Hiiibrand Awards 2024

Hi,

I’d like to share the story behind creating the

and my participation in the

with it.

I’m a designer from Belarus with over a decade of experience. For most of my professional life, I worked in a wide range of styles — most often the ones my clients needed. Some projects brought joy, others didn’t, but for various reasons I took on almost everything. At the same time, my own visual vision was gradually forming inside me — a style I genuinely wanted to work in. But starting from scratch was scary. I was afraid that clients wouldn’t understand or accept me.

So I began to experiment carefully: some of the concepts I showed to clients were done in this new style. More often than not, they resonated with clients, and I fell more and more in love with this direction. What’s more, it found support and understanding within the professional community, among my colleagues.

So what kind of style is it? Since 2021, I’ve been especially inspired by handcrafted design: uneven lines, naivety, simplicity, emotions, all united by a common narrative. I didn’t dare to completely redo my portfolio — the risk of being left without work was too high. So I made a different decision: to create a conceptual project where I could freely experiment and honestly test whether this path was truly mine.

That’s how Morning was born.

I worked on it in my free time alongside my main job for three years. This project became not only a space for exploring a new style, but also my first serious step into illustration. To remind you, Morning is a café whose visual identity depicts the awakening of modern people through their suffering and attachment to their phones. The illustrations are intentionally rough, showing that in the morning everything is imperfect.

In May 2024, I received an email from the Hiiibrand team saying that Morning had been shortlisted, and I was asked to prepare physical samples and send them to China. It was a moment of absolute happiness. By that time, the mockups had already been purchased by a team from the U.S., but the project hadn’t been implemented yet, so I literally had to assemble and glue the samples by hand.

I was very worried that their quality would fall short compared to my colleagues’ work. There wasn’t much time, and shipping from Belarus to China had to be calculated very precisely. At one point, I even considered refusing to send them, but I quickly realized: if you’re going to take a risk, go all the way. The delivery took exactly two weeks.

And then, in June, I opened another email from the organizers: Morning received a Bronze Award at the Hiiibrand Awards 2024!!!

It’s hard to put into words what I felt at that moment. I was in shock. This is my first win in a major international competition. Among the participants, I saw the work of designers who have been a source of inspiration for me for many years. To stand alongside them — even if only on a website page — is already a huge achievement and an honor.

In closing, I want to express a special and heartfelt thank you to the Hiiibrand Awards team. Thank you not only for the award, but for the very opportunity to be seen, heard, and appreciated. Thank you for your work, your attention to detail, your support of designers from all over the world, and for the immense value you create for the industry. Competitions like this don’t just give prizes — they give self-belief, the courage to move forward, and the strength to keep creating honest, living design.

Thank you for existing and for continuing to do this important work!