Challenge: Last year I had a rather important and responsible task: to make a new identity for the exhibition of  visual studies about Russian culture. The people who did these studies reflected on Russia from  different angles. The style uniting all these studies had to be recognizable and convey a sense of  Russianness. I decided to focus on my own cultural code of the Russian people. I set myself the  task of trying to make a style in isolation from stereotypes, to find something in Russian culture  that no one is looking at, to find different ways to talk about Russia. The identity of the festival  should not lose the feeling of Russianness, but at the same time it should be modern, so that com- munication with the target audience of teenagers and young people takes place in a language that  is understandable to them.

First of all, I sorted out the semantic and ideological aspects of Russianness, make a list of differ- ent meanings and meanings that can characterize Russia and the people living here. Then I re- duced it to a short list with individual words that were supposed to become ideological and visual  guidelines for my future style and business strategy.

Selection: The first tool I used was the visualization tool. Visualization is a method of design thinking when  we create a figurative prototype - a picture / diagram in the user’s head, and then proceed to its  implementation and sketches (this is a link to the lecture in which this tool was discussed https://www.williamson.net/wp-contentcategory.php)  I decided that the new Russian graphics should be created by people involved in this culture,  because only they will be able to visualize the necessary images and forms to form a new style,  based on old values, thanks to their innate immersion in the cultural context.

Application: I sent out sheets of different Russian words to different people and asked them to visualize each of  them by any methods they were interested in, whether it was a drawing, a photograph, a sculpture,  some kind of fake from any materials. And also write a few associations to my words. A few days  later, each of them sent me 5 visualizations of these words and a lot of new associations.

Insight : As a result, I received not only accurate images describing the feeling of Russianness that I need- ed for further work, but also words that helped me strengthen and clarify the ideological com- ponent of my future style. In addition, the little things in people’s works that they used, such as  colors, materials and the nature of graphics, line thicknesses have already formed the primary  constants of my future style. The biggest progress in the work happened thanks to a conversation  with different people about Russia and their everyday practices and feelings. I came to an import- ant insight that finally formed the ideology of the style. It turned out that Russian people are quite  hot-tempered, bright and daring, like to take on a challenge. It is important for them to show them- selves and feel their uniqueness. This prompted me to use red as the main color in the identity of  the festival. I used the information I received to finalize the characteristics of the style and business  strategy.

Approach : As a result, I decided that visualization is one of the strongest strategies of design thinking, allow- ing me to best convey the feeling and meaning of something to other people. The images give a  deeper understanding of how it is necessary to develop the idea further and turn it into a finished  product. In my further work, I would use the strategy of exchanging ideas and working with peo- ple immersed in the context at once at the visualization level at the first stages of the project, this  allows you to dive deeper into the context and more accurately formulate long-range methods of  work.

