Kharkiv School
of Design

In 2021 the 4th Block triennial filled five venues in Kharkiv, and in 2024 it took place there again, during the war. In 2022 the academy marked 60 years of design education in Kharkiv with an exhibition shown in Lviv and Kyiv. Since 2022 Pangram has not accepted works from Russia or Belarus, and it keeps growing: from 127 participants in 2022/23 to 370 participants from 19 countries in 2025/26. In 2027 the Kharkiv School of Design turns 65.

• 202765 years
• 2026100 Cyrillic works from Pangram shown at the academy
• 20244th Block, 12th triennial, held in Kharkiv
• 2022“Riding the Wave of Design: 60 Years”, Lviv and Kyiv
• 20214th Block, 11th triennial: 950 posters, 53 countries
• 2021Oleksandr Sobolev becomes rector

In 2012 the department marked fifty years with an album of its history. In 2016 it launched Pangram, an international competition of fonts and calligraphy with a new theme every year. In 2019 the 4th Block poster collection got its own museum at the academy.

• 20194th Block poster museum opens at the academy
• 20184th Block, 10th triennial: 800+ posters, 36 countries
• 2016First Pangram
• 20124th Block: 8 exhibitions, 600+ authors, 46 countries
• 2012Album “Department of Graphic Design 1962–2012”

In 2001 Khudprom became the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts. The school turned outward with festivals and competitions: AntiAIDS – Ukraine for posters, Cyrillic Fest for type and calligraphy, Live! for theatre posters.

• 2006Cyrillic Fest and Live! begin
• 2005–09AntiAIDS – Ukraine, up to 32 countries
• 2003Lesniak receives Kharkiv’s Yermilov design prize
• 2001Khudprom becomes the Academy

From 1990 graduates received a new qualification: graphic designer. In 1991, for the fifth anniversary of Chornobyl, the school launched 4th Block, the International Triennial of Ecological Posters, founded by Oleh Veklenko.

• 1999Viktor Danylenko becomes rector
• 19914th Block founded
• 1990First “graphic designer” diplomas

After Nenado’s death in 1981 the department was led by Viktor Vikhtynskyi and then Anatolii Kuzmenko. Young teachers looked closely at graphic design abroad. In 1989, on the initiative of dean Volodymyr Lesniak, the department of industrial graphics and packaging was renamed the department of graphic design.

• 1989Renamed: graphic design
• 1986–91Lesniak is dean of the Design faculty
• 1983Kuzmenko heads the department, until 2000
• 1981Death of Nenado

Under Volodymyr Nenado, head from 1973 to 1981, industrial graphics in Kharkiv found its own voice in trademarks, posters and type. In 1977 Khudprom hosted Interdesign ’77, an ICSID seminar with designers from 12 countries. Students went on yearly exchanges with Burg Giebichenstein in Halle.

• 1978Largest graduation: 34 diplomas; Lesniak’s identity for the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology
• 1977Interdesign ’77, 12 countries
• 1973Nenado heads the department
• 1970sYearly student exchange with Burg Giebichenstein, Halle

In 1962 rector Mykhailo Shaposhnikov began reforming the Kharkiv State Art Institute. At the end of 1963 it became the Kharkiv Art and Industrial Institute, Khudprom: the first in Ukraine to train designers. Its new faculty taught industrial design, decoration of buildings, and industrial graphics and packaging. The first nine industrial graphics students graduated in 1968.

• 1968First industrial graphics graduates
• 1965–69Bilyk heads the industrial design department
• 1963–67Yermilov returns to teach at the new faculty
• 1963Institute becomes Khudprom
• 1962Reform begins; first teachers sent to study design schools in Leningrad and Moscow