Daryna Barykina
Conceptual Artist, Creative Director and Producer
I am Daryna Barykina, a Jacksonville, Florida–based conceptual artist, creative director, and producer of artist-led brand collaborations. I work with food, beverage, spirits, home design, tableware, and drinkware brands to develop distinctive visual worlds that connect product, story, atmosphere, and cultural meaning.
Through campaign packages, I lead projects from concept and visual strategy through art direction, production, photography, motion, and final delivery. The result is a cohesive library of assets for every brand touchpoint—from campaign hero images and product stories to social content, digital channels, editorial placements, and retail applications.
My approach brings a personal artistic perspective and human touch to commercial work, creating considered, sensory imagery that makes products feel memorable and gives brands a richer visual language. I collaborate worldwide through remote production and travel for selected projects.
My artistic practice: making time visible
My emerging fine-art practice explores time, memory, and transformation through botanical still life. Working primarily with flowers and citrus from my garden, I build layered photographs through a trompe l’oeil process: each new image is created over an earlier one, allowing multiple moments to exist within a single composition.
As the layers accumulate, details soften and memories appear to change. This process reflects my interest in how time is experienced, remembered, and reimagined. It also informs my work with brands, where I create conceptual visual worlds that connect products with atmosphere, story, and emotion.
From photographer to creative and art director
My journey began with a fascination with advertising images. As a child, I secretly tore pages from fashion magazines in the waiting room of a beauty salon where my mother received hair treatments. Those pages became an early education in visual language and inspired my ambition to become a photographer.
After immigrating to the United States, I built and led a creative agency for 12 years, developing campaigns for major haircare brands. That experience expanded my role from image-making to creative leadership and production. It taught me how content supports a brand, guides customers through their journey, and adapts across every marketing touchpoint.
As a creative and art director, I understand both the artistic and commercial sides of a brief. I know how to translate strategy into visual direction, manage budgets and timelines, source crews and talent, and lead production from concept through final delivery. My experience allows me to speak the language of brand and marketing teams while protecting the clarity and originality of the creative idea.
Artist-led collaborations with brands
I collaborate with brands as an artist and creative partner. A collaboration may begin with a product, material, atmosphere, or brand story and develop into a conceptual visual world. I can incorporate a brand’s product into my artistic practice, create work inspired by its identity, or bring my personal perspective into a campaign or editorial project.
My role may include concept development, creative direction, art direction, visual research, mood boards, shot lists, budgeting, crew and talent sourcing, vendor coordination, production planning, styling, photography, video, editing, retouching direction, and final asset delivery. I can lead a project from the first idea through turnkey production.
Selected experience and collaborations
My experience includes beauty, cultural, publishing, technology, and fine-art collaborations. These projects demonstrate my ability to understand a brief, develop a visual direction, and lead creative work from concept through production and delivery.
Paul Mitchell Touch of Gold — Art Director and Producer; part of a three-year partnership with Paul Mitchell.
Getty Museum Shop — Artist-led collaboration creating an outfit and styling it through my personal visual language.
Panasonic Lumix — Live-view composite demonstration and final images.
Simon & Schuster — Four-year collaboration on trilogy covers for bestselling author Susan Young. The imagery inspired audiences to recreate the visual concept on social media.
Bay Photo Labs — Collaboration focused on framing my personal artwork and demonstrating the possibilities of professional materials and presentation.
For the full list of projects, explore Creative & Art Direction, Brand Collaborations & Commissions, and Artworks.
Education, recognition, and professional foundation
I completed the Inside LVMH — Creation & Branding, Retail & Customer Experience program in 2024 and am currently pursuing Digital Marketing for Luxury Brands at ESSEC Business School.
My education includes an MBA from Ukrainian-American Concordia University, formerly WIUU; a Bachelor of Finance in Information Systems, Management, and Business from European University in Kyiv; and a diploma from Kyiv Photography School.
My recognitions include the 2020 Global Grand Prize in the Lady Gaga × Adobe Chromatica Tour competition and the 2018 Rising Star in Photography award from the FGI North Florida Awards.
Working with me
I am available for commissioned artwork, artist-led brand collaborations, creative direction, campaign development, and end-to-end creative production. I work with brands, agencies, publishers, editorial teams, and cultural organizations worldwide, remotely or on location.
For an artwork commission, brand collaboration, creative direction brief, or campaign inquiry, contact me to discuss the idea, product, or story you want to bring into the world.