Over 100 educational videos for the price of a cup of coffee. Senior Product Designer launches Dsgn Academy educational platform for designers with world-class courses in Ukrainian

With over 10 years of experience in UX/U design, Andriy has long dreamed of creating an educational platform so that Ukrainian designers would not have to search for educational materials all over the Internet, but would simply come in and learn with pleasure.

A small team is working on creating the platform, which is called Dsgn Academy (in Ukrainian - "Design Academy"):

• Andriy Mamontov himself, who is responsible for the general idea, direction and content;
• Iryna Garan is a UI/UX designer and project manager who helps structure everything and assists with platform design;
• Oleksandr Garan is a Full-Stack developer who implemented everything technically;
• 7 volunteers who help with translation, testing, and covers.

"Each of us has a main job, but we worked on this project in our free time. In the evenings, at night, on weekends — simply because we were passionate about this idea," says Andriy.

Active work on the project began in March 2025. The platform will be launched next week, August 25 (Monday evening).

"We are finalizing the last details, and we want users to feel comfortable and happy from day one," adds the founder of Dsgn Academy.

At the start, the team prepared over 100 videos and 5 full-fledged courses translated into Ukrainian. Among them:

• Figma Design for Beginners;
• Introduction to Design Systems;
• Figma K-12 Design Basics;
• Mastering Animations and Interactions in Framer;
• Getting started with Webflow.

In the near future, they plan to add courses from Framer, Webflow, Spline, and Rive.

“We want to cover all the modern tools that designers actually use in their work,” Andriy notes.

To help users easily find the best, the platform uses a special parser: it automatically tracks new videos, checks the number of views, likes, and comments, and calculates the "quality" factor.

After that, the team manually reviews and keeps only what is truly worth paying attention to. “Our goal is not to throw everything at everyone, but to give only the most useful,” explains the founder.

According to Andriy, this will be a "living project" because they plan to add new high-quality, relevant videos and update the selections every day. That is, it will not be just a static library.

The project was implemented with the founder's own funds.

The project was built on his own enthusiasm and investments. Andriy personally invested in development, infrastructure, translation services, design, video hosting, etc. He does not disclose the amount of money invested, but notes that "the costs were considerable."

The development team receives payment for their work, and volunteers support the project on a voluntary basis.

“But the most important thing is not even money, but time, energy, and hundreds of personal hours that each member of the team invested to do something real and useful for the Ukrainian community,” Andriy begins.

How will the project be monetized?

The team wants to make Dsgn Academy accessible to everyone. But because the platform requires regular support (hosting, translation services, development, new content), and all this costs a lot of money every month, there will be an opportunity to subscribe for a symbolic fee, comparable to the price of a cup of coffee . The subscription will open access to full course collections and exclusive materials.

“This will help cover basic costs and allow us to develop the platform further. This is not about profit. This is about us being able to keep this project alive and useful together,” says Andriy.

You can now fill out the form to become the first users of Dsgn Academy. As of now, over 1,500 people have already left their contacts.

About plans

The team's immediate plans include expanding the functionality: adding the ability to create your own collections, save your favorite videos, and comment.

In general, Andriy wants to make Dsgn Academy a full-fledged space for the development of designers, from the first step to the PRO level. So the plans also include:

• personalized account with progress, selections, notes;
• classification by level of difficulty, tools and topics;
• AI assistant;
• a full-fledged mobile application;
• and some features that the team is not yet revealing.

"My dream is for everyone who comes here by chance to stay for a long time. And one day he said: 'This is where it all started,'" Andriy concluded.

How novice designers can get a job at Wix after an internship — insights from Kyiv Playground Academy participants

On the topic

How novice designers can get a job at Wix after an internship — insights from Kyiv Playground Academy participants

How vibecoding gives IT professionals the feeling that they can do more and think bigger. Insights from developers, a designer, a System Support Engineer, a PM, and a marketer

On the topic

How vibecoding gives IT professionals the feeling that they can do more and think bigger. Insights from developers, a designer, a System Support Engineer, a PM, and a marketer

What salaries can non-technical IT professionals — managers, marketers, recruiters, and designers — boast in the summer of 2025. What the DOU study says

On the topic

What salaries can non-technical IT professionals — managers, marketers, recruiters, and designers — boast in the summer of 2025. What the DOU study says

Read the country's main IT news in our Telegram

On the topic

Read the country's main IT news in our Telegram