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Design has a major impact on all aspects of my life, from what toothbrush I have, to my backpack and the destinations I go to.
Some images stand here as an appreciation of the whole complexity of the work of the author and his lifestyle, others are single examples that have triggered me to a certain action.

On the left - 100 chairs 100 days - Gamper Martino.
I absolutely admire the way in which he has built himself a world in which he has the creative direction. Be it to design a specific piece or a culinary experience, he seems to be having a lot of fun and the results are appreciated around the world. The project in the image was the first deep dive into his work and I felt in love with the idea of taking hundreds of donated chairs and make new objects out of them. I ever since believe that what I professionally do should be in harmony with the rest of the things in my life.

Above Raw Bench by Jason Iftakhar and
the Wiggle chair by the architect Frank Ghery.

Four years in the Applied arts academy, it was a time to start working a bit more consciously and serious. I have seen somewhere this way of creating a solid block of furniture and was able to imagine how to produce it. In the academy, we already knew how to work with paper, so I felt in control, I was triggered and made my first pieces of furniture using his technique.

Derrière la gare Saint-Lazare by Henri Cartier-Bresson.
When looking at this photo I see the beauty of the movement caught on tape. This photo is highly appreciated by the world photographic society and perhaps for a reason. My personal attraction to it is not so much the ingenuity of the shot, but more the back story. The photographer himself has admits that it was pure luck that he pressed the shutter exactly in this moment. This reminds me of the fact that everyone is capable of making great stuff. Obviously his work is consisting of many other photos like this one, he is famous for taking pictures of everyday scenes of people on the streets, showing their most natural activities and this made him unique. What made him great and this shot too was the fact that as a result of being consistent and following his interests, he managed to stumble upon situations in which as they say "you make your own luck". My attraction to the story is the fact that sometimes it takes just a second of planing and a bit of preparation to make something beautiful. Something that I personally have always related to in my work and decision making.

Urban-Adapter-by-Rocker-Lange-Architects
Unable to understand the complexity and accuracy of the project, I still felt strongly connected to it. Having already a little experience in working with layers of cardboard for my furniture, I felt like this is the next thing I have to learn.
I still am unable to produce something like it, but am a few steps closer and understand it a bit better.

Related to the previous image, I knew how to think of projects in sheet materials and most of my designs were simple. Then I met the author of the Stack chair - Konstantin Achkov and explored how he takes working with flat sheets to a whole new three dimensional level. For his works he told me is using CNC router and briefly explained me how it works and not long after, it got to my top priority list to learn how to work with one.

One to five - a collection of furniture prototypes by Thomas Feichtner. I met him in Sofia, as I was volunteering for the Sofia design week and got to spend some time with him, helping him to set up the exhibition.
I was amazed by the designs he showed and how normal of a person he was. This was my first sight of a 3D printed object and I think that the quality of the designs and the prints is still very high today. This meeting definitely was a trigger in my mind to learn 3D modelling softwares and be able to print.

Michael Johansson, a sculptural artist, who has had an early influence in my design thinking. Initially I was rather shy and unsure in the decisions I was taking regarding my designs. I was afraid to mix the everyday things with what I considered design. It was thanks to my internship at Totally Erected events and the work of Michael that I got to think in a larger scale and develop the courage to improvise, dress, fake and make impressions with everyday objects.

IKEA Mandelkubb / Styling EVELINA KLEINER
An image of a recipe presented in a visual way.
I wasn't exactly the best student at school, never liked to read much and even today I find it hard to dedicate time to reading. Even if my favourite gift is a good book, I seem to be consuming most of the information visually like this. As the technology has made it possible to receive information very quick it seems like a great waste of time to read something if there is someone that can show it, film it, illustrate it or read it to you.

Flecto chair, Christian Juhl

My father is a woodworker, his workshop became my playground for a few years when I was working with cardboard. Even though he doesn't make the type of woodworking that I am interested in, he was a huge influence for me. I learned to appreciate old doors, furniture joints and working with wood. This image is a visual stimuli o myself that makes me think how more and more with the years my and my dad's practice are merging together and make me dream of possible future collaborations.

ARCO CASSEROLE, Giuggiaro Design

Traditional pan and pot making is something I never got exposed to. I only know that it is a thing that interests me because of three factors:
Design qualities - it is not an easy assignment to make an everyday object which is so low tech, but has to perform so well in time, be comfortable and look nice as the one on the left.
Two it takes a huge amount of planning in terms of production process, materials, coatings etc.
Three it has to be able to make a good meal - I love food.

Speaking of food, the following two examples are projects done by a Chef Alain Ducasse, currently holding around 20 Michelin stars and Bompass and Parr. They are both a huge inspiration to me as they made me realise it is possible to combine design to all aspects of life, including food. It has been an interest of mine to produce objects with food since 2015 and not so long after I actually did my first one. It took much more than expected and made me realise that there is a whole new branch to design that is including a scientific method and is teaching me to go out, search for information, people and collaborate.

After all the factors described above ahve taken a huge amount of my attention, I have realised that my drawing style was not defined yet and I have lost control of the pencil since I graduated the art academy. I remember browsing the web and finding the following image. I felt so inspired that people still value the hand drawing quite a lot and felt a bit intimidated because I have slightly neglected my drawing. I keep this one up as a reminder of the fact that this is the shortest way to express a thought first to myself and then to the wider audience.

Last but, not least is the image bellow, a combination of textyle patterns by David-Adjaye for Knoll, that stands for the fact that I have always had a great appreciation for the fashion and textyle. I might have never (almost) done a project in it or imagined a future as a designer of such products, I still find it as a escape door from my own design thoughts and a safe zone to wonder in. A great amount of skills are actually simmilar in fashion (sculpting, material knowledge and experimentation, color pallette, textures, production techniques) so that whenever I got stuck on a certain problem I always browse through my visual archive, where intentionally I mix all sorts of images from different disciplines. I have found out for myself and later heard the same from others, that the fact that you're a novice in a certain filed gives you a great advantage, because your thoughts are not constrained by technical factors.

"If I knew how to make it, I felt a connection with the author.

Learning how to do stuff was (is) my way to cheat in life.

I've gained a lot of valuable experience doing so."

Since I have done projects with food and lived in the Netherlands for three months,
I have socialised with people who have had similar experience. I stumbled upon the
video that tackles the topics of Art history and the presence of food in it. I felt so related to it as it informed me a great deal about art history that I have access to, triggered me to try and cook some of the things, visit a gallery and be a more courageous and honest story teller. I have even made my own reproduction in a hurry, inspired by the scenes in the video, depicting my personal (modern) version of what a still life painting in the Netherlands looks like. This makes me wish to make the same back home and perhaps keep doing these for the next years and places I live.

My favourite photo. The mayor of Sofia standing proudly next to our illegal make over on the soviet army monument in Sofia, June 2011.
After a few weeks of planning, our creative group decided that the time is right to do the action. The artefact stayed there for three days and newspapers in other continents wrote articles about it. We were called the Bulgarian Banksy and most importantly the art piece started thousands of conversations, it lived it's own life, while we stayed in anonymity.