Transitioning Russia
Maria Badasian
This project displays youth culture in Russia through a series of posters that connect to a motion piece projected on a big screen. The project started with the idea of designing a typeface inspired by signage in Sheepshead Bay, a predominantly Russian neighborhood in Brooklyn where I grew up. I collected and analyzed design from the USSR, and also looked at contemporary designs I collected in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Using the visual research, I designed a typeface aesthetically aligned with traditional and contemporary Russian design, particularly social awareness posters. While researching, I met and photographed Russian youth in anticipation of using them alongside the typeface design I drew. The subjects represent the strong, creative, open, and sporty youth of Russia. To get closer to the aesthetics and processes of USSR posters, I worked without a computer and used language that is styled after social awareness posters. I brought in motion to visually identify Russian youth culture using design. I decided to have the subjects move by creating a motion piece that uses the same paper cutouts seen in the posters. Motion allows for the posters to move through each other and the type to expand reflecting the way Russian youth culture breaks boundaries and grow. Creating a motion piece to be displayed on a monumental scale reflects the bold attitude behind Russian contemporary work. As a young Russian-American designer, creating work that belong to the digital world and the print world identifies Transitioning Russia.