Control

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Nazariy is a Web and Graphic Designer from Kyiv, Ukraine.

He's one of the first users OF CONTROL.

NAZARiy Kondratiuk

INTERVIEWS WITH CONTROL CREATIVES /

50.4504° N, 30.5245° E

I start with rough planes and lines, then I move on to details, colors, try specific fonts. I see how it all works in motion, refine, and iterate. This is especially effective with typography - in the process of typing, I often ask myself - what if I make this a bit bigger, increase the letter spacing here?

Result

This is a charitable botanical project aimed at preserving rare and Red Book flora of Ukraine.

Currently, this issue is critical due to the war and uncontrolled destruction of the Eastern and Southern territories of the country. All details, goals, and plans of the project are gathered on the new website, for those who are interested. I volunteered to help with the visual language so that "Unique Individuals" have a chance to gain momentum and turn into a sustainable project.

Yeah, with Control I have slightly changed my approach to designing a website.

Usually I've been putting together a page in Sketch or Figma and then tried to replicate it in one of existing website builders that I've tried at a time. Most of those website builders used "blocks" in one way or another, which required additional translation efforts and rarely led to precise results. Lot's of initial layout ideas has been lost in the process that way. That seemed wasteful. Now, on the other hand, I sketch the composition in a notepad, with a pencil, and then I start on building a page in Control, adding definition, like one would paint a picture. Freehand editor allows for that.

The only graphic I received at the beginning was a photo of a flower, even different from the one currently on the site. Before starting the work, Olena, the project curator, and I had a long and interesting conversation about Ukrainian endangered flora, the goals of the project, the team, and her preferences (I mean paintings, magazines, some branded trinkets). We agreed that the flower, now a cornflower, should be the key image when it comes to the emotional part of the project. Then I found an interesting solution with color replacement, which worked perfectly.

At the idea search stage, I wanted to make the button really stand out, you could even say overemphasize it. While assembling the page in Control, I set it up so that the button would shrink upon scrolling and not cover the content.

At the same time, I decided to shorten the name to an abbreviation so that it wouldn't obscure the content too much and also to make it easier to remember. I then repeated this with the “Donate” button. It turned out very well, so I kept it that way.

Nazariy at his workspace at the Behind Blue Eyes Foundation HQ, Kyiv.

So, to summarize, I work in two stages: the first one is a quick search for ideas and modeling of the composition, and the second one is the reproduction of the final version. As I mentioned, in the second stage, I try to leave room for maneuvers, so that there is some space for improvisation and to see how it looks.

Very often, I stumble upon such interesting combinations by accident, and then I'm like - that's it, this is great, I want to keep it. Such things are especially easy to feel when working in the browser.

How has the control influenced your design process?

unique-individuals.life

YOUR LATEST PROJECT - UNIQUE INDIVIDUALS - CAN YOU TELL MORE about IT?

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE CONTROL IN A FEW WORDS>

First and foremost I enjoy experimenting with it.

For me as a designer, Control provides a space for experiments. I still don't know why, whether it's because of the UI or because you can immediately see the result of your work, see how the design works in the browser, with scrolling, together with animations, just as the user will see it. It opens a new way of looking at what you're working with.

The hardest part is getting started 😊. You don't need to learn HTML layout or interface modeling standards to create a page for your cat, business, or announcement.

Think about what you want to tell your website visitors and in what order. Then go to Control, create a new page, and put it all together. Next, add some intonation - emphasize the important parts, publish it, and that's it. Show it to your parents, friends, colleagues, or cat. I'm sure you'll want to "tweak here and there," try a different color, or add a photo, and that's where the whole "rabbit hole" begins...

WHAT WOULD BE YOUR ADVICE FOR DESIGNERS THAT START DESIGNING IN CONTROL?

How much time is needed to get acquainted with Control?

Control may seem like a complex tool, but once you understand it, it is very simple. It is very easy to test ideas with it. The animator will be familiar to those who have worked with After Effects or any keyframe animations. Most of the hotkeys in it are also standard and already familiar.