Diana Ivanova I'm a product designer in Brooklyn. I like sorting through information to build logical structures that everyone can understand. I help my clients make money by connecting design decisions to the big picture of their business, and when no one is looking I make conceptual art.
About
I spent my first years in a remote Bulgarian village. In winter, whole days went by with only the sound of footsteps in snow, dogs barking, and breath rising toward a blue sky. I look for that silence everywhere.
Skills
UX design
- User research
- Context research
- Prototype build
- Test and scale
Visual design
- Typography
- Iconography
- Hierarchy
- Voice
Tools
- Markers
- Figma
- Adobe
- VS Code
Projects
"The room is there for the human being, not the human being for the room."
—El Lissitzky
Zenvelopes
I used an ancient Japanese budgeting system to help freelancers address math anxiety and manage complex income streams.
Cookshop
I explored whether male-identifying home cooks suffer gender bias in recipe content. Then I defined a list of visual cues that “masculinize” UI.
Wild Bloom
I developed a brand to "decolonize the tea trade". Then, I built a responsive online store for an ethics-driven luxury tea company with a twist.
Notteo
I designed minimalist UI and branding for a note-taking app, in 4 hours.
Art
"I have always liked people who cannot adapt themselves to life pragmatically."
—A. Tarkovsky
Terlik
What is the simplest way to tell a story? Here, a traditional hand-knitted foot covering unravels to the soft sound of a crackling fire. Terlik is a meditative loop about progress and loss.
Salon
Salon is a living room where viewers relax and consume a list of command-form sentences about being a woman. I collected the commands through ethnographic study and cultural artifacts like women's magazines. The list is randomized to comical or thought-provoking effect.
Kalganova
“Kalganova” is an experiment in portraiture using a hand-drawn paper puppet with 67 parts, including movable tongue and teeth. In this stop-motion video, she paces back and forth within her frame, looped to infinity. Fun fact: she has a husband, but he was cut from the project.
The Artwork
The Artwork is an audio work that gives instructions for having an artistic experience. Similar to a GPS, an artificial voice directs the user through the steps of artistic observation and light analysis of any object nearby. It provides an art experience to anyone at any time, in the absence of any artwork.
World
In 2021, I accidentally experienced a war. I felt very small, so I picked something I could do, and did that until it was over. I designed botanical textiles with native plants from the Flora Palaestina. I sell them to raise money for a peace-building effort. It's a very unremarkable activity that has not solved the conflict, but so far it raised more than $1200. It reminds me that boring things can add up over time.
"Any idiot can face a crisis. It’s the day-to-day living that wears you out."
—Unknown