Lost in Plovdiv

Denitsa Chakurova believes that good design doesn't just decorate – it educates, inspires, and creates connections. For over 15 years, she has been building visual worlds for global brands, but her heart remains in Plovdiv – a city where, according to Denitsa, aesthetics, culture, and environmental care must go hand in hand.

Founder of Plovdiv Design Talk, UX MeetUp Plovdiv, and the GOOD VIBES platform, she now stands behind the new OP34 Studio – an office and a stage for purpose-driven ideas. For Denitsa, design is a way to translate human needs into a clear, functional language – with logic, empathy, and a bit of critical thinking toward the world (and oneself). She doesn’t believe in a division between emotion and logic – for her, they work like a well-oiled mechanism: one gives rise to the other. Denitsa believes that kitsch in Bulgaria shouldn't be denied but consciously “re-saddled”. She sees valuable potential in the cultural layers and visual chaos of Plovdiv. Through design, music, and community, Denitsa creates spaces for impact. But she doesn’t believe in signs and prohibitions – she believes in leading by example. Because, as she says: “A sign doesn’t work if the garbage is inside the person”.

Photographer: Mila Penkova, @milapenkova.photo

1. We’re meeting in your new office. Congratulations. What did it make you ‘stand at the door’ of OP34 Studio – literally and metaphorically?

I try to create what I miss. Things I want to see, hear, and feel in the environment around me.

2. When you're not thinking about design, where does your mind go?

I don’t consciously think about design – I think about human needs at every level of Maslow’s pyramid. What makes us different and what connects us. The answers to these questions later take shape through design. What we see around us shapes us to a large extent.

3. If you could erase just one visual cliché from Plovdiv’s urban landscape, what would it         be?

I wouldn’t erase anything. I’d rather work with what we already have and build on it. For example – I’d bring back the shine of “Otets Paisiy” Street.

4. If you had to give the spirit and rhythm of Plovdiv through your eyes to someone – what would you give them: a book, a song, or an object?

A sunset from one of the hills – to truly feel the city.

Photographer: Mila Penkova, @milapenkova.photo

5. Do you think there’s a link between visual culture and cleanliness in a city?

I believe the environment educates – sometimes even more than the family. A beautiful and well-maintained space generates respect. But these are long-standing cultural layers – it takes just as much conscious effort to change them.

6. If you could leave one sign on every street in Kapana – what would it say to make people stop and pick up their trash?

There’s no place for signs in Kapana – especially not for clichés. Signs don’t help when the garbage is “inside” the person. It doesn’t matter where you are – in London, Kapana, or on the Moon – you always carry yourself with you.