BIOGRAPHY
Last updated on 17.03.2023
I am inspired by the beauty in every detail of life, which is reflected in my figurative subjects. Through my paintings of people and animals, I strive to capture the essence of life and all its moments, be it joy, leisure, or the simple beauty of being. My portraits of women, influenced by poetry, fashion, and beauty, are not necessarily realistic but instead a representation of what could be. I seek to find the perfect shapes, colors, and compositions to tell a story, whether it’s through digital art, painting on canvas, or sketches. My ultimate goal is to create art that transports the viewer to the imaginative world I occupy, inviting them to see the art and beauty in every detail of life.
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BIOGRAPHY
Mayya Georgieva, artist name: Mayya Geo (Bulgarian: Майя Георгиева; 06 December 1992; Sofia) is a Bulgarian designer and artist. She is the founder of GEOBO a design studio specializing in branding for fashion businesses. Before founding the design studio, she held senior positions in the startup, freelance consultancy, and design agency worlds. Her experience extends from graphic design, painting, to user interface design. Mayya’s work has been internationally published, recognized, awarded, and exhibited at major design competitions and media, including the International Visual Identity Awards, Forward Festival, Design Made in Germany, Medium and Muzli.
She is the proud product of numerous cultural influences, including parents of Bulgarian and Armenian heritage. Mayya grew up in Sofia, Bulgaria, lived in Berlin, Germany for almost ten years and currently lives in Salzburg, Austria. That background shaped an open-minded, inclusive mindset about cultural identity.
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EDUCATION
Mayya’s interest in using graphic software and paint professionally began when she was nine years old. Influenced by the Plakatstil, Bauhaus, and Pop art movements, Mayya became increasingly attracted to contemporary art and design. The increased use of modern technology, stop motion animation, and computer animation sparked her interest in digital products and gadgets.
Her first recognition as a professional artist was in 2006, when Mayya was part of a group exhibition at the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria in Sofia after winning a drawing competition organized by the Bulgarian Red Cross. In 2011 she received a professional high school qualification in graphic design from the National School of Applied Arts in Sofia. In 2012 Mayya was part of a group exhibition at the Open Mind Art Festival organized by her fellow students and herself.
During her studies, she exhibited in numerous group exhibitions and took part in design and art competitions. In 2015 she completed a BFA in painting at the National Academy of Art in Sofia. In the same year, she presented her artwork as part of a group exhibition at the Union of Bulgarian Artists.
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WORK
In the summer of 2008 when Mayya was fifteen years old she did her first internship in a design agency. For a couple of months, she helped with the design of Topshop magazine in Sofia.
During her studies in 2011, she interned as a graphic designer at the prestigious Havas agency. There she has worked for clients like Beaujolais Nouveau, Carrefour, and Société Générale.
In 2013 Mayya began as a graphic designer at the independent agency The Smarts in Sofia. In 2015 she was promoted into the position of art director and led projects for clients like Smirnoff, Unicredit, and GlaxoSmithKline. After taking numerous courses on UX and UI design in 2015 and 2016, Mayya focused her work on designing brands and digital products.
In 2016, a year after earning her bachelor of fine arts, Mayya relocated to Berlin. There she worked as an artist, an employee, and a freelance consultant for numerous companies.
In 2019, after gaining experience and building up a body of work, she began her journey as a full-time freelance designer with the goal of opening her own design studio. As a freelance consultant, Mayya often partnered with teams of professionals to help establish or increase the scale of complex, digital, user-centered products. Other times she worked as a one-woman show, designing brand identities, or building bespoke digital experiences for companies like Movinga, Smunch, HAVI Connect, Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, among others.
Driven by the dream of opening her own design studio, in 2021 Mayya founded GEOBO, and works with her team to help clients scale or establish their brands.
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DESIGN AND ART
Mayya’s design and artistic repertoire includes digital and print designing, painting, creating graphic art, and collaborating with other designers and artists.
The brand and digital design works built by Mayya are known for their user-centered designs, vibrant colors, geometric forms, and well-thought-out art direction.
For her contemporary figurative artworks, Mayya uses traditional, digital, and graphic media. She tells compelling stories through visual art, combining elements of the human and animal body, geometry, architecture, nature, and fashion, turning them into visual poetry.
Through form and rich details, Mayya likes to work with the subjects of beauty, storytelling, imagination, and reality. She depicts those in the form of imaginary, colorful portraits, where people and animals are drawn not as they are but as they could be.
Different to her design work, in her paintings Mayya has the freedom to obey only the rules of her own vision and let her thoughts and ideas go wild. Keep an eye out for upcoming exhibitions, and look at the GEO atelier for selected goods for sale. The shop will open online in 2023.
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SELECTED PUBLICATIONS, EXHIBITIONS & AWARDS