LIFE

SIMPLE DESIGN FOR COMPLICATED PEOPLE   For as long as I can remember, I have been a seeker of good design. Simple, functional, yet beautiful. My quest for good design informs every aspect of my life and work beyond my commercial projects. I draw inspiration from exploring different materials and media. When I was younger, I loved the texture of charcoal and paper, the black dust covering my fingers as I came to understand light and shadow through this simple medium. Through my early work with watercolor, I learned gradations of color as the watery mixture bled into the paper. With photography, the darkroom process fascinated me as much as my camera's lens and aperture. My curiosity led me to explore other materials - metal, leather, papier-mâché - in my visual art and product design. As a designer, now most of the time my tools are a keyboard and mouse, yet I always find time to return to physical materials.  Below are a few examples of my work that are categorized by the materials I am constantly exploring.  For the latest updates on my work, you can visit me on my Instagram @yuliagraham

METAL
Restoring Connections is made of recycled gold. Its clean lines and lack of adornment reflect essential elements of my design—clarity, function and elegant simplicity.
The idea of a recycled jewelry collection came from growing up in Russia. As a young girl, every birthday or special occasion I received traditional gifts in gold: a ring, little necklaces, earrings. By the time I was  20, I had accumulated an entire collection. I recognized that every gift was given with well-intentioned love, but the array of styles and forms was too much. I wanted to show how much their gifts meant to me, but in a more functional way. I decided to melt it all down; first rings, then bracelets and then necklaces.
LEATHER
Leather has a certain sensual feel from its slight roughness of the interior hide that touches the skin to its heft. It is superior to synthetic products including durability, comfort, beauty, suppleness, and resilience. It is the material of choice for many designers. It is functional and practical as a daily accessory, yet also evokes associations with subcultures from post-war motorcycle bands to underground sex clubs Leather has become a symbol of masculinity and sexuality. To its devotees, it represents more than mere aesthetics; it is a way of life. So it is to me. 
SPACE
We shape the spaces we occupy, restlessly transforming them piece by piece to satisfy our deepest aesthetic longings. 
Mental Pollution'2009 
Size:21"x16"
Material: papier-mâché, wire mesh
PAPER
In Dark Rooms, a chapter from This Brilliant Darkness: A Book of Strangers, Jeff Sharlet documents the increasingly dire conditions members of the LGBT community in Russia live in. Nearly a decade earlier, I documented the joy and intimacy of my LGBT friends in my first book of photographs. Created in 2006 in St. Petersburg these images of my friends and fellow artists are my commentary on the systematic violation of LGBT rights in my native country, the Russian Federation. Available on Amazon
Repressive and anti-egalitarian laws, 
affecting basic human rights, 
are anathema to the creative spirit.

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