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Inga Selivanova calls herself a «artist», and this definition really suits her very well. In her creative career, she managed to combine two specialties at once — theatrical costume designer and the creator of stop-motion animation. But the most surprising thing is that she mastered both of her professions on her own, without receiving a specialized education.
About choosing a path
— As for the search for a profession, I had a rather winding path. As a child from a rather conservative family, I never thought about creative professions for myself. I studied psychology and planned to work in my specialty. But one day a photographer knocked on my personal messages and offered me to participate in one creative project as a model. And without thinking twice, I agreed.
It was a new experience, acquaintance led to acquaintance, so I plunged into a completely different environment for myself of creative people: photographers, designers, make-up artists, stylists. I tried to realize myself in various directions. I tried to take pictures — I even shot several weddings, made jewelry from natural stones …
Naturally, all this was within the framework of a hobby, as it went in parallel with studies. Then I settled down enough, finding myself in the field of fashion. I had several projects that I led as a fashion stylist. Gradually, I realized that this limited me a little, so I came to the profession of a costume designer.
About stop motion design
— The topic of stop-motion design came into my life quite spontaneously. I have always liked videos in the power of stop-motion animation, they seemed to me touching and at the same time strange in their perception.
And then one evening, sitting over a cup of tea, I thought: why not try to do it myself? Without outside help, this is almost impossible, so the question arose: how could I implement this alone, sitting in a room, using the resources and knowledge of editing that I have at the moment.
Already then I was working with Photoshop and decided to make a stop-motion, simply cutting all the elements into a collage, and gradually moving all the elements, breathing life into them. So I got carried away with this topic and over time I divided two areas: the story with costumes became commercial for me, and stop-motion design — for the soul, plus commerce, but I take on animated projects quite selectively.
About favorite projects
— If we talk about theatrical works, then the most favorite projects are, perhaps, the first and the last ones, as they have stuck in my memory the most. My first job was a project for FIFA. During the opening of the World Cup, I participated in the creation of an immersive performance: the team and I came up with costumes and staging.
The latest project is called Dark Fairy Tails. This is a great theatrical show, for which we have made more than 30 unique costumes in the style of the heroes of Russian folk tales and epics.
About education in Russia
— In Russia, we have only a couple of state universities where they teach to be a costume designer — these are the Moscow Art Theater and VGIK. Since there are few state universities, most of my acquaintances who work as costume designers mainly come to this profession from other areas. Someone is a former designer, someone graduated from the Textile University, someone, like me, came from the field of design. Of course, if you have a state university degree, this will be a plus in further advancement and will create an excellent foundation for work, but experience and professionalism, specifically in this area, can play just as well.
As for stop motion design, the Higher School of Economics has a School of Design subdivision, there are a lot of areas, including various animation and computer graphics. And I think it would be great to learn there. There are also many non-state courses, but everything is individual there. The quality of the material depends on the masters who teach.
I am personally self-taught in the field of stop motion. And I can say that this is also the way. There is a lot of information on the Internet that may well replace studying at special courses, if you have a strong desire and are not lazy.
In general, I think it’s great that today in Russia creative people have a choice. You can get a public education, you can take courses, you can even educate yourself — any of these paths can lead you to success. There are opportunities: the main thing is to find your purpose and believe in yourself.
About self-promotion
— In our time, it is very important to properly present yourself in social networks, to form your personal brand and style, and it seems to me that for most creative people this is a painful issue. After all, being a good manager is not the same as being a talented artist. There can be two ways: either overcome yourself and work also in this direction (namely, work, because the competent management of social networks takes a huge amount of time and effort), or look for a manager who is interested in you.
The second, in my opinion, is more reliable, because this way you will do your own thing and not waste time on fuss. As for me, I probably would like to learn how to manage social networks competently in the future.
About character
— I think that in order to be a talented artist, character is not important at all. You can be anything: modest, open, cheerful or melancholic. But as for promotion, it’s a different story: character, the ability to go to the goal, firmness and some penetrating qualities play a serious role here.
About inspiration
– I don’t really like the concept of “inspiration” when it’s not about art for art’s sake, but about creative professions, when you make money with art. I think for me it is important not so much inspiration as experience and ability to work. The result that you show depends on many components: on life experience, observation in various fields, your knowledge, feelings and experiences.
In fact, an artist is such a big cauldron in which everything is boiled. Therefore, you need to load yourself with various emotions, sensations, and knowledge as much as possible. Listen and watch not only what you like, but also what causes misunderstanding. A serious role is played by the ability to work with sources: if we are talking about a historical project, you have to shovel a huge amount of material and highlight the main thing for yourself.
About the audience
— My audience is mostly girls, women under 40 years old. Responsive, creative, very kind. They do not necessarily work in creative professions themselves, but they love a non-standard approach.
About selectivity
— I am very selective. I believe that for every project there is a person who can fully realize himself in it. Sometimes clients who like my style come to me and offer to do something in a completely different style, or advertisers whose product is not ideologically close to me — I refuse. I think it’s important not to be afraid to say no.
This is especially important at first, when the «hungry artist» grabs any way to earn money. It’s better not to spread out and form your own style by which you will be recognized, but to make money, find some area that will bring money. For me, stop-motion design has become such a direction.
About the Russian mentality
“I don’t really believe in the mentality as something immovable and prevailing over you. It seems to me that the environment and environment have more influence on a person. After all, if we take a Russian person who was born and raised abroad, it is unlikely that all these qualities that people like to talk about in connection with the Russian mentality will manifest themselves in him. Therefore, I am in favor of forming an environment for myself and eating from it, fashioning my own character and my creative mentality.