Young contemporary designers are convinced that product design will no longer be just about creating visually appealing packaging that sells products to consumers. Next-generation design truly builds a brand’s visual communication with people, embracing aesthetics and technology from every angle, while also focusing on measurable business results. Yulia Khudolii, a young graphic designer, has worked with a wide variety of products and projects over her career and understands the importance of conveying a product’s practical value and making its design speak to hundreds of consumers.
Brands across categories — home appliances, military clothing, adult stores, children’s retail, and more — have strengthened their visual identity thanks to Yuliia Khudolii’s work. She has contributed to around 15 projects each for Minola, Weilor, and Perfeli; 3 projects for Madam Pim; and over 100 projects each for Sex Is Good, No Taboo, and Gufo Kids through her in-house work. In this article, the designer shares her vision for the industry’s future and explains how she contributes to both aesthetic and practical design.
Early Foundations and Professional Growth
How does the path of a modern designer begin? For many, it starts in childhood, when creative ideas feel exciting and you want to make something unusual and memorable. Yuliia Khudolii was no exception. “Before entering the Kyiv National University of Technology and Design, I dreamed of working in the gaming industry, creating characters and locations for games. But in the end, I chose graphic design, and it still opened a lot of amazing opportunities for me,” Yuliia recalls.
At the university, she gained a solid foundation in visual communication, studying web design, 3D graphics, and digital project development, which shaped her strategic approach to branding.
Yuliia believes that constant practice is one of the strongest boosters for young designers, especially when the work carries real responsibility. “There were moments when I performed the role of the sole visual designer for three companies simultaneously, producing dozens of visual materials monthly and managing the entire branding direction and full scope of visual production. It wasn’t easy, but the best proof that I managed was that many clients kept coming back with new projects,” she says.
Starting with local Ukrainian brands, Yuliia reached the international level within a few years. She served as the lead designer responsible for the brand’s entire visual ecosystem — from identity and packaging to storefronts and digital materials. No Taboo Group includes several companies (No Taboo, Gufo Kids, Sex Is Good, and the newly launched Every Night Toys), and Yuliia contributed across all of them. For Every Night Toys, she built the brand from the ground up, creating the logo, full identity, and more than 30 unique packaging designs used both online and in retail stores. Also, for another company, UATAC, a major supplier in its industry, she created a full catalog of 94-96 pages and visual materials that became a key element of the company’s marketing system. The work is ongoing.
“In my work, I want to highlight the brand’s uniqueness and create visual solutions that remain relevant and effective in the long term. I think ahead: how can this attract a customer not only today but months later?” Yuliia says. This approach helped her build strong collaborations with Madam Pim, Minola, Weilor, Perfeli, and Sex Is Good, creating packaging and branding that reinforced their visual identity.
Multi-Industry Expertise, Signature Style, and Creative Methodology
Modern graphic designers rarely stick to one niche, and Yuliia Khudolii’s portfolio includes projects for retail, beauty, fashion, lifestyle brands, and the restaurant industry, demonstrating her flexibility and ability to create visual designs for diverse markets. Each industry has its own identity and requirements; sometimes the focus is on minimalistic packaging, and sometimes on functionality, especially when it comes to instructions or printed leaflets.
Yuliia’s design process is built on technical clarity. She develops mockups with a carefully organized layer structure — background, object, color, smart object — that highlights technical accuracy and makes it easier for other designers to work with the files. She produces about 30-40 mockups monthly.
Like many creatives today, Yuliia doesn’t reject AI tools, but she doesn’t treat them as a substitute for creativity. For her, AI is a helper that speeds up certain tasks, but strong branding still requires human thinking and a personal vision. This combination of technique, structure, and attention to detail helps her deliver thoughtful, stable results that remain in demand on the market.
Global Presence Through Digital Platforms
Promotion is essential for a modern designer. Your work can stay in drafts forever if you don’t show your skills to the world. Through Etsy, Behance, Instagram, Pinterest, and Upwork, Yuliia is gradually building an international presence: 36 sales on Etsy, about 1,000 Instagram followers, and approximately 7,000 monthly Pinterest views. At this stage, these are strong results, showing growing interest from her audience.
“If you don’t have much experience yet and no big projects to show, running social media and creating assets, templates, or mockups to sell online is a pretty good idea, in my opinion. That’s how I found several clients, and some people from my audience return from time to time to order design work because they like my style,” Yuliia says.
Yuliia is also a member of PGDA — a professional design association that strengthens her industry positioning and expands her international professional network. Also, a publication about her work will be released soon. This boosts her presence in the industry, helps her learn from colleagues, and allows her to show her skills to a wider audience. With this approach, even designers who have recently finished their studies can reach the international level.
Conclusion: A Designer Shaping the Future of Visual Culture
A new generation of young designers is shaping its own approach to keeping a brand’s identity consistent while preserving a personal style. Yuliia Khudolii is a designer who combines artistic vision and technical precision, creating strong visual identities and contributing to the contemporary development of graphic design.
International companies are increasingly recognizing that design tells a brand’s story and reflects its character, not just sells a product on a shelf or online. Young designers understand this and create visuals that resonate with audiences. They also pay attention to their growth in the industry. For example, Yuliia plans to open her own studio and build a sustainable workflow where commercial projects can exist alongside digital products like those in her Etsy shop.