Artem Dezhurko on Design
Design historian Artem Dezhurko tells lesser-known stories about 20th-century furniture, interiors and designers, from Philip Johnson's Glass House to Swedish modernist chairs.
What it is
Artem Dezhurko: Stories About Design is the Telegram channel of a design historian, researcher and lecturer. The bio promises "little-known episodes from the history of design" plus announcements of his online lectures, and that's exactly what you get. The focus is 20th-century product and interior design: furniture, lighting, designers' own homes, and the fortunes of companies and people.
Each post is a short, self-contained story with photos — one object or one person, told in a way that sticks. The channel is in Russian.
Why we picked it
Because he finds the detail in a familiar story that you didn't know. The post on Philip Johnson's Glass House opens with a confession: he long took an odd object in the interior for a rubbish bin, and it turned out to be the main light source in the house. Then comes the story of Johnson spending years unable to light his glass house at night — "switch on one bulb and you see six" — until lighting designer Richard Kelly took it on.
Other posts work the same way. On Terence Conran's birthday he shows the flat Conran designed for himself in 1955 and reminds us that Conran founded Habitat and London's Design Museum. There's a post on Californian designer Mitchell Bobrick, an aeronautical engineer who built planes at Lockheed before he started making lamps. And there's the story of Abel Sorenson, a Danish émigré who began working with Knoll after its only designer, Jens Risom, was drafted into the US Army.
Even the lecture announcements read like mini essays. The one for his Swedish design lecture is basically a reading list: Carl Larsson's house, the steel chairs of Asplund and Markelius, Josef Frank's patterns, Bruno Mathsson's loungers, the rugs of Märta Måås-Fjetterström. The lectures are paid, but the channel stands on its own. A weekly digest rounds up posts from other design channels, which is a handy way to find more authors.
Where to start
- Find the Philip Johnson Glass House post; it shows his style well.
- Read the story of Terence Conran's 1955 flat.
- Open the Swedish design lecture announcement and note the names you don't know.
- Check the weekly digest of design channels for links to similar authors.
- If you're hooked, look up the modernist design course on his website.
Who it's for
Interior and product designers who want visual references with context rather than Pinterest boards. Architects and students. Vintage furniture lovers who want to know who designed a piece and why it looks the way it does. Anyone who enjoys stories about people and things — with Russian or a translation tool.
Quick answers
Who runs it? Artem Dezhurko, described in the channel bio as a design historian, researcher and lecturer.
What period does it cover? Mostly 20th-century design and interiors: modernism, plus American and Scandinavian mid-century design.
Is it full of ads? He announces his paid online lectures, but most posts are standalone stories you can read for free.
