Personality
Calling
Design
Category
Personality
“The child Stefan knew something. He just didn’t realize its scale.”
Every designer has that moment when the world hints at who they are. For Stefan Stefanov, this happens in front of an old computer that only runs MS Paint. The year is 1999. A one-room apartment, Cartoon Network on a small television, and the scent of Chinese food on holidays — this is the scene where his visual journey begins. Curiosity then transforms into a language that still speaks today through shapes, colors, and sensations.
Years later, Stefan does not look back at the child in nostalgia but with gratitude. He works alongside him. The same pure emotion, the same attraction to art continues to drive every endeavor he undertakes. His connection to his work is not professional but personal. He does not design to impress. He creates to express.
“Let’s create something together that not everyone will understand.”
In a world that often rewards speed, ease, and "influencer culture", Stefan chooses to create with risk – the risk of not being understood by everyone, but ready to speak to those who seek more. This is how projects are born with the music group "Molec", the creative collective "The Poets", the magazine "The Ladder", and many others.
For him, everything comes from the same well: the one where idea, emotion, and meaning meet. Whether creating a magazine cover, a movie poster, or an album cover, the most important thing remains the same: to capture what lies between the lines.
And between those lines stand provocation and intransigence to the thought that to be understood, one must fit into the expected. This is precisely what gives birth to "Do-vijdane" – a censorship-free studio, the result of all of Stefan’s life experience, worldview, and handwriting. A play on words, but also a philosophy that simultaneously signifies an end and a new beginning. “Dovijdane” not as a farewell, but as a promise for the next meeting.
Amid many contemporary studios and large corporations chasing algorithms and trends, "Do-vijdane" stands out as a small island of authenticity – a place where ideas breathe freely and are in no rush to be explained.
“Perfection is hidden in conscious imperfection”
For Stefan, the process never ends. Every completed logo, cover, or frame is just a stop along the way. The next glance always reveals something new to rearrange. This is not anxiety, but the natural state of a person who believes that development has no final form. Perfection, he says, is not a goal, but a movement toward a deeper understanding.
“Creative block” is an unfamiliar state for him. However, “creative fatigue” is familiar - moments when even fatigue is tired. In such situations, fresh air, home-cooked food, silence, and isolation from electronics are rituals that restore balance. It is no coincidence that food takes its place among them as a light reference to another possible calling. According to Stefan, if he were not a designer, he would surely be a chef.
And if he had to leave a message for young designers, it would be short but precise:
“Answer them tomorrow.”
Not because there is nothing to say today, but because sometimes silence is the strongest form of confidence.
