TUTA

In my third year of the first module, I was tasked with developing a boutique design project for a brand. The brand selection had to be justified and meet all criteria suitable for the Trekhgornaya Manufactory grounds on Rozhdelskaya Street. This location is somewhat distant from the metro, surrounded by business centers. For this reason, the product line needed to be something people would want to travel to specifically. It had to be unique and desirable, ideally fostering community engagement and having a large following. Customers should want to come here not just for the products, but also for social interaction, events, and leisure. It needed to be contemporary and engaging for the young professional demographic. Furthermore, many people wouldn’t want to walk 15 minutes from the metro, so the value proposition needed to be strong—and the brand’s product had to be competitive against the many existing boutiques in the Manufactory. The brand shouldn’t just showcase products; it needed a clear philosophy and concept, preferably something that reinterprets or solves genuine problems faced by the current generation, which would, in turn, attract people.

How long has it been since you last took a photo on your phone? What was it of? If you look through most people’s galleries right now, you can notice a pattern—series of nearly identical shots taken in the hope of finding that one perfect frame, where everything is exactly as it should be. Underlying this is a desire to show others, or ourselves, that everything looks right: us, our surroundings, our lives. That the light is ideal, the face is beautiful, and the background is appropriate. We take dozens of photos, delete the unsuccessful ones, and keep the one that best aligns with our idea of the perfect moment. But at some point, photography ceases to be a way to preserve a memory and becomes an attempt to construct an ideal version of reality. We get so caught up in searching for the right shot that we risk missing what is happening right in front of us. What if not every moment needs to be perfect to deserve being remembered?