FROM DESIGNING TO INNOVATING: A JOURNEY OF CREATIVITY AND TECHNOLOGY - INTERVIEW WITH NICK DIMITROV

1. Your background is in design and computer science. How did your career evolve from designing yourself to founding and managing a design studio and a creative management platform providing top international companies with millions of design pieces a month?

Yes, my background is actually entirely in computer science. The design and visual aspect of my later career started as my hobby way back in my school years. I was always drawn to digitally creating visual things - from 3D visualisations to animation, web and UI.

My career started with good friends from Uni establishing a company and hiring me to design our own site as well as any web and software that we created for clients. A year later I took off and started freelancing, steadily taking on more projects until I myself needed a team :)

At some point when our biggest client’s demand for digital assets grew exponentially, instead of adding headcount we designed a simple platform to optimise the assets production as well as provide data integration to automate displaying time-relevant data in ads.

It was back in 2006 when Streameye was born.

2. How has the design sector changed over the years?

The design sector reinvented itself many times in the past 20-25 years. From different design trends like creating realistic environments with 3D feel through gradients and shadow (skeuomorphism), to flat design, minimalism, material design, glassmorphism/ neumorphism, you name it.

Much of this can be attributed to the emergence and evolution of various digital channels - mobile or social where loading times are critical for example. Obviously, new channels added substantial complexity and demand for more versions of the produced digital assets.

Design trends changed to accommodate the new markets.

3. What is the most important function of design in 2023?

No idea :) Let’s elaborate on this.

Probably the right answer is ‘to be functional’. If we agree that form follows function - that, in my opinion, directly applies to UI with so many platforms and services nowadays. It is imperative to be able to navigate through a platform intuitively and with very little to no documentation :) With so much information all around, people have less and less time to read.

4. What are some of the great myths about digital design?

That it is by definitition an art form :) Art carries emotion, digital design carries mainly purpose - unfortunately, it is all very commercial nowadays. Obviously, if you can weave art into it, so much the better! Most of the time there is no time for that, though :) You are chasing deadlines and you must produce a product that sells as quickly as possible.

5. Is creativity out of the question with all the developing AI technologies and automation?

No. Creativity is a function of art. Say, that small and cleverly hidden context or emotion in a graphic that makes you go ‘Wow, now that’s something else!’.

I don't think AI is close to creating that yet, and it will not be closer in the immediate future even though it is learning quite quickly how to draw hands properly :) But AI will become an inseparable step in brainstorming and generating ideas. It’s a great, time-saving starting point. In the end, it will be up to the designer/ artist to finish the masterpiece.

6. What are three things that business owners and managers can do to improve and optimise their digital presence?

Hire the correct marketing team and ask them that very same question :)).

7. Which are your favourite features of Streameye? Could you explain them briefly and share why you like them?

The best way to start exploring the tool is through a versatile banner builder deployment. Many online active businesses need efficient ways to quickly create a series of graphics for social, emails, onsite promotions, landing pages, etc. If you have your own, or 3rd party data, Streameye is great at integrating it into display ads, social media and emails to make any marketing team very happy.
Another time-saving feature is the ability to quickly render videos in various social media formats using a centralised gallery of assets and footage. This not only frees up scarce motion graphics resources but also avoids the necessity of multiple licences of relatively expensive video editing software.

8. What is the feature every Streameye client uses?

The exact same Banner Builders module we just spoke about.

9. What does Streameye offer that cannot be found on other similar platforms?

An amazing showcase of ads crafted by our engineers and deployed via Streameye globally for our wonderful clients :) You don’t have to believe me - see here.

10. If there was one new feature you could develop for Streameye immediately, what would it be and why?

Undoubtedly, all the new features coming to Streameye 6 this year are still a secret. But one thing worth noting is that we strive to provide a fully customisable experience of the platform for each of our clients. We take it even a step further - being able to create exclusive UI for each of their campaigns.

We excel when it comes to customisation - building exactly what you need for your specific process flow and campaign. Believe me, when you need to launch a campaign in the next 2-3 hours, the least you need is to tamper with some complex UI to figure out how to do a little change in the offer or load a different animation/ graphic in your video and display ads. And in the next iteration of the platform - customisation is our main focus. We are bringing this key trait to a whole new and unparalleled level.

11. What is most appreciated by Streameye clients in the platform?

Probably exactly that - ease of use and absolute dedication by our team in figuring out how to build a time-saving UI specifically for their case. Yet sticking to deadlines which are very similar to a normal digital agency releasing regular display ads for a few regions or offer versions.

12. What metrics do you use to define success?

Long-term partnerships. It is more important for us to retain and evolve than to gain and lose. When we gain, we do everything in our power to retain :)

Our clients’ success is probably our primary metric of our own. This is the reason why we have gained our clients’ trust and they know that they can count on us year in and year out.

13. What would you advise companies who are considering starting work with a creative management platform?

Get as much information as possible. Figure out what is important to your process flow. Get into some demos with the respective service providers and carefully consider the options choosing one that is best for how you organise your digital production.

14. What are your expectations for the industry directions for 2023?

Considering my very limited knowledge and understanding of the world economy, 2023 will be a somewhat challenging year for many industries. A global slowdown of leading economies, real and trade wars, over protectionism all are factors that should not be underestimated.

AI becoming a major player in the digital industry combined with the above should prompt us to be more aware of how we organise and prioritise our work. Naturally, each challenge makes us stronger and this year there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic! Doubling down on our mission to forge long-lasting relationships with both clients and teammates seems a good direction going forward in 2023.