Bogdan Moga

I've always been curious. Ever since I was a kid I've wanted to know how things work, so I'd open perfectly functional electronic devices around the house, just to look inside, get an insight into their inner workings. From there I grew up always learning, trying new things, but never formally attending art classes. For me working in a design oriented space happened when I was recruited by an ad agency in my town after I've done my first commercial design work for a computer shop I was working in at the time. In time I've gotten better at it, and 9 years later, I still work as an advertising Art Director. But I've always been interested not only in the look of things, but also in the functional value they bring.

It is a riddle. Given this known amount of X and the desired outcome of Y, mixed with the available resources Z, what is the best possible solution? I've had the privilege of working in many different design areas, including print, digital, activation, branding, product and package design and seems to me that they are all looking for the solution that best combines the practical and emotional.

A while ago I've had this idea of a hamster powered clock. And I obsessed over it for a while and then designed it. It was not meant to be a physical product, but rather a digital clock that would be a widget on a smartphone. I created the graphics for it, then found a great developer to be excited by and code it (Natie Klopper) and so Timester was born. It is still available in Google Play as a live wallpaper. We worked on it for about a year in our spare time, and added as much fun and function as we could. This chubby pink hamster would run, or sleep, or drink coffee, or walk very tired all tied to the time of day. It would always show you time in an engaging way. I've enjoyed the work on it tremendously, it was both fun and a steep learning curve, it was my first animated smartphone app project.

When I was in college, I was working in a small computer shop as a technician and I volunteered to do and print some promotional posters for that shop. Then I went on to do my first DM campaign, small press ads, promotional flyers for that shop.

I'm frustrated. And restless. And maybe not in the best of moods. Because once I have a slight idea of what I want to do, I have to expand on that, find solutions to more and more issues that come up. And I have to keep pushing myself to see it through.

Ultimately I think good design is design that lasts. Time is the only judge that can accurately attest to good design.

First is the emotional response. How does it make me feel? And if it also has a practical side, how would I use it? Would I or the party that it is designed for find use for it? Is it easy to use at first sight? How is it constructed, how does it work?

I live in Bucharest, born and raised in Romania. And as a former communist country we have 50 years of lack of design innovation to make up for. On one hand we have an education system that is built to teach a wide ranging body of knowledge, but on the other there is a big visual identity space that needs to be filled. These combine to make for a generation of designers and visual artists that are driven, focused and willing to prove themselves, to go beyond borders that their parents never could surpass.

Work hard on presenting the problem, with all it's aspects. Be open. Work on asking the right questions. Work on writing the briefs. Let the designer come with the solutions. Set reasonable expectations then wait for the designer to exceed them.

I consider myself an up and coming designer so I don't know if I'm the right person, but I will say this. Find your own motivation and set your standards three times as high as your client, and twice as high as your peers when doing even the most seemingly insignificant thing.

On the good side you enjoy good design a lot more, on the bad side you get very disappointed when that opportunity is missed.

The current design of the lamp is the third in a series that was improved in time with feedback from a lot of people, I am fortunate to have been encouraged and gained insight from them. I designed the lamp going through all the stages, from idea, sketch, fabrication, photography, presentation.

I want to expand on the beacon project, have lots of ideas of shapes and sizes I'm working on.

Visit my portfolio www.bogdanmoga.com, or send me an e-mail at bogdan.m.moga@gmail.com

This is my first participation in a product design award competition and I'd like to thank everyone that organized, judged and made this possible. I am giddy with joy to have been awarded this prize and have my work presented in the company of such great design. Thank you.