In July’s edition of Meet the Team, we’re speaking to the silent hero of every GRID event, keynote, and PR — a person who makes data look good — Eliza Hlushchenko, a Creative Designer who has been on the GRID for 2.5 years. Keep reading to learn why she identifies so well as a GRIDer, her cheese-inspired marketing campaigns, and why Yuumi is her spirit animal.
1. Please tell us more about your role.
In my humble opinion, I work in the greatest department possible — Marketing! Currently, my role is Creative Designer, though my colleagues often refer to it as “make it pretty.” Of course, it’s not limited to just those three words 😄My daily work involves various visual projects, documentation writing, research, and maybe some memes sending, who can even work without it?!
Lately, I’ve been into the marketing side of things, not just design. I find it impossible to separate these two; marketing is intertwined with design. During my five years at university, I was genuinely confused about why 80% of my lectures and workshops focused on Marketing. I knew it was important, but weren’t we supposed to be drawing more? Now, I understand the reason behind it. You can’t create great visuals without deeply understanding the market and your target audience. It takes a lot of practice and continual learning. This constant development and analysis are what gives me a thrill!
2. You’ve been on the GRID for 2,5 years – how has your role changed?
We have an internal joke about my role — it changes with each performance review 😄I went from making CS:GO MVP posts for X two years ago to diving into marketing strategies. Rapid company growth and my personal development are reasons for these varied changes. This journey has been great, and I’m glad it looks that way. I have a lot of creative energy, so constant switches don’t tire me; on the contrary, they power me to go further!
3. Which project has been the most rewarding to work on so far?
No need to think twice — it’s any proposal for partners. Many hours are always spent creating and polishing documents before we hit the submission’s deadline. My personal favorite is contributing to the section where we tell stories of GRID people. Did you know we have a World’s Season 1 winner on the team — Harry Wiggett or Hans — who published an academic paper about LoL?! Overall, working on this type of project is an exciting experience, combining challenging work with tremendous excitement. It feels magical witnessing the whole company rally around one great task, never seeming to tire from it!
And, of course, I can forget how we got the big news about partnering with Riot, and company chats filled with celebrations and excitement. I can say that we have quite a big and passionate League of Legends community here, so this project holds a special place in everyone’s heart 🩵
4. What are some unique challenges and rewards of designing visual materials for GRID compared to other industries?
Two things — culture and startup environment. GRID culture is the most rewarding value you can find. GRIDers might not always notice everything I do during my work, but when they do, their support is enormous. It’s effortless to work with everyone and gather materials for projects. You can always count on help and understanding.
The startup environment creates challenges that I see as rewards. You can never be sure that today will go as planned, and it’s so refreshing when it doesn’t. You group all your skills and adapt to the new situation, finding new and creative ways to solve it. It definitely helps rewire your thinking from “I need 3-5 business days to complete this” to “one hour? That’s a generous deadline.”
5. If you have to choose one gaming character to portray best — which character would it be?
As soon as Jinx from League of Legends’ cinematic rolled in, my gaming-obsessed classmates started bringing their phones to me, pointing at the blue-haired girl and exclaiming, “It’s you!” Undeniably, my long hair, love for shorts, rebellious mindset, and tall, skinny figure played a part in this comparison, but I never saw myself as Jinx.
It was a completely different story when I discovered Yuumi from the same game. I think I can hear my friends chuckling as they read this. My Yuumi obsession is no secret — I’ve almost scored 1 million mastery points and own every skin. She is cute, funny, playful, and a bit silly. Her voice lines are filled with jokes and an overall positive spirit. She may be small and fragile, but with enough skill, even the big and scary champs can’t compete with her. I believe Yuumi has hidden potential, and it’s better not to underestimate her. I like to think the same qualities apply to me too — or at least, I like to think that I’m cute, funny, and powerful 😀
6. What’s your favorite video game?
Uff, that’s one of the toughest questions you can get asked 😄 I’d probably go with the Fallout franchise here. I started playing when I was 15 and absolutely loved it! Retrofuturism, dystopia, great soundtracks, incredible jokes, and lore — this combination just hits right!
After the Fallout series aired, nostalgia hit me, and I downloaded Fallout 76 immediately. I’m still obsessed with it and now play daily. It’s a great place to unwind and do some quests after work, which helps me switch into chill mode. Plus, the community there is absolutely lovely, unlike the competitive MOBA scene most of the time. If you get a chance to play any game from that franchise, it’s worth checking out — maybe it will become one of your favorites too!
7. Outside of work, what are some of your hobbies and interests? Do they influence or inspire your design work?
I can call myself a hobby collector. Sometimes I can’t even recall the many things I’m interested in or have tried before. But if I had to pick my top three for now, they would be gaming, nails, and reading.
Gaming is relatively self-explanatory, and reading is mostly too, the only difference here is that I’m currently participating in a reading marathon with a colleague, making my book list look so random and diverse. But nails are a different story. Anyone who has seen me in real life knows how long my nails are, and I constantly get two types of questions: “How do you live with them?” and “How long does it take to do them?”. Quite easy and takes around 5 hours 😄 Doing my own nails gives me another opportunity to create art and express myself. Each GRIDFest, I come with a set of GRID-themed nails, and people love it!
Indeed, my investment in most of my interests doesn’t go unnoticed in my work life. Overall, I like to think that my superpower is finding inspiration in the most random places. For example, I recently got inspiration for a marketing campaign from watching a cheese conspiracy video. I guess my secret is keeping my work in mind most of the time. That way, spotting connections just comes naturally.
Look out for the next edition of Meet the Team!
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