My identify is Daria, and I’ve been a designer centered on advertising and marketing for 9 years. I’m Ukrainian, and slightly over two years in the past I moved to Toronto, Canada — the place I found a brand new world: the world of AI startups. In Ukraine, I labored with each {hardware} and software program merchandise in advertising and marketing crew.
Right this moment, I assist AI startups construct their visible presence from the bottom up. The startup world strikes quick — it brings large progress and fixed change, but in addition pushes you to search out artistic options shortly. That’s what I really like most about my work: connecting expertise and design, and mixing what’s useful with what’s stunning.
Nevertheless, my curiosity in creating design for bodily merchandise, researching concepts, and observing the evolution of options over time remained. I felt that this want wanted to be put into motion. It didn’t matter the place—the primary factor was to start out creating. Simply open the laptop computer and begin. That’s how my must create became my challenge and weblog.
This text isn’t a tutorial, and it’s not a information about pixels. It’s concerning the concept behind my work — the artistic imaginative and prescient that formed my visible interactive configurators, and the that means I see in bringing design to life.
The Path to the Thought
I’ve all the time been fascinated by how a product grows and the way an organization captures the viewers’s consideration. How the product is introduced, what wants it really meets, not simply performing its fundamental perform, which could appear to be the one mandatory one at first look. I bear in mind 6 years in the past, throughout my interview for a designer place on the advertising and marketing crew at Ajax Methods (a global expertise firm and the biggest safety system producer in Europe), I used to be requested what new issues I needed to be taught. My reply was: animation and advertising and marketing. It’s exactly this mixture that now types the premise of my challenge.
I got here to interactive animation simply over a yr in the past after I stumbled upon a submit that includes work created in Rive App. This was a key second. I utterly immersed myself in studying Rive, spending all my free time there. My background in advertising and marketing led me to the concept of visible configurators — instruments that permit customers to work together with a product, customise it in accordance with their alternative, and buy it.
My first linear configurator unexpectedly went viral — 150 thousand views on LinkedIn. This was a sign: individuals are . In a single yr, my weblog grew from 400 subscribers to over 8K on LinkedIn and over 4K on X, although it’s new, simply half a yr outdated. My ideas garner 50-100K views. My weblog helps me construct networking and group. Throughout this time, I joined the Rive Ambassadors program, the place I work extra intently with a small variety of energy Rive customers. And not too long ago, I turned a member of the Leonardo AI Creator Program, by way of which I can upscale capabilities and it permits me to infinitely experiment in my artistic course of. Such collaborations are for me a recognition of my artistic and design actions.
Analysis
After researching many various configurators, I see a transparent division of customized options. On one hand, there are 3D configurators that require important budgets and, most frequently, an in-house crew. On the opposite, there are simplified static options. There are various of them, however their implementation usually has a lot of technical limitations, particularly when combining the visible half with the logic of customization and code.
In my view, static options appear considerably chilly. The product itself doesn’t really feel alive, particularly if it’s about excessive tactile and visible objects, comparable to furnishings or merchandise utilized in on a regular basis/weekly life. The selection turns into making a technical value estimate, moderately than a second of creativity for the client, creating the design of their very own product.
That’s why I began considering: how may we carry heat, tactility, and a way of connection into digital experiences? How may on-line product interplay really feel as emotional and private as in an actual retailer — however with out the complexity of heavy 3D configurators and overloaded interfaces?
“On-line Showroom” idea
For a lot of, the act of selecting and buying has develop into a ritual that goes past merely “trying and shopping for.” The way it occurs is necessary. In offline retail, the environment is created by particulars: interplay with the supervisor, the inside, the chance to the touch the fabric, really feel its high quality, the shop’s scent, and accurately positioned lighting. And that is what makes the choice course of nice, provides emotion, and types the will to return. That is the place my concept got here from: to experiment with particulars to create the sensation of a showroom and high quality service on-line — throughout the configurators.
Nevertheless, I’m not a fan of complicated 3D web sites the place you immerse your self in one other actuality. To me, they’re barely overloaded. I really feel nearer to interplay with the actual world. Subsequently, I keep a stability: I maintain the interface elegant and restrained, however I add the chance to work together immediately with the product — to play, discover, and select, so customers really feel just like the creators of their very own alternative.
When creating, I take into consideration making the method arouse curiosity and maintain consideration. Each click on instantly offers a visible response. The product comes alive, strikes, and modifications. Considerate interplay at each step provides the sensation of personalised service. And this implies extra satisfaction for the consumer and extra belief within the product and the model.
Simplicity
Creating emotion and heat on-line is one a part of the problem. The following is making that have technically potential — remodeling complicated techniques into one thing that feels easy and alive.
The chances of non-linear logic in Rive give me the pliability to construct complicated techniques hidden from the consumer whereas maintaining the interplay on display gentle and intuitive. It permits me to keep away from overwhelming options. All of the complicated mechanics and settings stay behind the scenes — similar to in ballet. Think about: you’re sitting within the viewers and also you see the extremely technical choreography, completely synchronized set modifications, and a dwell symphony orchestra creating the environment. You benefit from the efficiency, utterly immersed in it, with out even fascinated by how a lot work and element is hidden behind the stage. It’s the identical right here: the consumer dives into the method, enjoys the interplay, and doesn’t encounter the complexity of the implementation.
Ballet tells a narrative, combining dance, music, and units to convey deep feelings. I take this concept for my initiatives: I mix completely different parts in order that the consumer doesn’t simply “select a product,” however lives a small expertise that feels emotional, and this builds closeness and belief within the model.
Product Magnificence
After we design, we don’t simply create interfaces — we form how magnificence is perceived. For me, magnificence isn’t solely about how one thing seems to be; it’s about what we really feel within the course of. It’s within the heat of coloration, the softness of sunshine, the best way supplies and reflections make a product really feel alive — even by way of a display. That’s how design interprets emotion and creates connection.
However in digital work, this sense of magnificence usually will get misplaced. After we categorize too early — calling one thing “a static web sites” and “configurators” or considering solely by way of technical constraints — we cease seeing the product itself. We begin designing round limitations as a substitute of potentialities. And that’s after we lose the great thing about the product — the way it seems to be, feels, and is perceived.
To carry that magnificence again, I borrow an strategy from Nonetheless Life. To not flip configurators into work, however to deal with them with the identical sensitivity to gentle, texture, and element. Simply as still-life artists may make strange objects come alive by way of composition and a focus, I need digital merchandise — even one thing so simple as a wardrobe — to evoke that very same pleasure and curiosity.
After we give attention to how a product feels as a substitute of the way it’s categorized, we begin seeing once more. And after we begin seeing, we are able to create experiences that transcend perform — ones that really feel entire, emotional, and alive.
In Element
In my ideas, I most frequently select furnishings. These are issues the place the choice is all the time made with the eyes and primarily based on private preferences.
I want to not go away a product “flat” towards a background. As an alternative, I give it a stage, an area to exist in. This modifications the sensation. For instance, in a single challenge, I used a darker background to match the wooden tone—it emphasised the fabric and made the image deeper.
In one other case, conversely, a light-weight background to create lightness and a sense of air.
Generally I’m fascinated with enjoying on distinction and even putting the item in an actual house to make it come alive. For me, it’s all the time concerning the product trying not like an “remoted image,” however as a part of a scene, an environment that emphasizes its character.
The product is accompanied by shadows, gentle, and reflections so as to add depth and the sensation of the actual world. Shadows transfer with the item; if the item’s dimension modifications, the shadow’s dimension additionally modifications. If there’s a gentle configuration, it displays on the floor and on the item itself.
I take note of supplies and particulars—they’re what make the scene really feel actual. If it’s a cupboard with mirrored doorways, I even take into consideration what can be mirrored within the mirror. It’s a small factor, however the feeling of actuality consists of such particulars.
Interactivity opens up the potential for reproducing the method of interplay itself. Think about: a cupboard is in entrance of you, you open the doorways and select the inner filling. In my configurator, it really works the identical means. There’s a sequence of actions: first the outside, then the inside. And each time you work together with the product, the interface modifications, adapting to your step.
Every thing occurs easily. For those who change the dimensions, it actually grows earlier than your eyes—although it’s not 3D! And when a brand new object is added, it seems to be as if a advisor in a showroom simply positioned a field in entrance of you. And it’s exactly these small moments that create a residing, real looking expertise.
In conclusion
The thought behind my challenge lies within the that means of selecting and shopping for — as a result of it’s usually not simply concerning the product. It’s a ritual, a course of the place we really feel feelings, join with our alternative, and with the model itself. And when that have feels proper, we naturally wish to return to it.
In offline shops, manufacturers create this emotion by way of environment — by way of gentle, texture, and house. My purpose is to carry that very same feeling into digital — by way of interactive configurators that make on-line expertise really feel emotional, tactile, and alive, not only a collection of clicks and picture switches.
All through this text, I used metaphors and examples to point out that the that means behind my work goes far past perform. I see interactive configurators as a brand new language of digital storytelling. By motion, gentle, and emotion, they let merchandise converse for themselves. They remind us that good design isn’t about perfection — it’s about connection. When a consumer interacts, explores, and feels one thing actual — that’s the second design really comes alive.
