The Dymkovsky toy is far from just colorful figurines of animals and funny people, painted with catchy and cheerful ornaments. The toy carries the character of a talisman, a lot of symbols, which will be described in this book.

The visual study is devoted to the history of the Dymkov toy, the study of the peculiarities of its manufacture, the study of the origins, the specifics of the ornament and the relevance of the toy in our days. It tells about the first and great masters of the Dymkovo toy from the city of Vyatka (in ancient times—the village of Dymkovo), about what each type of ornament means, about how the toy of the city of Vyatka differs from the rest.

Images of clay toys are placed on colored backgrounds: green, yellow, red and blue. This is done in order to focus the viewer’s attention on the cheerful color scheme that is used in the craft. The photos are tinted yellow-orange to achieve the same effect.

Specially for the project, the author’s font Dymkovo Type was developed, inspired by the plasticity, curves and cheerful, cheerful and folk character of the Dymkovo toy. The font is mainly used in the titles, subheadings and columns of the book, acting as a kind of accent. In the titles, the letters are also tinted to match the main colors of the toys or painted with a characteristic ornament.

The book consists of 5 sections: 1 — the origin of the craft, 2 — the manufacture of toys, 3 — the features of toys, 4 — motives and plots, 5 — the modernity and relevance of the craft. Spreads with information alternate with color spreads showing a Dymkov toy. This project was done as a student project in HSE Art and Design School in 2022, curated by Ivan Vetrov.