From Wartime Workshops to Amazon Acquisitions — A Conversation with O0 Design

Mindsparkle: O0 Design DATE January 08, 2025 EDITOR Mindsparkle Mag From Wartime Workshops to Amazon Acquisitions — A Conversation with O0 Design O0 Design started six years ago as part of a YC-backed startup. From day one, that origin shaped the studio: fast iterations, testing ideas, and thinking beyond design itself. It was never built as a traditional agency, but more as a team of operators and product builders.Today, the SF-based studio with Ukrainian roots partners with emerging startups and industry leaders like Google, Microsoft, HF0, and Toyota.

O0's general manager Illia Krupenikov leads with a background in sales — and a conviction that design's greatest value lies not in what it makes, but in the results it enables.We spoke with Illia about growing a studio through wartime, how product thinking shapes their approach to design, and how entering the industry as a non-designer changed the way he leads it.✜ Let's rewind a bit. How did you join O0 and what's your current role?→ I joined six years ago as General Manager, and I've been in the role ever since.Back then, O0 was a team of four.

We didn't set out to build a traditional agency — we were responding to founders who needed design that understood their business. Today, we're around 50 people across different time zones and continents, working on a diverse range of projects — from dating apps to aerospace companies.My job is to make sure that as we take on bigger, more complex work, we don't lose that scrappy, day-one energy that got us here.✜ O0 describes itself as a studio that designs products and brands them up. Where does one end and the other begin for you?→ To us, a brand is a promise made, and the product is that promise kept.

We don't see them as separate tasks; we see them as the "why" and the "how".We usually start with a brand foundation because you need a clear point of view before you can turn it toward users. Once that's in place, the question becomes how it shows up — in the interface, on the site, in every place someone actually meets the company. That's where we take the brand and make it functional.✜ You've been growing O0 while operating across countries during wartime.

What does "normal work" even look like in that situation?→ Shaping beauty and order while the world is falling apart is something you don't realize you can do until you're doing it.In the first weeks of the full-scale invasion, business took a backseat to survival. We had team members in occupied zones and work happening from bomb shelters. But with chaos outside, we kept the studio highly organized. Not just for the business, but for our mental health. Routine provides stability in the middle of a crisis.Once it became clear the war won't be short-term, we had to adapt quickly.

When Russia started shelling Ukraine's energy infrastructure and blackouts became part of daily life, we helped our team build the setup needed to keep working. People adjusted workflows fast. Designers are trained to navigate ambiguity, and that turned out to be a more transferable skill than we expected.O0 started during COVID, so we already had a fully remote operating model. That made it possible to keep quality and consistency.Illia Krupenikov✜ Shaping beauty and order while the world is falling apart is something you don't realize you can do until you're doing it.

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The article discusses a modern approach to branding that is particularly relevant for startups, making it significant for brand strategy professionals, though the concepts of integrating brand identity with product functionality are becoming more common.