Designer Ilya Razumov is that guy from Chertanovo who is now designing cars for people who own private jets. Recently, he stopped by the «Business FM» studio to talk about the experience: trading Moscow traffic jams for foggy Albion and creating limited-edition sports cars that cost as much as an apartment in Moscow City. We extracted the highlights from this long conversation. Spoiler: talent doesn’t decide everything.

If you think that simply drawing nice cars in Procreate is enough, think again. Ilya’s journey to the British lion on the hood is a plot worthy of a dramatic Netflix series about perseverance. Pain statistics: Over his career, Razumov sent out about a thousand resumes. He only got five responses. A thousand rejections! This isn’t some girl in a coffee shop saying no; this is an entire industry systematically telling you «no.» Almost every major global corporation, including Russian brands, told him «goodbye.»

A Master’s Tip: Internships Make the Difference. A diploma from Stroganovka or Polytech is just a piece of paper confirming you can attend lectures. To land a spot in a real design center, you need hands-on experience in a studio environment. Ilya went through the grinder: • Porsche Design studio (where his yacht project suddenly went into production). • Audi center in Ingolstadt. • Volkswagen studio in Wolfsburg. In Germany, he met his future boss from Bentley. He had known the guy since his internship at Audi. The takeaway is simple: people in this field know each other. Incidentally, the competition was 500 people for one spot, and they hired a guy with a Russian passport. So, citizenship is not a barrier at all.

The most important revelation from the designer is that he still doesn’t have a driver’s license. He honestly admits that dealing with the technical aspects bores him. His job is to make the car look like a dream at a cost of 30 million rubles—where it will go and how it will brake—that’s for the engineers to worry about.

In November 2025, a bomb exploded in New York—the premiere of the Bentley Continental GT Supersports. The limited run of 500 units sold out even before the first one rolled off the assembly line. Our hero designed the exterior of this rocket.

Bentley embodies a specific aesthetic: heavyweight luxury, the might of a British battleship, and aristocracy. The challenge for the SuperSports designer was to fuse this formality with the primal fury of a race car. The goal was to visually lighten the massive bodywork, inject aggression into the radiator grille, while preserving that instantly recognizable silhouette. The process takes years. It begins with hundreds of marker sketches (yes, the old-school way), followed by digital sketches, and then sculpting full-scale clay mockups. [The designer’s name, if known] drove this project from initial concept to final blueprint. The SuperSports is Bentley’s fastest and lightest vehicle in history. The designer must account for aerodynamics. Every line here either contributes to downforce or aids in cooling the wild engine—it is mathematics encased in beautiful design.

Okay, we listened to Uncle Ilya. What should we pack in our luggage? 1. If Ilya gave up after the hundredth rejection, he’d probably just be painting fences now. Ninety-nine will say no, but one will say yes. And that will change your life. 2. A red diploma won’t impress anyone. An internship in a studio is what matters. Go where it smells like epoxy and hot plastic, even if you have to work for food and a place to stay. 3. Razumov loves the process of shaping form. Love your craft enough to do it for free at night. It’s those sketches made from the soul that usually catch the art directors at major companies. 4. Born in Chertanovo? Okay. Study in Moscow, intern in Austria and Germany, work in England. The world is big, and great design is made by people who can pack their suitcases faster than their model renders in V-Ray.