Meet the Unsplash team: Kirill Zakharov

Who are you and what’s your role at Unsplash?

I’m Kirill, Head of Design at Unsplash. Over the years, I’ve touched most aspects of Unsplash: from product design to marketing, to various side projects and everything in between (including a big chunk of our code base).

When did you join the team?

I joined Unsplash (Crew) a while back, when Unsplash was still a Tumblr blog. My official first day at the “office” was August 14th, 2014.

Where do you live?

I live in Montreal, Canada — the city where I met our founders Mikael, Luke, and Steph. At the time, there were only a few tech startups that “got it”.

Where do you work?

I’ve always been a firm believer in working where you do your best work. While we have an office (that we used to use more often pre-pandemic), I do some of my best work at home — in the late hours of the day.

What does a regular day at Unsplash look like for you?

I like to take it slow and ease into my day with a cup of coffee while catching up with Slack, Linear, GitHub, and emails. I then transition into video calls, design-related reviews and one-on-ones. My afternoons and late nights consist of more focused hands-on work in Figma or VSCode.

What is your favorite thing you worked on at Unsplash?

I’m extremely proud of Unsplash as a whole: the product and the community around it. For those of you who know me, Unsplash is very dear to me since I’ve been shaping this project for a very long time.

That being said, some of my favourite projects were born from side projects. The Unsplash Awards (which we’ve been running for 7 consecutive years now) was initially a way for the design team to highlight our favorite photos. It grew into something much bigger, with some amazing judges and sponsors involved. This project brings back memories of the early days of Unsplash when we’d invite guest curators to pick some of their favorite photos every 10 days. Maybe we’ll bring this format back one day 🤫

Favorite working snack?

I don’t snack much while I work, but if you do catch me with food at my desk, then it’s a full 3-course meal.

What do you do when you aren’t working on Unsplash?

Since I spend a lot of time in front of the screen, I try to balance it out by spending time away from it. I recently got into cycling, so I try to go for a ride on my Specialized (Tarmac Disc Comp) whenever it’s nice out. As for a less healthy activity, I enjoy discovering wines and the producers behind them. I also mix music from time to time.

I also love iPhone photography. There’s something about seeing people’s reaction when they find out that most of my photos were shot with my pocket camera phone 🤳

Describe yourself using 3 emojis.

Where can people find you/chat with you?

@kirillz on X (Twitter) and IG, though I check my socials much less these days.