My name is Ekaterina Tupchienko. I’m a communication designer working in branding, packaging and object design.
Every project starts with a question: what is this really about, beyond the brief? I look for the answer in the material, in local history, in craft. Most often it comes from comparison — two things that seem unrelated but share the same logic. A planet and a plate. A coastline and a postcard. A calendar and a descent. Once that logic is found, everything else follows: how the object looks, how it’s made, and why it should exist — and the project becomes a system where every part carries the same idea.An idea holds when it’s built on something real.I often find inspiration outside design itself — in nature, in art, in history, in craft, in music. A coastline, an old mask, a planet’s surface, the structure of a melody: these are the things I start from. I look for the logic inside them, and then build the whole project around it.
How the work gets done
1. Research and brief. What is needed — the format, the client, the limits, the material.2. Ask. What is this really about, beyond the brief?3. Compare. Two things that seem unrelated but share the same logic — that’s where the concept might come from.4. Build. Sketches, 3D, tests. I turn the logic into form: the object, the material, the name, the brand.5. Check. Every part has to carry the idea.6. Final. Visuals, layout, presentation — the project finished and shown.By the end, nothing in the project should feel accidental — each part is there because the idea needed it. The project has to carry the idea itself, not a caption explaining it.
The projects below are grouped by what the comparison starts from — nature, art, place and history, and story. Each project shows the brief, the question, the insight, and the result. Research, sketches and tests stay behind the scenes.
Projects
When nature becomes an object
Cosmos in Texture: what if a planet could fit on your plate?
Tactile Landscapes: imagine a landscape becoming furniture
Mariana Trench: a year, measured in depth
When art becomes an object
Stained Glass Symphony: a universe of symbols, light as a story
When a place and history becomes a brand
SeaDrop: can a lollipop take you to another coast?
Aquarium: meet the spirits living in Nizhny Novgorod’s beer
Northern Lighthouses — step into a light that holds past and future
When a story becomes a space
A Garden of One Melody — can a garden sound like music?
Moving Out: the shop window that broke the laws of physics
Let’s work together
Open for commissions and collaborations
I work on branding, packaging and object design. I’m interested in projects with a real starting point — a place, a craft, a story, a piece of science or art.If you’re a brand, a studio, an art director or a cultural project looking for a designer who can take an idea to finished form — let’s talk.
email: ekaterina.tupchienko@gmail.com
telegram: @metalo_lomka
HSE Design portfolio · Dprofile · Behance
