Interview with Sergey Shurupov, Freelance 3D Designer & Artist

I am a multidisciplinary designer who loves to find beauty on the intersection of natural and artificial. Playing with light, color, and textures, I always try to find place for experimentation and expand the borders of ordinary solutions. My mission is to imagine visual languages for the future while establishing meaningful connections with other creators and thoughtful brands alike.

Москва, Россия • June 15, 2022

What led you into design?

It's a funny story.

When I was a kid I loved video games, and at that time (2003 or 2004 as far as I remember) Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was coming out.

I was living in a small town, it was just impossible to get anything there.

So I asked my dad to buy me a CD with this game when he went to the nearest city. I was very excited and looking forward to his return. As he finally arrived, instead of the game, he brought me a book about 3d Max program and tutorials for it. I was confused, but since I have completed.

All my games, I started learning 3d Max and even enjoyed it sometimes. I guess I planted a seed at the time.

Later in university, I accidentally got a job at the local TV channel, where I learned how to edit videos and discovered After Effects for the first time. Then I found out that some artists make everyday renders and decided that I also want to do my best every single day. So started learning Cinema 4D and posting the artworks on my Instagram. (my first works are still on my Instagram, you can check it out if you won't get tired of scrolling).

I think this is the point where my meaningful journey into the world of design and art began.

What does a typical day look like?

I usually wake up at 6-7am and go for a morning run, it helps me be toned up all day and is very energizing for the day.

Then I am having a cup of coffee and go to work. I try to make a list of tasks for the day from the evening before, it doesn't always work out, but I'm working on it.

I start work around 9:00 am until 7:00 pm.

After a busy workday, I try to recharge, maybe go outside for some fresh air. When I come back, I am doing my personal artworks and researches. I don't set aside time for personal work because you can be so engaged that you can overwork late at night and I think it should be used, in those moments something interesting can be created. It may seem a bit tough, but I am trying to do a digital detox on my days off.

What's your workstation setup?

Where do you go to get inspired?

Recently I've been getting a lot of inspiration from photography and the rapidly growing field of artificial intelligence, also so much beauty surrounds us.

Of course, I watch a lot of movies, listen to lots of music, read books and all of that bring something new to my creative DNA.

What product have you recently seen that made you think this is great design?

I think from the last one is the Mac Studio that Apple showed off recently, great concise design. I'm not sure if this device is good for my everyday work tasks, but it looks great.

What pieces of work are you most proud of?

This is a very interesting question as my work is divided into the personal and commercial work I do with studios and brands.

What about my personal works, I like what comes out of the research on artificial intelligence.

From commercial, I've worked very long and hard with the great guys at Media.Work, a lot of beautiful research and experiments have been done, but most of all from what I can show at the moment I'm proud of the collaboration with Microsoft Design Team – it was fun! Check out all of these guys' work.

What design challenges do you face at your company?

If we talk about personal projects, the main problem is the lack of time. I wish I could spend much more time for my work but at the same time I want to be able to balance my personal life with my projects.