From Russia With Love, Quantum Art Creative Director Dmitry Utkin Interviewed by Adobe.com.

Innovative creator of Factory 512 works ‘virtually’ in Moscow, for Novene and Quantum Art.

ADOBE.COM – March 13, 2000 - By Joe Shepter

If war is hell, Dmitry Utkin is looking for an honorable purgatory. From his offices in Moscow, the 24-year-old Web designer daily follows the fighting in Chechnya. "It's a dislikable question for guys my age," he says when asked if he might get drafted.

Utkin is probably Russia's best known Web designer, thanks mainly to his experimental site at Factory 512. But fortune has not followed in the wake of fame. Though Utkin could waltz into a $70,000-a-year job in the States, he's not going anywhere. Until he's 28, he's bound by Army Administration rules to stay put, and perhaps fight in Chechnya. "I can't leave," he says, "not as a tourist, not on business, not at all."

That drops him in Moscow, the only place in Russia where a Web designer can earn a decent living. Even so, Moscow is no picnic for Internet companies: connections matter more than money, competition is fierce, and knowledge of top-quality Web design is even rarer than the money available to pay for it.

Still, Utkin doesn't have much to complain about. Thanks to the Internet, he isn't really trapped. Since the Russian debt default last summer, he has served as a virtual creative director for Quantum Art in New York. He works with a large team, designing e-commerce Web sites - work he finds very interesting. Probably that's because Russia has no e-commerce. It doesn't even have credit cards.

Utkin grew up in the gritty town of Ivanovo, whose name, a Stalinist- era word meaning "City of Redness," has yet to be dumped by the local residents. His wife and family still live there - a five-hour bus ride away from him in Moscow.

Design came into Utkin's life in 1997, when he first saw the Web. "In Russia," he says, "you've got little design. People say, 'what about Rodchenko, Bankov, and Chaika?' I say, 'they're just individuals.' I look at our ads, our metros, and our direct mail, and I say our design is in its infancy." In contrast to their past, Utkin and other young Russian designers seem to prefer the work of the Californian David Carson.

Though often an emulator and imitator in his work, Utkin distances himself from modern Web design when it comes to raw expressiveness. At e-lena.com for instance, he created a site as a birthday present for Elena, his wife. This deeply personal work traces the circuit of their relationship, from separation to desire to epiphany. Throughout the various pages of the Web-based confessional, the difficulties of their circumstances are as poignant as they are palpable.

Equally telling (and ultimately more developed) is Utkin's experiment at Factory 512. "Factory is my secret," Utkin says, "It's nothing but it's all I have." Factory 512 is a series of interfaces, Web sites, and artworks that seem lost in other times and styles. A whole series of historical designs advertise made-up products and films. Stark political protraits (one features horrific pictures of the Armenian genocide) mingle with playful 3D Teletubbies. Factory 512 has even caused some controversy, mainly because of its sharp criticism of NATO and the war in Kosovo. "I have a lot of time on my hands," Utkin says, perhaps ruefully.

Though he fears the war and often misses his family, Utkin retains a ready sense of humor and seems content. "It's not just me," he says, "there's others, you know. I get to do fun things too, like the mycity project," he says describing the worldwide online design fest currently being sponsored by the Brazilian Cultural Center in Rio de Janeiro.

In the end, Utkin gives you the idea that he'd be perfectly happy being a successful Web designer in Russia. If only those guns in the Argun Gorge would just shut up.

Full story: http://www.adobe.com/web/gallery/factory512/main.html

About Quantum Art
Quantum Art, Inc. (www.quantumart.com), headquartered in Northport, New York, is a leading Internet software company providing a line of fully modular XML-enabled e-business applications for next generation commerce on the Internet, and related customization and data exchange services. Quantum Art solutions allow enterprises to set up and manage their sales, procurement and data exchange infrastructures; seamlessly integrate proprietary internal applications with third-party solutions and online marketplaces; and efficiently develop functionality specifically suited to enterprise needs. Quantum Art counts Canon USA, Sun Microsystems, Simon & Schuster and other leading Fortune 1000 companies among its customers.