Denny Bogomolov is coordinator and creative director of minimal.ru a small Russian team of freelancers united to work on projects in the sphere of information web design. They specialize in simple, attractive and usable interface design and publishing using web standards. minimal.ru is situated in Nizhny Novgorod, the 3rd capital of Russia.
Denny was so kind to talk about blogging and webdesign in Russia to TXP Magazine.
*The Interview*
Do many people blog in Russia?
Yeah! There are many. For example, my friends Yury Pospelov aka Yukki, Andrey Smirnov, Yuli Tarkhanov and many, many others.
What do you think is the average age of a Russian blogger?
Basically, many IT-experts have blogs. So do a lot of other people with other specialities, but the majority of them is somehow connected to a computer and the Internet. The average age is from 20 to 35 years old. The fashion of blogs came to Russia relatively recently – near one-and-a-half to two years ago – but at the moment it has a fast rate of developing sites.
Why did you choose Textpattern for your site?
It is the most convenient, flexible, easy and perspective engine for sites that I saw. Its support of the principles of webstandards evolution (division of the contents and design) at the administration level is of great importance too. And finally, it is very nice and cute!
Is there Russian blog-software on the market?
Yes, there are some. But it is basically used in Russia. The blog engines that are known to me are:
Would you work for international clients as well and do designs for them?
Unfortunately, for the present, this does not work. There are not enough possibilities for international advertising. But in the
near future we plan to cooperate with foreign clients. We will see how that will turn out…
Is the Internet easily accessible in Russia? Do many people surf on the Internet?
Hmmm… I know in large cities, the use of dial-up and ADSL has a parity of 50/50. But peripherally, the situation is much more difficult. Dial-Up is 90%.
There are very few hi-speed channels in Russia. In such conditions, it is especially important to adhere to webstandards and create light and smart web design.
Which Russian web design agency do you think is fantastic?
For commerce, ArtLebedev Studio and RedGraphics. But these are very large agencies.
More interesting for myself are small web developers studios like Emo, Finest, daysleepersdesign.com, Dadaev, id-as.com and many others.
Thank you very much, Denny