Today we’d like to introduce you to Mikhail Lychkovskiy
Mikhail, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
It seems to me that the path began quite strangely: a few years ago I worked as an analyst in information technology. To become a better analyst, I decided to study user interfaces, which turned out to be quite exciting. So, course by course, I learned more and more not only about websites and interface design, but also about typography, grids and composition. When I first saw Swiss posters in books about typography, I fell in love with them and wanted to learn how to make posters that would evoke the same feeling.
At first, the main focus was on watching — like an obsessive I looked through and analyzed 100-300 works every day, and at some point I started making my own posters to test my knowledge in practice. Excellent teachers played a special role, especially Peter Bankov, who instilled a love for posters from other national graphic design schools. For me, this has had an impact on improving the quality of my work and has brought more than 20 international design awards.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I had to work a lot, but I can’t call it a challenge, because you have to work anyway. On the contrary, there was a lot of joy, because you do what you love all the time, and in the process you get to know many amazing people. Thanks to one of these people, my work has been in Los Angeles several times.
LA is a city with a unique graphic design culture. It is here that the PosterTerritory platform is founded, which promotes poster creativity and organizes poster festivals, and its founder, Olga Severina, is a member of the Advisory Committee of the United States International Poster Biennial (USIPB).
My favorite project with PosterTerritory in LA was the making of posters and invitational materials for the Seeding The City International Poster Exhibition on an Earth Day at Helms Bakery District (Culver City) — this poster was later awarded the jury prize at the China International Poster Biennial (CIPB). I would also mark the LA Design Festival “Design For People” and USIPB exhibition at Long Beach Design District, and numerous actions dedicated to the peace.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m graphic designer and poster artist, who makes works based on typographic treatment and mixing of national graphic styles (mostly German, Swiss and French). I love letters and experiments with letters, the letter is the main material, the brick from which the typographic composition is built. Therefore, it is a special happiness when the rhymes and rhythms embedded in the font help in solving the design task and emphasize the metaphors inherent in the event.
Probably the most famous (and my favorite) works are the book cover “Unheimlich” for the poet Arthur Novikov, a poster for concerts of the German band “Diorama”, and a poster for the TypeThursday event in Tbilisi (Georgia).
What are your plans for the future?
I hope to continue doing what I love. I want to try the typographic approach on a variety of other media: from beer cans, clothes and shoes, to the design of racing cars, and maybe even civil aircraft. In any case, I remember the feeling of delight that the Swiss poster first aroused in me, and I hope to reproduce this feeling in new works.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lychkovskiy.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/khalitzburg/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mikhail.lychkovskiy
Image Credits
https://lychkovskiy.com/
