Ilshat bayburin 62 in contact. Ilshat Bayburin: “Honey cannot be a brand of Bashkiria, just as a croissant cannot be a brand of France

In the section “How business is done in Bashkiria” - the Paradox Box design studio, one of the 10 best in Russia. Ilshat Bayburin and Elena Osadova spoke about their success story and why Ufa did not become the capital of design.

Ilshat Bayburin

At the beginning of April you turned 11 years old - we can say that you are one of the longest-livers in this market. Tell us how you got started.

Ilshat Bayburin: Everything turned out quite spontaneously.

Elena Osadova: We had nothing at the time of opening, due to certain circumstances that we will not remember today. Therefore, whoever brought the table, whoever brought the chair, sat on the boxes. Ilshat was going to buy a car, but with this money we bought the initial batch of professional equipment. Orders came in, and a year later we “reached our design capacity.”

Then I was both the chief designer of a distillery distillery and the head of the production department of the Tatar Nur Theater.

Who was your first client?

E.O.: One of the largest clients at the time of opening the studio was a company for which we made a calendar project with watercolors. An investor saw it, liked it, and suddenly we were offered the design of the largest fitness center in the city at that time. And then we had almost no complex interior work. We were making a couple of small restaurant outlets, but here we had to design 1500-2000 square meters. But they believed us. This, of course, helped a lot in the beginning.

Now your clients are mainly from Moscow?

E.O.: Not only from Moscow. Now, fortunately, there are no barriers to work and the geography of customers is all over Russia, and sometimes abroad. Although, it is clear that the Moscow market is the most attractive for us in terms of project costs. There are few good professional players, and the price levels vary greatly.

Paradox Box created medals for the International Aquatics Championship (Kazan 2015)

I.B.: The issue of pricing is very complex, and the market has not yet been formed, it is not yet transparent. We and the customer understand how much certain work may cost. But officially everything is closed, no one really shares anything. There were several attempts by professional communities to develop some kind of price list, as was the case in the Soviet Union. So that the customer understands what to expect. But so far the process is moving very slowly.

It seems that there are “luminaries” like you on the market, but young and new talents are not visible...

E.O.: They are. But it’s very difficult to start when you don’t have a portfolio and don’t have a list of big clients. Big money doesn't want to take risks.

And that's why they choose you?

E.O.: Only part of our diplomas hangs in this office (points to a wall completely covered with frames - ed.), the rest lies in two boxes.

I.B.: When large companies choose a contractor, they often organize competitions in which several agencies participate. And when the investor asks: “Why them?”, the marketing department answers that they chose from the Top 10 best. And the questions are removed.

E.O.: Now for the first time since 2003, we have taken a break from professional competitions - before that we participated constantly. And this takes a lot of effort and energy: each festival has its own nuances, its own specifics, its own requirements.

I.B.: Participation in competitions also allows you to understand where you are, who is ahead, who is behind, who is working how. In fact, you also learn from competitions. We are formed directly in the work process.

You have been in the thick of things in the city’s design market for so many years. Has he changed during this time?

I.B.: The market does not change as much as it could change. Here it’s not just about designers, as creative people, although it’s about them too, but also about mentality. After all, the result also depends on the cultural level of the customer. I see that the situation is generally deplorable. About two years ago I was invited to a commission under the city administration, where, together with the chief architect of the city, representatives of the Ministry of Culture and advertising agencies, we are considering applications for the design of facades and signs. I see the level of projects coming in. But someone draws this, someone claims...

At the commissions that I attend, 98% of applications are eliminated.

Why does this happen - are customers afraid to stand out?

I.B.: This is a complex question that requires a complex answer. On the one hand, it is easy and wrong to blame everything only on customers, although sometimes customers mentally Stylish projects don’t work. But designers must also do well. On the other hand, the artist has almost no leverage over the paying client. Therefore, some kind of independent artistic councils should appear.

Project of the residential complex "Yarkiy". Paradox Box came up with the name, logo, style, concept. Ilshat Bayburin says: “The developers came with a large-scale project, with a ready-made architectural concept. There was a name - Kustarevsky, we needed logos and a corporate identity. We looked and decided that the name would not work. They suggested calling the project “Bright”. The word is simple and understandable to everyone. At the same time, you can fill it creatively. We made very bright facades. They proposed dividing microdistricts into small zones. Call it Vibrant London, Vibrant Rome. And, for example, in the Vivid Berlin area we should concentrate car service centers and pubs. Vibrant London - educational institutions. This is such a game."

Do you see your task, as creative people, in raising the level of culture and educating the client?

E.O.: We held our exhibition for the first time 5 years ago. And this was the first graphic design exhibition in the city. We drew up a lecture program, Ilshat lectured non-stop for a week. We saw a positive reaction, the public reacted very well to the project. We planned to make April 1, our birthday, and the upcoming dates “Design Days” in Ufa. In subsequent years, we brought an exhibition of the world’s best examples of typography in design, an exhibition of the best projects according to AKAR “Top 10”. They brought Russian designerswith lectures. But doing all this only by yourself or with friends and partners who help as much as possible is both difficult and wrong.

We contacted the city administration. But there is essentially no real support.

I.B.: But it would be possible to come up with many interesting projects for the city. If you approach it creatively and strategically, you can organize “cool” design and artistic events here. It is possible to make Ufa such a design city. Like Perm in its time. Why not?

And for this you don’t need to invite Marat Gelman...

I.B.: It doesn’t cost a lot of money, because creative people, when you give them freedom and meet them halfway, do many things for free. We had several attempts to work with the administration. For example, it was proposed to carry out city branding back in 2005, before Perm. I just saw that this trend is happening all over the world. It was not yet popular in our country, and if suddenly Ufa had made this project then, our city would have become the first in Russia. We tried and then raised this topic several times, but you can see the result yourself.

How many people do you have on your team?

I.B.: Now there are 9 people. This is the optimal amount.

E.O. We have a very stable team.

Parabox Box studio in full force. Ilshat Bayburin and Elena Osadova are in the center. The photo was taken for the collection magazine “Ufa.Sobaka.ru” (November 2015)

And what's the secret?

E.O.: We have a very comfortable environment - homely, family. We are a small family.

How do you evaluate your effectiveness? Do you operate with such concepts as profitability, payback?

E.O.: No. We have completely different categories.

I.B.: Thank God we live and develop. People work, get paid, we move forward. I think this is the main indicator.

How do you set goals? Are you making business plans?

I.B.: It is almost impossible for us to digitize goals. That is, this year we should, for example, do three brilliant works, or should 15 customers come with certain budgets? It's just unpredictable.

Are there any statistics about your growth from year to year? Can you calculate by the number of customers or by the volume of revenue?

E.O.: We don’t have a price list as such. Jobs can cost very differently. In special cases, we can significantly reduce the price and do some things almost free of charge. I recently did analytics for myself. And in 13 years we have grown hundreds of times.

Has revenue grown that much?

E.O.: Order cost. And at the same time, we are not sitting without work.

I.B.: If 10 years ago, in order to earn a certain amount of money, it was necessary to make 10 orders, now it is better to take one job that covers them in total. And do it calmly, with feeling, sensibly, with arrangement. Make a beautiful project. From the very beginning we had such a desire and understanding in our heads; we moved in this direction and continue to move.

So you are happy, creative, financially successful people?

E.O.: We were lucky. There are few people who can afford to do something they love, something creative, and at the same time take money for it.

18.01.2018 17:29:50

In the near future, namely by March 30, Bashkiria should have its own brand, thanks to which our republic will have to stand out among other regions of Russia and become recognizable throughout the world. The brand is being developed by a Ufa branding studio. 2.7 million rubles were allocated from the republic’s budget for this.

It so happened that . While a number of Russian cities and regions have their own unique symbols. Although not all examples of territory branding turned out to be successful, there were attempts, and this is the main thing. After all, with the help of brands you can promote regions, make them more recognizable, and attract tourists. Accordingly, make money from it.

Art director of the branding company Ilshat Bayburin believes that the most successful PR companies for promoting territories were once in New York and Amsterdam. The famous logos of these cities with the inscriptions “I [heart] NY” and “I amsterdam” are known throughout the world. It would be great if the Bashkiria brand turned out to be just as attractive and memorable.

The specialist noted that Yaroslavl, Perm, Omsk, Nevinnomyssk, Izborsk, Magnitogorsk, Rostov-on-Don, Tyumen, as well as the Kaluga region, Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Siberia, Crimea, appeared with their own logos, both successful and not so successful. and more recently in Tatarstan. Last November, a Russian tourism brand was chosen by voting. Now it is Bashkiria's turn.

So what will the republic’s tourism brand be? Who will it be aimed at? And when will we be able to see the logo of the future brand? Ilshat Bayburin answered all these questions during a meeting with students of Ufa colleges and universities studying in the specialties “Tourism” and “Design”. The brand developer asked the students to fill out special questionnaires, which in the future should help him decide on the concept of the future brand.

The brand must contain some kind of story, which will be reflected in the logo, notes Ilshat Bayburin. - Looking at the logo, people should understand what we want to convey to them. We have very beautiful nature. This is our strong point. And this must first of all be reflected in the brand. Another question to which we cannot yet give a definite answer is what name of the republic will appear in the brand concept: Bashkortostan or Bashkiria. It is easier to pronounce “Bashkiria” purely phonetically. Therefore, if we are talking about our target audience, then we need to leave Bashkiria. But in this case, you need to delicately avoid all political nuances. I hope we succeed. There are historical facts confirming that the territory on which the republic is located was at different times called both Bashkiria and Bashkortostan.

The developer noted that the tourism brand should be light, positive, bright, memorable and easy to pronounce, while being unique.

The brand that we are creating must fill the vacuum that exists now,” added Ilshat Bayburin. - So far, few people outside the republic know about us. And we ourselves cannot decide who we are. Therefore, one of the tasks associated with developing a brand is to unite people who live in the republic and help them understand who they are. So that later they convey this information to others. And this will also be one of the elements of brand promotion and a way to attract tourists to our region.

The future brand of the republic already has its own website. On it you can monitor how the brand development work is being carried out, what stage the project is at, and who will take part in evaluating the final product.

The first stage of brand development, associated with round tables, thematic meetings, surveys and research, has come to an end. The meeting with students and active youth was the final event of this stage. Now Ilshat Bayburin and his team are directly starting to develop the brand. They plan to create several concepts and test them. We will see how the final version of the brand turns out at the end of March. There's not long to wait. By the beginning of the summer tourist season, Bashkiria should already have its own brand. Let's see how this affects the tourist flow.

The presentation of the republic’s tourism brand “Terra Bashkiria” created a lot of noise on the Internet. Modern graphics without the “obligatory” chicken and honey on the logo seemed unusual to many. Others liked the “wrapper”, now they demand the “candy” - to establish the infrastructure. A fair desire, but it’s unlikely that the issue of toilets in parking lots and broken roads should be decided by the designer. However, on social networks, spears have been breaking for three days. Art director of the Paradox Box branding studio Ilshat Bayburin prudently saves his nerves by not getting into arguments on Facebook. However, I was able to find time for an interview.

We meet in a cafe, his phone is constantly ringing with calls. But, despite being a little tired, our interlocutor looks pleased with the presentation and people’s reaction. “I'm pleased with how it went. People came up to me and expressed their gratitude. Moreover, this is the opinion of people whom I respect very much, it’s worth a lot,” says Ilshat.

At the same time, there is negative uproar on the Internet. How did it happen that on Facebook everyone posts the same picture and draws conclusions from it in the spirit of “I haven’t read it, but I condemn it”?

It is not very clear why this happened. The presentation was shown on a huge screen, and phone pictures in the hall were blurry. As a result, people judge a brand based on a single picture taken out of context. In a few days we will post the information online, after watching the official video case of the brand, much will become clearer.

- Why was the turn towards phonetic simplification made - Bashkiria instead of Bashkortostan?

I would like to say right away: there is no politics in this. We are not renaming the republic, we are taking a name that is more convenient to pronounce. Then, this revival - the name “Bashkiria”, according to different historical versions, has been mentioned either since the 14th or 16th centuries, and “Bashkortostan” as a name appeared only in 1990. That is, in terms of branding, marketing and history, “Bashkiria” is the most suitable name for the brand.

The boss may be called Alexander Sergeevich, but to friends he is simply Sasha. So it is here - the tourism theme should always be softer, more humane.

There is a video in the presentation where one of the experts cannot pronounce “Bashkortostan” correctly; we deliberately did not cut it out, it is very revealing.

- Where did the word “terra” come from?

We conducted a study, although we could have done without it, and so everything is clear. Unfortunately, very little is known about us. During 20 years of information vacuum, they simply forgot about us. Although the BASSR was known in the Soviet Union, tourists came to us.

But this information vacuum can be filled with positive stories and images. Thus, we turn a disadvantage into an advantage, building an image of a mysterious territory that keeps primeval secrets among pristine nature. The land you want to come to - both to discover and to get to know it. Discover original culture, the Shulgan-Tash cave, the Ural mountains. Mysterious Terra Bashkiria!

Now Ekaterinburg is strongly associated with the Urals - this is Uralmash and Ural dumplings. Let Yekaterinburg remain the business center of the Urals, Chelyabinsk and Magnitogorsk challenge each other for the title of the industrial center of the Urals, and Bashkiria will be another Urals. His soul.

The Urals, like a weld, stretches between two lithospheric plates, and we are in the heart of Eurasia. There are only three places in the world where rock paintings from the Paleolithic era have been preserved - these are two caves (in France and Spain) and Shulgan-Tash. Does this mean that the birth of civilization took place on the territory of Bashkiria?

This is a complex, multifaceted issue, but it is necessary to create a brand legend on this basis! We can assume that the emergence of Eurasian culture took place on the territory of Bashkiria and the Southern Urals. Therefore, the slogan “Soul of the Urals, Heart of Eurasia” is justified.

There is another meaning to the slogan: the heart is an area of ​​the body. There are many sanatoriums in Bashkiria that are responsible for supporting physical health and the heart. In addition to sanatoriums, there is a ski resort, our cuisine, which pleases the body. There is something that pleases the soul - culture, nature, the beauty of the Urals.

There are a lot of meanings that are intertwined in a brand. I can talk about them for a long time. The full presentation lasts 1.5 hours. Therefore, it is strange when people make hasty conclusions based on one photo from the Internet. Wait, you'll see for yourself soon.

Let's be honest. People making decisions in the republic often think in stereotyped ways. They didn’t have any questions about why there was no kurai, Salavat Yulaev, green, like on the flag? How did you manage to convince them?

Let's leave state symbols aside. Look at the Bashkir national costumes - they are bright colors, a lot of red and black. Tatar national clothing was often made in pastel colors. What about Bashkir carpets? So where is the green color?

Honey, kurai - these are all banalities. Honey cannot be a brand of Bashkiria, just as a croissant cannot be a brand of France, and jamon cannot be responsible for the whole of Spain. These are just puzzles from which a big story is put together.

The created brand has an abstract logo that suits different areas of tourism. All this is reflected in the brand book, only the colors change.

What do you think will happen after you hand over the brand book to the customer? Will they use it the way you prepared it, or will they screw it up?

All large companies have a brand manager. It tracks the performance of the brand. We live in Russian realities, but I think people will understand it and use it correctly. By the way, I really liked the flash mob on Facebook, where they started jokingly playing with our logo.

The head of “Terra Bashkiria”, Rustem Khamitov, was at the presentation. He made a long speech, thanking us for our work. And separately I once again emphasized that we are not renaming the republic, we are talking only about the tourism brand, there is no politics.

Rustem Khamitov indicated that sports organizations should already be involved in using the brand. Today is the second day after the presentation, and my phone is ringing off the hook - FC Ufa is going to Kazan to play in early May and already wants to take to the field with Terra Bashkiria T-shirts.

- How did the work on the project go?

I want to say thank you to the customer. When we started the project, I thought: “Well, that’s it, now constant alterations and approvals will begin, these are officials.” But they simply did not interfere with the work! The State Committee for Entrepreneurship and Tourism, represented by Vyacheslav Gilyazetdinov, simply trusted us. The only thing is that at some points we were asked to be public. And we invited experts, 19 people, great professionals. Then we held three round tables, bringing together journalists, bloggers, students, future specialists in the field of tourism, and designers. We collected information. Everything we heard at these round tables we used in our work. The whole project was in full view, organizational work consumed a lot of time in three and a half months.

- During the preparation of the tourism brand, did you discover something new in the republic?

To my shame, I did not particularly travel around Bashkiria. And whenever possible, we went on vacation with our family abroad. And this is very significant - I was born and lived all my life in Bashkiria, but I have hardly been anywhere. There are so many people who know virtually nothing about their native land! I realized that I want to go a lot of places, even if there is no infrastructure there yet.

- Why was your team given the project?

We won a competition posted on the government procurement website. But I’m glad that it was a Ufa company that was involved in the project; we live here. A third-party performer would not be able to feel it all like that. At the same time, we had to constantly look at ourselves from the outside so that it would not become a local story.

- What did this project become for the Paradox Box team?

I didn't ask, but I think we all understood that this was the biggest project of all. Because it will remain for a long time, will spread, live its own life. The development of such a project cannot be compared with commercial projects, even the coolest ones.