Designer Vladimir Pirozhkov: biography, creativity, best works and reviews

The name of Vladimir Pirozhkov, a world-renowned industrial designer, was, and probably will be heard for a long time: the director of ASTROROSSA design has many ambitious projects that he would like to implement. Among them - the concepts available to each aircraft, the design of spacecraft and much, much more.

Vladimir Pirozhkov: biography, childhood

Vladimir Vyacheslavovich Pirozhkov was born in 1968 in Chisinau. Being a schoolboy, fond of drawing. Like any boy, the object of sketching was mostly cars. The Soviet automotive industry was very dull and monotonous, and perhaps the world would not have seen Vladimir's outstanding talent, if it had not been for the magazine "America" that appeared in the life of the then schoolboy in time, to which was attached a catalog of American cars with prices and characteristics. The boy was simply amazed by the abundance of sizes and colors, and after that the collection of his drawings was replenished with models and foreign cars copied from the booklet, which were sometimes seen on the street.

Students

When the question arose about entering the university, there was no special throwing in choosing a specialty. The chief designer of AvtoVAZ and the friend of the family of Demidov's Pirozhkovs, Mark Vasilievich, when he saw Volodya's car, once hinted that it could be done professionally. So Vladimir Pirozhkov enrolled in 1985 in the Sverdlovsk Architectural Institute on the specialty "Industrial Design", where he successfully graduated in 1992.

In 1993, a young specialist managed to win a scholarship competition in the Art Center College of Design (Switzerland) and study there already.

Service in the army

In the second year, Vladimir Pirozhkov voluntarily left to serve. According to him, the old guys looked awfully advanced and enjoyed some success with the girls.

Served as a young man in the engineering troops in the GDR. As an artist, his special drill was not strained. The time was pretty boring, the officers entertained themselves with hunting, shooting at gazelles from plain rifles. At the request of those who wished, Pirozhkov began to redesign their design for foreign models. Rifles were decorated, covered with varnish and as a result were given.

However, the practice of Pirozhkov as a designer in the army on arms did not end. In the town in which he happened to serve, there were about five thousand men and no women. Once he absolutely casually fell into the hands of the number of the magazine Playboy. The man decided to just experiment for the sake of drawing one of the girls depicted there. The result of the work accidentally fell on the eye of a colleague, and he asked Vladimir to paint his girl in the same way. Portraits Pirozhkov Vladimir did know how, so soon more and more soldiers began to fall asleep with his requests and photos of loved ones. Seeing the popularity of his activities, the guy began to take money for it, and by the time of returning home the amount was sufficient to buy a washing machine for parents and many gifts.

Internship in Switzerland is not just a bold dream

In the fourth year, a young designer and his friend Sergei Streltsov had an idea, almost impossible at that time, to write a famous letter to Luigi Kolani with a request for an internship. Using the help of an English teacher and somehow having adjusted the letter, the young men faced a problem - the address of the German designer was completely impossible to get. Vladimir Pirozhkov himself says that he was extremely lucky throughout his life. Lucky and at that time: the already mentioned Mark Vasilyevich that year just went to a conference in Geneva, found Kolani and learned his address. The letter was sent safely. Half a year was quiet, but then finally came the answer, in which students were invited to come for two months. When the first enthusiasm passed, the usual scurrying began with documents, all sorts of permits, visas, besides, at first the young men were refused a trip to Switzerland, which had to be circumvented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR and the Ministry of Education ... However, the dream was gradually realized.

Not two months, but two years: working with Kolani

When Vladimir and Sergei reached Berne, where the Kolani studio was located, it suddenly turned out that he simply forgot about them. Even the telegram written by the designer did not convince them: such a paper can easily be faked. The boys stood firmly on their own, and one of the reasons for their determination was the banal lack of money on the way back. As a result, Kolani surrendered, Pirozhkov and a friend stayed to work in Europe, but instead of the proposed two months they stayed there for two years.

We started with washing machines. A couple of weeks later they received a "job in the specialty": the young men were allowed to participate in the creation of a new model of a sports car.

During his time with Kolani, the student carried out orders of companies such as Yves Saint Loran, Ferrari and Adidas, and received an unforgettable experience. At the same time, Pirozhkov Vladimir decided for himself that he would not return to the Soviet "Zhiguli" for anything.

Career in Europe

Making his way to the Art Center College of Design, Vladimir faced with the problem: living in Switzerland is quite expensive, accordingly, you need to find a well-paid job. The designer was offered to look for sponsors. He followed the advice, and literally immediately responded Porshe and Citroen.

Worked Vladimir Pirozhkov (industrial designer) with the firm Citroen from 1994. His first creation was the restyling of the Xantia X2.

In the record of Pirozhkov of that period, he developed the C5, the concept car C3 Lumiere, C3 Air, C6 Lignage, C4 Volcane, as well as restyled interior Xsara.

In 2000, he received the post of senior designer at the Toyota design center in Nice, Vladimir Pirozhkov. The gallery of his works for that period is pretty decent. He participated in the creation of models Yaris, Corolla, Auris, Avensis, IQ, RAV4, and also concept cars MTRC and UUV.

Return

In 2007 Vladimir comes to work in Russia. He literally in the middle of the night received a call from the foster German Gref, then the Minister of Economic Development and Trade, and was invited to a meeting on the problems of the development of industrial design in Russia.

At a meeting on March 2, Pirozhkov decided not to be verbose, but simply invited Gref to inspect the Toyota's Design Center in Nice. The delegation arrived to visit the design studio, closed to extraneous laboratories, and also listened to the presentation of Vladimir himself. Then the minister asked a reasonable question: "Is it possible to organize something like this in Russia?" Vladimir decided to try, especially since support from above seemed to be a good help.

"A small but very evil company"

Returning to Moscow, Pirozhkov began to work in the multisectoral center of industrial design and innovation "ASTRAROSSA design". It included only ten people, some, like Vladimir, lived for a long time abroad. This "small but very evil company" (according to the designer himself) was very, very efficient. Debuting with the development of the style of the Superjet 100, the company began to receive large orders for much more substantial amounts - the total earnings for several months of work amounted to 10 million dollars.

ASTRAROSSA Design cooperated with many Russian companies: shipbuilding, aircraft-building corporations, Kamov Design Bureau, performed restyling of the Volga Siber sedan, worked with KAMAZ, designing restyling cabins for trucks. Joint projects were with RSC Energia, several of them are still in development - the design of spacecraft and 3D transport, available to everyone.

Also thanks to support on the basis of NITU, MISIS managed to create an engineering prototyping center, in which Vladimir Pirozhkov currently holds the position of director.

Pirozhkov was given the honor of a special kind: he was entrusted with the leadership of the design team for the development of the torch relay torch of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games. With the mission entrusted to the master mastered perfectly, the smooth curves and colors of the torches were chosen very skillfully.

Pirozhkov Vladimir - a designer whose work is currently in high demand. We can say with certainty that the design of about half of the cars in Moscow traffic jams was designed by Pirozhkov at the time. His talent is undoubted, but there are still people who think his ideas are too naive and impossible: 3D mobile phones and spaceships are not so firmly entrenched in the minds of people. But Vladimir is optimistic about the future and believes that if it is worth investing in something, so let it be something worthwhile and fundamentally new.

Vladimir Pirozhkov: reviews of his works

Comments on the works of Vladimir Pirozhkov are exceptionally positive: his genius as an industrial designer is beyond doubt. Some of his works dramatically changed the vector of the development of the design of both Russian and foreign automotive industry. Now the look of Pirozhkov is directed to the future, and most of his projects are rightfully considered innovative.