I'm Dmitry. Creative entrepreneur, founder and art director. 15 years in design. Meaning delivered through design.

When people come to me

The idea exists but keeps falling apart, and it's unclear what to hold on to.

There's meaning but no form — everything looks off or sounds like someone else.

The team is stuck and needs outside direction they can act on, not debate.

You need to build the first real version. Not a pitch deck for self-reassurance, but something you can actually ship.

If everything's already set up and you just need maintenance — I'm not the best fit. If you're in chaos, in transition, searching for form — that's where I'm useful.

What I do

My experience

Brand systems, Product UX/UI, Interactive / AR

I find the core. The thing everything else holds on to.

Then I turn it into a vector: what to do, what to drop, where you're wasting time, where you're lying to yourself.

Then I build the first stable form: visual system, structure, narrative, tone. This can be brand system, visual identity, product design, a landing page narrative, or the first end-to-end ‘Version 1’ of how the project shows up. I develop it to viability and hand it off.

My format

arrive → create → develop → hand off → leave

arrive → create → develop → hand off → leave

I don't build dependency. The outcome isn't a presentation. It's a working foundation you can ship and grow.

Why my approach works

My method didn't come from a textbook.

Improvisation

I studied jazz for many years. That taught me to work in uncertainty, when there's no score and you have to feel where the system is going. Most designers get lost in chaos. I work inside it.

Efficiency

I practiced parkour 🏃 That gave me an instinct for efficient trajectory: no wasted motion, no romanticizing the hard way when there's a smarter path.

Meaning

I think through metaphor and transfer logic across domains — from music to interfaces, from movement to process. That's where non-obvious solutions come from. Sometimes it looks like magic. In reality, it's distilled experience and the ability to connect things that don't usually go together.

Why you can trust me

I've shipped my own things:

2010

Started my design way

2011

Co-editor the magazine about parkour

2012

Created an online radio (40K listeners/m at peak)

2014

Made a streetwear brand that actually sold

2015

Move abroad

2018

I did a design challenge where I developed 50 logos for real projects in 32 hours non-stop

2018

Created social brand identity for the city of Vyborg which has been recognized with awards

2018

Launched my first design studio Dictator Bureau

2020

Created a podcast about design (10K/m listeners in CIS)

2021

Launched SLOT — purchase of digital land and placement of digital objects in augmented reality

2022

Won first place in an international augmented reality contest from Meta × LensList

2022

Brand designer at Rarible

2022

Move abroad

2024

Launched Thingers

2025

Launched Bazaar 3000 — AR Try-on for brands

2025

Launched Arie — an intelligent travel and leisure planner

That's why I don't offer "beautiful but useless." I think in terms of survival and real impact. And I do the work myself.

In the end, I work with founders who are serious about shipping and who respect the work.

Selected clients

Sber, Yandex, T-Bank, Tochka, Avito, Megafon, VTB, Samsung, Rarible, Zerion, Coinwatch, and others.

Selected partners

Shuka Brand Bureau, Setters, Out Digital, Zebra Hero, designers and creative directors all around the world.

Work formats

Direction Call

60 min

$300

A paid 1:1 to get unstuck. We debug your situation, cut the noise, and leave with a clear next move. Product, brand, UX, narrative, positioning, launch decisions — whatever is blocking progress.

Direction Audit

2-3 days

$3,000

Short, intese dive. You leave with clarity: what matters, where to go, what to build first.

Launchpad

2-3 weeks

from $10,000

I build the first real version: meaning + form + system.
I do the work myself and take it to launch.

I build the first real version: meaning + form + system. I do the work myself and take it to launch.

Art Direction-as-a-Service

Retainer

$150/H

For growing projects. I plug in cyclically:
develop → stabilize → hand off.

Request to book

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© 2026 Dmitry Buenkov

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Last updated: January 8, 2026