Hi Rubén, my name is Nikita.

I really liked the tone of voice in your «Senior Designer» job description.
The phrase «brilliant mind with a warm soul» resonated with me som much — it’s the kind of humanity I missed in most of communication on LinkedIn.
«Camping’s» portfolio and your LinkedIn posts caught my attention, especially the animation for the mental health podcast. It’s fantastic, and the topic is so meaningful.

I love the saying, «People Work With People, Not Companies».

Reflecting on my work as a designer, mentor, or consultant, I realize it’s always been about people — founders, clients, or users. For me, business is about personal interactions, understanding people’s needs, and creating solutions. Sometimes it means analyzing data or creating user stories, or meeting customers offline.

That is why I build a presentation about my work expirience around those people I had a chance to worked with.

I believe those projects are relevant to the position, and I’d love to hear your feedback.

I’d be thrilled to join your team.
And even if that doesn’t happen, I’d still enjoy grabbing a coffee in Barcelona someday.

Let’s keep in touch!
15+ years in graphic design, branding, and team management. Skilled in leading design teams, creating global visual systems, and aligning creative strategies with business goals.

Expert in Adobe Creative Suite, Figma, motion design, and AI tools for visuals and workflows. Experienced in photography, video editing, and integrating multimedia into brand narratives.
Art-Director, designer generalist,
content creator.
PhD in Design and Technical Aesthetics
Nikita
Kaniukov
Brand and Product Design for
MIGUEL
PET MAGIC (CANADA, MEXICO)
Created the visual identity of a new product for the European and US markets (Pet Magic, Vortex Disk)
Tools: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro, Media Encoder, Gifox, Notion, Google Sheets

Websites:


Tasks:
• Development of brand identity, product design, and execution of multiple advertising campaigns over several years, including a crowdfunding campaign in North America.

My Role:
• Designing the logo and identity elements (color schemes, application guidelines, packaging).
• Contributing to planning and managing video shoots: casting actors, selecting locations, coordinating with the team and models on set, and ensuring the product aligns with the brand identity.
• Conducting product photoshoots, including independent shooting and collaboration with photographers and the production team. Developing concepts, selecting props and decorations, and editing photos.
• Designing the product and its packaging.
• Collaborating with stakeholders and investors, presenting the product and ideas.
Creation of a design course:
writing content, developing visuals, and collaborating for
Yandex team
and students
Examples of illustrations for a lesson on composition: analyzing compositional balance and frame dynamics using scenes from famous films.
Yandex Practicum Course:
Product Design, 2023
Senior Product Designer, with a focus on creating educational content (Yandex Practicum)
https://yandex-practicum-apiary-project.vercel.app/
Tasks:
Development of educational materials for a foundational design course (1.5-year adult education program) for a platform with a monthly audience of 3 million users.

My role:
• Developed an interactive educational course for aspiring product designers, focusing on branding, product creation, and visual communication.

• Led design efforts to maintain consistency across learning materials, improving the learning experience for users.

• Mentored junior designers, guiding them in creating on-brand visuals for various digital and print materials.
Visual concept and product design for
LISA
Visual concept for Instagram and a social media advertising campaign for Language Course
Tools: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Tilda


Tasks:
Development of a brand identity for an English language platform, including media materials.

My role:
• Visual concept and art direction.
• Photo and video shoot, graphics, color correction
• Direct work with the client, development and approval of the visual concept, mood boards, references.
• Photoshoots, illustrations for course programs and learning materials, interactive flashcards, and basic animation.
At the beginning of my design career, I worked as a layout designer, designer, and art director for a magazine Invox focused on contemporary culture, music, and fashion. We conducted photoshoots and collaborated on partnership projects with MTV Russia and Reebok. To promote the magazine, we organized music festivals, where I was responsible for advertising materials and videos for interactive displays.
Brand identity, packaging design for
GRAG
Brand identity, packaging design, and development of advertising campaigns for an automotive (consumer and professional) chemicals brand
Tools: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Tilda

https://en.nanoprotech.global/




Tasks:
Development of brand identity for a product line consisting of over 70 items across 10 categories, sold in 55 countries worldwide.


My role:
• Contributed to brand identity creation, packaging design, and advertising campaigns, as well as B2B design (web, presentations), collaborating with clients and partners.
• Developed the concept for a social media advertising campaign and conducted photo and video shoots in Austria, Germany, at the Audi factory, and on racetracks.
• Long-term collaboration across various roles and teams, including design, branding, and marketing.
Brand identity, print materials,
and illustrations for
KREUTZ
Brand Identity Development for a Couture Space and Restaurant in the Center of St. Petersburg.
Tools: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Tilda


Thanks to its unique positioning, many artists, diplomats, and cultural figures from Europe and the U.S. spent time here. The opening event featured a concert by Manizha (Eurovision 2021 contestant), as well as contemporary art exhibitions.
https://kreutzflat.com/en

My role:
• Logo development, graphic design concept, menu, website, posters, and presentations for partners and investors. Brand book.
• Multimedia design for events, including animation for videos to be used on projectors.
• Participation in the project launch and ongoing management team, taking part in strategic and marketing sessions. Working with partners and contractors. Managing design and video production contractors.
For myself
Innovations
& Extras
I have extensive expertise in animation
I’ve created festival cartoons, television commercials, and interactive visuals for concert screens. For me, design and user interaction are inseparable from animation and interactivity.

For six years, I co-founded and led a team of designers and animators at a mobile app studio, where the majority of projects focused on multimedia content.
AI for simplifying, accelerating, and expanding creative boundaries
In addition to traditional tools — both digital and analog — I actively explore new possibilities for creating images, videos, texts, and music, including AI-powered services like OpenArt.ai, MidJourney, https://hailuoai.video, https://www.krea.ai, https://lumalabs.ai, Adobe Substance 3D, Adobe Photoshop Generative Fill, and others.

For example, the music for my video letter to you was created using https://www.udio.com/.
Volunteer projects and creative experiments:
2020-2022
Founded a co-working space for artists and a venue for lectures and workshops for creative professionals in St. Petersburg (Russia). Sold the project and have not lived in Russia since 2022
2022-2024 (Rus/Eng)
Co-authorship of a guide for immigrants (over 100 articles).
2024 (Eng)
Creator of a TikTok account for experimenting with various genres and exploring different formats of interaction via social media (also YouTube, Instagram).
2024-2023 (Rus)
Creator of an inclusive podcast about video content creation and overcoming challenges in running a personal blog, primarily aimed at neurodivergent individuals.
Education and Additional Advantages
Ready to start immediately in Barcelona
I completed the training and «pre-acceleration» program within the Y-Combinator school (California) and gained experience working in the startup environment, which helps in making decisions based on a “product” approach and understanding the needs of business owners.
Hi Rubén and the Camping Team,

I’m a generalist designer, which often feels like a vulnerability when applying for jobs. Hiring processes typically involve navigating HR filters, where specialization can be a great advantage.

However, what might seem like a disadvantage in the eyes of HR is actually my greatest strength in real-world projects.

I began my journey with a classical art education at university, where I studied painting, sculpture, and drawing. During this time, I joined a project started by my senior friends—a magazine. Ironically, my first paid job was solo layout design for a glossy 90-page magazine. We had exciting collaborations with brands like Reebok, Converse, and MTV. Around the same time, I became fascinated with animation—stop-motion, cut-out, and 3D. My first commercial video aired on MTV Russia, and my first animated short didn’t win but made it into a film festival selection.

Since then, my career has been driven by three core passions: hands-on creativity (decorations, collages, illustrations, sculptures, masks), honing design skills to solve real human problems, and integrating animation into every interaction.

After university, I co-founded and led a studio that created mobile apps blending animation, interactivity, and gamified elements. This experience introduced me to entrepreneurship. Being part of the team as a leader, client, and budgeter taught me to think like a product owner. I embraced a product-driven mindset, growing deeply interested in data analytics and decision-making based on real-world insights.

During this period, I also earned my PhD in Technical Aesthetics and Design. Writing my thesis and teaching at the university helped me develop a more structured approach to problem-solving, strengthened my research skills, and deepened my appreciation for critical thinking.

From that point, my career path looked less like a straight climb and more like a sine wave, partly due to my attempts at launching startups. Being an owner turned out to be much harder than I had imagined. Despite winning startup competitions, securing investments, and even being selected for Y-Combinator School, I couldn’t bring my projects to life the way I envisioned.

After this mix of successes and failures, I returned to design in its more applied form. I’ve had the opportunity to work on industrial design projects with colleagues in Mexico and Canada, attended IFA and CES to explore cutting-edge technology, and consistently kept my passion for animation and video alive.

I’ve filmed, edited, built props, created motion graphics, and experimented with every technology I could get my hands on—from VR and 360° video to projection mapping. I love exploring the technological frontier of design and animation—it feels like stepping onto islands where the future has already arrived.

In short, my blend of entrepreneurial experience, design expertise, and passion for multimedia and video projects may seem like a chaotic mix, but your job description struck a chord with me. I’ll admit I felt a twinge of smugness imagining a “classic” designer stumbling upon the mention of After Effects in the job listing. That’s when I realized—this is my chance. I would love it if my mixed expertise could bring value to your team.
Nikita Kaniukov
+34635487983
inxnik@gmail.com