I'm a design, branding, and marketing leader with more than a decade of experience in the education and nonprofit sectors. This is how I got started.
Me (left) and my sister Alina, in front of my grandparent's stable.
As a child, were you ever asked to — or rather told to — do something you didn’t want to do?
Growing up in communist Romania, I often had to help my grandmother hand wash clothes in cold water. I loved my grandmother but she was not the sweet kind of grandma who spoiled her grandchildrenAnd I hated chores, with all the vengeance of a tiny human.
Growing up in communist Romania, I often had to help my grandmother hand wash clothes in cold water. I loved my grandmother but she was not the sweet kind of grandma who spoiled her grandchildrenAnd I hated chores, with all the vengeance of a tiny human.
One morning, I was drawing by myself as my grandmother and sister set up the large laundry bins. And for once — the only time it ever happened — my grandmother said “You can skip doing laundry today if you draw me and your sister as we wash the clothes over here instead.”
I can still picture it today: two large bins, one white, one pink, each perched on a stool, grandma handling clothes in one, my sister in the other. They were framed by the large blue-gray wooden doors of the stable my grandfather had built.
Many years later I went to art school in Cluj-Napoca (Romania) I discovered there that I love the creative process and ideation, and I loved problem-solving, and I loved understanding human psychology. And for me, design is where all of those things meet.
Design can and should provide solutions to all sorts of problems andenhance our world in thoughtful ways. But it needs to engage with the human mind and heart to make it compelling.
It’s okay that I didn’t turn out to be Rembrandt 2.0, because I am fascinated with how thinking, and doing, and sharing with other human beings all intersect so vividly in the world of design. For me design isn’t about beauty and aesthetics, it’s about connecting and helping people navigate this complex world.
It’s okay that I didn’t turn out to be Rembrandt 2.0, because I am fascinated with how thinking, and doing, and sharing with other human beings all intersect so vividly in the world of design. For me design isn’t about beauty and aesthetics, it’s about connecting and helping people navigate this complex world.
To quote an architect and thinker I deeply admire: “When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty but when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.” – R. Buckminster Fuller