s about observation, documentation, and trying to understand what’s happening to you through a visual language. In many ways, it resonates with how I work with my own students now.

It feels like in a world of polished and impersonal visuals, we’re missing something more human — rough, strange, imperfect. And Pasha not only works in that space but also explains how to get there without any magic or mystification.

For me, design давно moved beyond being just a service. It became a way of reflection — on the environment, on myself, on everything around. And in that sense, this course was a very precise hit.

(As a side note — one of my projects during the course was a modular typeface that later became part of a @Terro Snowboards model for the upcoming season.)

Now Pasha is opening a new class — a great chance to meet him in person and maybe cat

#reflection #observation by @pushkarev

159

3

7 months ago