Work in Progress with Maria Izvestkina
This weeks chat on work, change and hope is with Maria Izvestkina, a Creative Lead at Canva and a trained designer, art director, trend strategist and forever student of what makes something feel right. At heart, she’s endlessly curious about how culture, design, and technology intersect. Maria has worked across trend forecasting, visual strategy, and brand building - but what she really loves is asking questions, spotting patterns, and turning instinct into intention. Maria also writes PLAYIN.
What are you working on right now?
I’m currently exploring a whole new creative territory for myself - fusing art direction, video and motion. For a long time I’ve been fascinated by props design and stop animation… It feels endlessly imaginative, surreal and theatrical to me.
My day job is highly digital, so maybe it’s no surprise that I find myself gravitating toward projects that force me to work with my hands. To build something tactile before it ever touches a screen. It challenges my research skills, my image archival practice and my patience, but it brings me so much joy. It feels like my space to play. I’m not entirely sure what the game plan is yet. Right now, I’m just experimenting.
Besides that I write my Substack - PLAYIN. Writing motivates me to notice things, to articulate instincts I might otherwise ignore and to think critically.
If you could change one thing about the world of work right now, what would it be, and why?
Hmm If I could change one thing about the world of work right now, I would invest far more in developing research skills - across every field.
Research as a practice of noticing patterns, asking better questions, thinking critically and making unexpected connections. I think we’re living in a moment where collecting ideas or saving inspiration to a folder is often mistaken for understanding them. But true research requires curiosity, discernment and the ability to sit with information long enough for value to emerge. It’s what allows you to move from imitation to insight, no matter the industry.
I think strengthening research skills would elevate everything.
What's giving you hope right now?
Independent film is giving me hope right now.
In 2025, I watched dozens of films that genuinely moved me and not the big Hollywood releases. I’m talking about independent directors, artists, costume designers, prop designers. Films where you can feel the intention in every frame. Especially non-Western cinema. Asian and Scandinavian films in particular have felt incredibly alive to me. There’s a different pacing and trust in the audience.
What excites me most is the return of craft in film.
It feels like filmmakers are building worlds with care again. There’s something hopeful about watching filmmakers choose storytelling over spectacle and atmosphere over formula. Maybe I’m slightly naive but it reminds me that creativity doesn’t disappear when industries shift, it finds a way.
And that gives me a lot of hope.
Work in progress is a celebration of the effort and mindset required to make real change exist.
The most important jobs are never done and great work happens somewhere in the messy middle, where its all too easy to give up. But optimism is a pragmatic choice we make daily, so if you’re navigating change and want a thinking partner along the way, explore how we work.