Nelli Kamaeva
- Anna Lilli Garai
- Sep 26
- 3 min read
Nelli Kamaeva is a poster artist and product designer whose visual language draws from mathematics, digital tools, and handwritten textures. Her works combine systems of logic with intuitive gestures, often through layered type, symbols, and image fragments. Posters are her space for experimentation, where structure and surprise come together in sharp, dynamic compositions. Alongside her design career, she also creates language-learning materials that focus on clarity and visual engagement. Based in Tbilisi, she treats design as a form of thinking — not only visual, but also conceptual and emotional.
Q: You started out in math and product design. What did you bring from those fields into how you think visually now?
A: Math taught me to see hidden structures — patterns, logic, relationships that sit beneath the surface. Product design, on the other hand, gave me empathy for people and their behaviors, as well as a discipline of problem-solving within real-world contexts. In posters, these two perspectives merge: the precision and system-building of mathematics with the human-centered playfulness of design. I often think of a poster as a kind of equation, where the solution isn’t just correct — it also needs to feel alive.
Q: Your posters play with language and symbols. What makes you curious about mixing them this way?
A: Language is a system full of rules, but it’s also slippery and emotional. Symbols bypass rules altogether — they strike directly at memory and intuition. Mixing them is like mixing two different ways of knowing: one rational, the other subconscious. I’m curious about how meaning shifts when you collide these systems, how one tiny word or sign can completely change in context, and how viewers participate in making sense of that tension.
Q: In "The Knowledge Hat" learning becomes almost instant. Do you see your work more as critique or as play?
A: For me it’s almost always play. Play with the composition itself, with the meanings I set in motion, and with the audience who completes the work by interpreting it. Even if critique sometimes emerges through humor or exaggeration, my entry point is always the joy of experimenting, almost like testing the rules of a game and then bending them.
Q: What do you enjoy most about the poster as a format compared to other kinds of design?
A: With posters you can try anything visually — there are no strict rules. Some conventions exist, but they’re closer to suggestions than laws. In contrast, fields like interface or branding design are driven directly by goals, usability, or business constraints. The art poster is different: the vertical format feels dynamic, almost cinematic, and you can layer multiple spaces, voices, and dialogues within one frame. Of course, for event posters I prioritize clarity, readability, and catching attention quickly. But in art posters, there’s no obligation — which makes it even more exciting when a piece manages to do all that anyway. And I love the fact that the title, address, or logo doesn’t have to be oversized.
Q: Some of your works dig into psychology and behavior. How do you decide which ideas belong on paper?
A: I move between several different states of mind when creating. Sometimes it starts logically: if the poster is connected to a text, performance, or theme, I list out all visual ideas and metaphors, then test combinations until one clicks. Other times I begin with a feeling I can’t describe in words — I write or draw aimlessly until an image emerges, and only then do I understand the theme. And then there are the random moments: testing a new tool, seeing a glitch, or stumbling into an unexpected visual accident. I love these chance events and often save them, realizing later which poster they were waiting for.
Q: You often move between abstract ideas and very practical visuals. How do you keep those two sides connected in your process?
A: For me it’s like two halves of the brain: the subconscious and imagination on one side, the conscious and logical on the other. Sometimes I stay entirely in imagination — almost a trance where I don’t want to be interrupted. That’s the state where new concepts are born. Later, when I step out of it, logic joins in to finish the poster, refine it, and make it coherent. In my professional work I mostly operate in the logical mode, so these creative trances feel essential — they are what make me feel most alive. The rhythm between imagination and structure is what keeps the work connected and balanced.
