Join designers in Tallinn, Estonia for a Dribbble Meetup on November 17th at Pipedrive HQ. The meetup will focus on product design—so all designers, design-driven product people, and all design-aficionados are welcome to join, listen, share your experiences, and get inspired by others. More info and RSVP link here.
In advance of the meetup, we spoke with Ksenia Viksne, a designer at Pipedrive, about the Tallinn design scene.
Tell us what you love about Tallinn.
Tallinn is an extremely livable and lovable city - the skyline of the Old Town standing in contrast to the glistening skyscrapers of the modern city center perfectly capture the duality of a city where history and modernity combine to form something unique and extremely captivating. The view from Pirita beach, which stretches across the opposite side of the bay from the two hubs, shows this binary nature at its best.
The relatively small size of the city allows for sustainable development on the cutting edge of modernity without ever compromising the important and deep historical roots. Tallinn boasts a high safety index, is a veritable forest of greenery and is becoming ever more bicycle friendly - weather permitting - new bicycle lanes and paths are constantly springing up.
The local startup scene is decidedly booming; highly intelligent, inspiring and bold people are trying to reach for the stars all around you - the quality of community that has sprung around that is quite refreshing (as long as the majority retain the integrity to stay genuine).
Tell us where you work, in relation to the rest of Tallinn.
The location of Pipedrive’s office is fairly unglamorous - removed from the major and hip hubs of the city - tucked away between a psychiatric ward and the zoo (how eerily romantic is that, though?). However, we do make up for it with the eccentricity of the building’s architecture, gorgeous sprawling sea view and award-winning interior design of the office space.
Tell us about Tallinn’s design scene.
Locals by and large tend to be sensitive to good design and display acute interest in well crafted and locally conceptualized items, be it accessories, clothes, trinkets, tableware, furniture or software. The preferred design aesthetic could be pinned down as clean, minimal, concise and borderline Nordic with added quirks that probably stem from the Eastern - Slavic - influences.
The amount of great (digital) designers per capita is quite astonishing, yet the aforementioned startup scene’s hunger for great product and marketing designers is still hard to sate. It’s not unheard of for great players in the Tallinn design scene to be self-educated and formal education institutions are only now catching up to the actual demand of the industry and launching programs focusing on interaction design and HCI.
However, the product design community as such is in its infancy and lacks venues that would unify it and facilitate the exchange and flow of ideas. Everyone seems to exist in their small and hardly expanding bubble of acquaintances and circles. That is why kicking off a series of events that would routinely bring the designers together is a very timely and crucial undertaking. The Dribbble Meetup should serve as a great and magnetizing launchpad.
Choose three shots from Estonian Dribbblers you admire, and tell us what you like about each one.
ActivityFan by Pavel Ivanov, above left.
Pavel is producing world-class work with an enviable degree of consistency. This shot exemplifies great use of outlined illustrations and proves one does not need an overpopulated color palette in order to get a point across in an exciting manner. Clear hierarchy and deliberate use of whitespace are quite a pleasure to behold.
2015 was big for us by Kaupo Kõrv, above center.
Well, technically I am cheating with this one - it is a composite shot highlighting all great projects Kaupo and his studio have crafted during 2015. The range and consistent quality of work is downright astonishing. What’s more, Kaupo has been crucial in elevating the look and feel of many events crucial to development of culture and innovation such as Ajujaht and Tallinn Music Week.
School Gear by Karel Eding, above right.
With heightened design sensibilities and an advanced coding proficiency, Karel is an underdog powerhouse that definitely deserves more attention and exposure. In this shot we get to see the effective use of a analogous color palette, consistency of illustration style and a tasteful animation. What’s not to like?
Can’t make it on Thursday, November 17th? Find Pipedrive on Dribbble, Twitter and at pipedrive.com.
Find more Meetups stories on our blog Courtside. Have a suggestion? Contact stories@dribbble.com.
