Interview with Alina Rizescu
Alina is an architect active in the experience design field. She likes to explore ways to use technology and creativity to extend design over merely aesthetics and form towards an interactive way to…
Designer Interview
17 April 2016
I have a degree in architecture and the main reason for choosing this career was its humanistic approach in the sense that architecture studies in a holistic way human behavior in the anthropique environment. I believe that design thinking can be implemented at any scale, city, building or product. This choice was natural because I was imagining and drawing different constructions and objects since I was a child.
RIZI design was founded in 2013 by me and my partner Bogdan Stefanescu. Our mission is to create design experiences that connect people and ideas. We do this a large range of projects from branding and event design, product and interior design, to interactive and digital projects.
I see design as a medium for creating experiences that connect ideas to people. I believe that design should be created regarding its context, should ad value to the environment and should contain a message.
I prefer the projects where we can design an integrated concept using different mediums: visual, digital, space and object related. At RIZI we believe that the most powerful message is transmited to a complete and interactive experience through unitary and coherent design products.
Every project is challenging and interesting and gives as a hype when creating it. My favorite think is the experience I have while creating a concept. I think the joy and energy I'm having when designing is transmitted to the product and it gives it a "heart".
One of the first independent projects, before we've founded RIZI, was the event identity for TedX Bucharest. It was very fulfilling to be part of an event I admire so much.
My favorite medium is the mix between digital and material. Interactive installations that use the physical space together with technology in order to generate a user experience.
I feel most creative when I speak with people of different backgrounds and cultures, when I hear their stories.
User experience is what I focus on, finding the right concept, material, form etc that creates the best reaches the audience and generates a unique and positive experience.
It's hard to put the finger on just emotions, it's a mix between joy, energy and the feeling of connection with the final user.
Usually I feel a relief and pride at the same time, like when you take your child to school for the first time. And also curiosity - to see if the public will receive it as expected.
A design is successful if it is validated by the target audience. If people recognize it serves well its purpose and brings added value.
I first analyze if it responds to a human need. Then I think about the way this answer is given, and if the design is sustainable from economic, environmental and social points of view.
s designers, we can influence more than the physical environment, we can change ways of thinking or raise awareness on a subject. Our challenge is to be sensitive to people needs and desires and to offer a vision that has a positive impact on both people and environment.
Design is getting democratized. More and more people have access to design crafting tools. The future of design might be a continuous process of making better a design by co-creation and by evolving the user in the design process.
Our last exhibition was at Salone dei Mobili in Milan, this year, at the Romanian design stand "Dizainar". The next to come is Romanian Design Week, may of 2016.
Inspiration comes from looking around. Sometimes is nature, other times people or the city, art or cinema. Creativity is best fed with positive thinking and lack of stress.
I would say it's contextual. I think a lot about the context in which the design is to be experimented.
I live in my home town Bucharest, a vivid, inventive and contrasting city. Coming from an eastern Europe country makes us more relaxed when having to design with restrictions, financial, technological, cultural. We've learned to imagine creative solutions for any problem and never give up.
Our studio works from a large range of companies, from local to international, private or public, commercial or NGO's, start-ups or established. It's important that their products have a positive impact on society, if so we are glad to help them reach their goal and to create design that connects an idea with its target audience.
To choose a designer that has compatible values with their product / business.
I first start with a research on the market and the audience in order to better understand the need. Than I think about the message that my design has to transmit, I try to define some key principals for the design. Afterwords I let my mind create freely and mix different scenarios.
Any device connected to the internet and items on which I can comfortably sit or lie down.
I try to alternate work and walking or biking.
I think I'm one of them, so my advice for my fellow designers would be "never give up".
It's nice that there's no routine envolved, a lot of work is required in order to succed - but if one enjoys it this can be also a plus.
Empathy, analytical and logic.