Robertson Lake Cliff Lookout, Algoma, Ontario
I’m Dennis Kovalev. A product designer based in Peterborough, Ontario.
Born and raised in the Russian Far East. Early in life developed a deep-seated aversion to poorly designed things and would be obsessed thinking of ways to improve them. Funny enough, I would likely not be able to articulate what differentiates good design from mediocre one back then. Fortunately I didn’t seem to care.
Kudos to my parents who noticed my passion early on and got me enrolled into a local art school. It was in many ways a pivotal moment in my life so far as at that point I had no doubts what my future profession would be.
Later I studied Graphic Design program at the Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service which I graduated in 1999 and received a Bachelor’s Degree in Graphic Design.
Since 2009 I’ve been living in Canada along with my wife and son.
Over the years I had an opportunity to work for different clients ranging from small startups to world-renowned advertising agencies to big international corporations. I’m a natural problem-solver and perpetual learner of new tools, methods and approaches who was fortunate to apply these skills to solve numerous real world creative challenges for his clients.
Feel free to reach out ? if you have some interesting projects I can help you with.
Tools and Skills
Selected Testimonials
“It is always a pleasure working with Denis and I continue to be amazed by the dedication and tenacity with which he approaches his work. In a very short period of time, Denis has played a very critical role in spearheading all creative initiatives for our suite of enterprise software applications. He is a true professional with keen creative insight and strong attention to detail. Denis is a valuable asset to Crosscap and I look forward to collaborating with him on many more projects.“
Taha Sheikh
Senior Product Lead at Shopify
“Denis is an extremely talented and versatile designer and is one of the best that I've ever had the good fortune to work with. He is passionate about creating great designs and holds himself to the highest standards of quality. He sees deeper than the typically superficial concerns of design and gets that design needs to take into account both form and function. His ability to illustrate, design, and execute front-end development made him a key contributor to our design team. Any team would be much stronger with him on board, and I hope that I'll have many further opportunities to work with him myself.“
Stephen Kawaguchi
Solution Architect at IBM
“Denis is by far one of the best designers I've worked with. His talent for translating requirements into an engaging user experience, consistently impressed clients. In addition to his artistic ability; Denis' strong technical skill set allowed him to interact with the software development team very effectively. A great team player, he would truly be an asset to any organization's design team.“
Prasanna Vijayakumar
Sr Director of Product Management at Salesforce
“Denis played a key role in re-designing and re-creating some of our enterprise tools, as a critical thinker; coming up with creative solution and rethinking the usability of applications, as well as a detail oriented designer; giving new life to tools and applications with pixel perfect layouts. Working with Denis gave birth to new ideas, sped up the work flow and was nothing short of pure pleasure. I only look forward to any possible collaborations with Denis and would recommend him any day!“
Ilia Larionov
Chief Design Officer at RCU