My philosophy:

“People don’t want design. They want a beautiful, better life.”
After so many years of experience I realized that good products and websites start and end with people. I understand the needs and challenges of stakeholders and Users using amazing questions and solid empathy, before designing through fast iteration. Experience working with C-Level.

I have a business mindset, a strong intuition that cuts through BS and use a proactive attitude to work through the obstacles and ship things. Creating and building products is a gentle act between humility and confidence, something I work on every day.

Below you can find 20+ years of design experience, distilled into a couple of simple and actionable points.


Ciprian's Design Principles:

  1. Business > Creativity. I design every project starting with the business perspective, vision, context, goals and KPIs. Creativity that doesn't add business value has a good place in the art or experimentation, but it can be a beautiful, seductive menace.

  2. Simplicity > Clutter. People are overwhelmed by too many apps, ecosystems, features, content. In a world that seems to want to do it all, I like to fight for simplicity and strip designs to the core use cases.

  3. Collaboration > Isolation. I don't believe in the magician designer who comes out of nowhere, creates in a vacuum and saves the day. I like to welcome onboard colleagues from different departments and the clients, IN THE BEGINNING of the design process.

  4. People > Users. I'm still amazed of how many businesses create products for people without actually talking to them. Taking time to do that transforms Users into People. It's easier to reach your goals when you understand what your clients actually need.

  5. Slow Design > Fast Design. Similar to Fast Fashion trend, I consider the fast and brainless design culture, toxic and wasteful. Some processes can't be rushed without losing the essentials in the process. Slow, mindful and thorough design is a lot of times faster than fast, ignorant and dribbblish design.

  6. Innovation > Templatized experiences. Real innovation takes times and resources. Whipping together a design template is fast, forgettable, and doesn't address the real people's needs is often times an exercise in speedy futility. In a world obsessed with speed and overnight success, the best products are still built in decades, not days.

  7. Evergreen > Trends. Old School design may sometimes be dated, but it still holds value. I love following, understanding and copying trends WHILE building on evergreen principles that add true value to clients, not just fancy gradients.

  8. Context > "Industry Standards". Every company, every team, every human is different. My focus is to understand the context, preferences, working styles, culture and flows of the companies I work with. Based on that, we can built products, assets and even design systems that are really used and provide value, instead of costly exercises in following a shiny "standard" that doesn't apply.


Ciprian's Working Principles:

  1. Honesty. Truth can hurt the Ego and ruffle some feathers, and it's also the fastest and safe way to build or rebuild something that has real chances. Most of the times I do a good job of being honest and not critical, cruel, or an asshole :).

  2. Directness. Let's go directly to the elephant in the room and address it. One of my favorite quotes it's a Zen saying: if you want to climb a mountain, start at the top. I’m gonna be extremely direct and tell you exactly what I see, adapted to the level I feel you can grow - sometimes trying to do too much too soon, has the opposite effect.

  3. Courage. Addressing the elephant in the room needs guts. That's why a lot of people prefer to walk by it like nothing's happening. I'm ready to embrace the suck alongside my clients, for the promise of a better outcome.

  4. Openness. I like to be direct, kind and mindful and also invite my clients to the same. True communication and openness forges better collaboration, even if Egos take a beating from time to time. You can give me feedback, or request to collaborate or or communicate in a different way, as long it's real, committed and goal oriented.

  5. Urgency. Beating around the bush, and letting fear, overthinking or decision paralysis to run the show for too much is costly and draining. Taking action and putting things into the world to see what really happens is a necessary part of making progress in reality, not just into our own minds.

  6. Humility. After all is said and done, ideas and executed strategies don't always strike gold. Accepting failure and learning from it is a critical skill in a fast changing world. The marketplace is (almost) always right. I work every day to try and keep the fragile balance between humility and confidence.

    I'm perfectly aware that the world we live in has a lot of people who are not interested or capable of embracing these principles and stick with them. At the same time, in this life's season I need and want to work with people who want to walk the walk, not just talk and create confusion. I want to partner with clients who want to change their products and digital experiences for the better and achieve their goals, not play games.


DESIGN WRITINGS


INTERESTS

Storytelling, Writing, FilmMaking, Creativity, Drawing, Mountain Climbing, Running, Adventure Travel