About Aljona Grigorjeva | Brand Strategist, Art Director & Photographer

ALJONA GRIGORJEVA

I believe that connection with a brand begins long before the first experience. That’s why I combine strategy, art direction, branding and commercial photography to create visual experiences that make hospitality brands impossible to ignore.

Here’s how that journey began.

ALJONA GRIGORJEVA

I believe that connection with a brand begins long before the first experience. That’s why I combine strategy, art direction, branding and commercial photography to create visual experiences that make hospitality brands impossible to ignore.

Here’s how that journey began.

My work today combines
ART DIRECTION, BRANDING COMMERCIAL PHOTOGRAPHY & MARKETING, but it didn't start there.

Growing up during the early digital era, I got my first digital camera in 2004. Like many teenagers, I photographed everything around me, but with one small difference. At the same time, I was studying at art school, where I learned that every image could communicate something.

Whether it’s a photograph, a painting or a sculpture, an artist can tell a story, express an emotion or share an idea everything depends on what you choose to put into it.

That’s why most of my photoshoots with friends always started with an idea. We planned the concept, chose the location, thought about the styling and the atmosphere first. The camera was always the last step. Photoshop became the final tool that brought those ideas to life. That’s how my first six years with a camera went.

After graduating from both secondary school and art school, where I spent a total of 12 years, I continued my creative education by studying interior design. While studying, I worked part-time in restaurants, and that’s where photography came back into my life.

I’ve always loved hospitality. Not just the food, but everything around it - the atmosphere, the interiors, beautifully presented dishes and the feeling a place can create.

While working in restaurants, I found myself constantly thinking about how visual communication could attract more guests. I started photographing the places I worked in, experimenting with ideas and trying to understand what makes people choose one restaurant over another. It was 2014, and restaurant content for Instagram and Facebook barely existed in Estonia.

Later came my own brands. I created the branding, developed the products and built everything around them because I understood that without a complete brand identity, it would be almost impossible to sell online. People need to fall in love with a product before they decide to buy it. Since someone had to create the visuals, I photographed everything myself.

About a year later, I realised I didn’t actually want to create products anymore. I wanted to create the visual language behind brands. That’s when the first commercial commissions started coming in, and I began my career as a commercial photographer. At the same time, I started teaching photography and visual communication.

Over the following years, I developed and led my own workshops, organised more than 50 educational events, taught photography, brand strategy and visual communication, and shared my knowledge with more than 200 students through workshops, courses and creative events, including teaching at Paprika Marketing School. Teaching became another way of understanding visual communication - explaining ideas to others constantly challenged me to refine my own creative thinking.

I started in commercial food photography, working with restaurants, bars, beverage companies and food manufacturers. Over time, my work naturally expanded into beauty and wellness brands, where I discovered the same fascination with texture, colour, light and storytelling.

Throughout the years, I’ve collaborated with more than 150 brands and businesses, including international and leading Baltic brands such as Fazer, Liviko, Orkla, NS KING, R-Kiosk, Fentimans, Freixenet, Prike, Sunfly, Ultimate Beauty, LashWeb, Plumme, Berrichi, Macta beauty as well as hospitality brands such as Peppersack, Katharinental, La Copa, Peatus, Sigmund Freud, Art Priori, Tar-Tar Gastro Bar, Tableonline and many other restaurants, bars and beauty businesses across Estonia.

Curiosity has always pushed me to keep learning. Alongside years of practical experience, I continued investing in professional education.

I studied Commercial Product Photography, Lighting & Visual Composition with Daria Kalugina (Contrse), Color Grading for Commercial Photography with Dyuzhakin (REVUER), Visual Branding, Digital Positioning & Social Media Communication with Tanya Chuprova (Brand Visualizer), Brand Creation & Fashion Brand Development at Fashion Factory School, Graphic Design, Branding & Brand Identity at Wonderland School with Alice Yakovleva, and completed advanced Retouching Training with Daria Bulavina and Galya Anis.

Today, I’m also studying PR & Advertising at Tallinn University BFM, continuing to combine practical experience with strategic thinking.