A year of learning, creativity, and togetherness: Personal stories from 2025 by the Readymag team
A look back at the personal moments, lessons, and discoveries the Readymag team lived through in 2025.
In the past 365 days, we, the Readymag team, have analyzed, planned, carried out, delivered, drank a lot of coffee, joked, met, and collaborated. In addition to our roles, we’ve lived our lives with all the insights we’ve gained along the way. Read about those small and big discoveries here: some may already resonate with you, but if not, treat them as inspiration for future plans.
Aleksandra Golubeva, designer: In 2025, I started diving into the world of book design and learned the basics of layout and risograph printing. In an online-first era and especially with my background as a digital designer, I deeply missed working with physical objects. This hands-on experience turned out to be incredibly inspiring, and I plan to continue exploring book design next year.
Margarita Morari, growth manager: I learned how to sail a yacht, and I still can’t quite believe it. I spent four weeks at sea, showing my friends a completely new way of exploring the world. For me, yachting is about seeing everything from a literally different perspective. When you look at the world from the water, the shore changes, the sea changes, the people around you change—and somehow, you do too.
Tatyana Kovalchuk, editor-in-chief: This year, almost without meaning to, I wrote a book. I hope it will be published in early 2026. It’s a diary of my emigration. I’ve long been interested in publishing, partly through my work, and made several attempts to create a commercial book. None of them worked out. Then a friend of mine, a designer, suggested gathering my emigration notes into a draft. I resisted at first, but when I finally did it, I was surprised: there was enough material for a small book. I began editing it in the autumn, and the design came together just recently. The process taught me to be braver and to trust the flow: sometimes everything you need and want is already there—you just have to make the first step.
Galina Bondarenko, human resources manager: Tennis was my big discovery of 2025. To put it in meme words: tennis doesn’t inspire you, it shows you who you really are. Sometimes it makes you want to break your racket. It shows you that things can be hard when nothing works, when your body doesn’t cooperate, and when your concentration disappears. You learn to deal with all of that. You try, you fail, you try again, and sometimes, you even feel proud. As a bonus, you walk a lot and spend a huge amount of time outdoors.
Maria Volkova, developer: I bought a Polaroid camera with my first paycheck from Readymag 3 months ago. I didn’t expect photography to become my new hobby, but once I tried it, I instantly fell in love with the magic of instant photos. Any person, object, or emotion can be captured in a moment, transferred onto film, and developed right away. Often, a freshly developed photo becomes a reason to start a conversation, since I’ve just taken it and can share the result. Sometimes I give photos as gifts to strangers or friends—it helps me bring joy to people and keep those connections alive.
Gleb Chernov, support agent: Recently, I unexpectedly got into shells. I only own two shells: I bought the first one many years ago in Greece, because it simply drew me in. The second one comes from a seafood shop. It was right in the mussels container when the saleslady saw it. She handed it to me with a kind smile. These shells made me think that everything alive builds its own kind of shell: identities, habits, ideologies, even the apps we can’t quit. Shells protect us, filter what comes in, and give us shape. However, the real growth only happens when we crawl out. Empty shells on the beach, beautiful but hollow, reminded me that without life inside, a shell is just a memory, though sometimes a useful one. So I’ve started practicing the geometry of becoming: letting go of shapes that look good but feel dead. It turns out the messiest molt is more alive than the most perfect cage.
Aleksei Ferapontov, editor: Last year showed me that one shouldn’t postpone anything in life, including basic things like eating, showering, or sleeping. I’d always understood this idea intellectually, but constant reminders through simple, everyday situations helped me accept it not just with my head, but with my heart. That’s life with a baby.
Bazhena Gurlenia, editor: This year, I finally started to respect silence. As someone with a very active life, I used to rush through my days, jumping from thought to thought, task to task, and conversation to conversation. It all felt energetic and alive, like going with the flow, but something was missing. It turned out the missing ingredient is doing nothing—like, really nothing: not listening to music, not washing dishes, not even going for a walk, but just being silent in silence. When everything is on mute and you intentionally stay in that state for some time, ideas start to appear, and the brain finally reloads.
Catalina Risso, education advisor: In 2025, I joined Readymag first as an Ambassador, then as an education advisor. Through that, I discovered the joy and real impact of teaching Readymag to students across universities. While handling onboarding sessions, I worked with over 300 students from institutions such as Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Elisava, the University of North Florida, the University of the Arts London, and Ravensbourne. Each group I trained found its own unique and beautiful way of using the tool to express its ideas. One of the best moments was a class where a dog joined the session—someone had just decided to bring their pet to the university. It was a perfect reminder of how warm, human, and wonderfully unpredictable learning environments can be.
Inna Frank, CEO assistant: In 2025, I took many trips around Armenia, where I currently live. During one of them, I made a personal discovery about the Armenian language and realized that languages are much more than what we usually see. Beyond the well-known fact that it was created by Mesrop Mashtots in 405 AD, I learned that many Armenian letters are sometimes interpreted as derivatives of an ancient solar symbol, the swastika. In Armenian culture, this sign originally symbolized the sun, light, and the movement of life, and it can still be found on khachkars and ancient ornaments such as the arevakhach, the solar cross. This idea isn’t scientifically proven and is closer to a legend, but it was fascinating to learn about. Another unexpected discovery for me was that the Armenian alphabet also functioned as a numerical system. Each letter had its own numeric value, so when you see letters carved into stone in ancient temples, they’re often dates or numbers rather than words. This system was used to mark years, ages, and many other vital details.
Vlad Losiev, human resources manager: For the last two months, I’ve been visiting open lectures on the history of design in Tbilisi. I expected them to be mostly about typography and other design components, but they turned out to focus much more on design schools, such as the Bauhaus. Out of everything they covered, I completely fell in love with the Memphis Group. It’s an Italian design movement with a strong David Bowie vibe. From what I’ve heard, Bowie even had Memphis pieces in his personal collection, which somehow makes it even cooler.
As the entire new year stretches before you, here are 5 pieces that spark creative fire, encourage you to learn the new, and question the habitual:
Tips from our designers on broadening general knowledge to design confidently and freely.
Musings from Non-Objective on the essence of creativity and ways to pump it.
Advice on reclaiming your space for focused creativity in the communication vortex.