Anual Designer's Meeting in Romania

Deep down inside each of us there is a strong desire to be part of something bigger than us. And that explains our spiritual nature, so present in our societies from the beginning of time. We want to be part of the group, we want to be accepted, seen, appreciated and loved, just as important as eating or sleeping. We bond sitting around fires, we recognise ourselves in others, we belong, we are being seen and that creates connection and meaning.

Firstly, no one has an identity by itself, we are built from the outside too by discovering parts of us in others and I believe, somewhere down the road, being part of a group meant survival. Things like these are hardly intentional, these are written in the DNA, we simply can’t control this urge of having good company. And good company is perfect to confirm our existence.

Unfortunately, a freelance life is a life of self-imposed isolation and loneliness at times. Sometimes I am amazed at how much time I spend in my own company, and how rarely I even get outside, days pass without me getting some real sunlight. It saddens me profoundly. Obviously, we engage in conversations with our clients and sometimes with other designers, either via email, social media, messages and video calls, but this just doesn’t fill the void. There are not enough money, titles and recognition badges in the world that can replace presence, touch and real life interactions. Is this so terrible? At times, yes. As Alexander Supertramp wrote in his journal shortly before his death in Alaska, “Happiness is only real when it is shared.” So personal freedom, just like personal identity, needs human connection.

Now, clients can offer really good feedback and appreciation for the work you do and this is beautiful. It is only when your peers, people from the same industry, recognise your labour, your effort, your process, the appreciation feels complete. Because they know what it takes, it confirms legitimacy within the field, it says “you belong here, in our ranks” and having a tribe to belong to speaks to one’s identity, not performance. Their appreciation is freely given, it bears weight, it’s not transactional.

Why are we like this?

Why do we spend our hours, our days in dark rooms and bright screens, why do we at times fantasise about dropping it all and moving somewhere in the mountains? It is almost a common fetish among freelancers, especially those “solopreneurs” who are supposed to be “free”. Because this type of work became heavily digitalised. Where once working with other people, doing lettering on shops, preparing bureaucratic systems, signage and so on, required a lot of interactions, now this profession means hallucinating in front of a screen, “making the logo bigger” and questioning a lot of your life decisions.

You see avatars, logos, grids, refined portfolios and confident photos of our peers. We admire each other’s work, silently, sometimes obsessively, all the while disconnected from the reality and all the doubts behind those polished projects, ignorant of the human behind the craft. It’s a different kind of connection, admiration without a voice and visibility without a breath or a shared laughter. It’s all likes, shares and comments and an infinite scroll. What the fuck are we scrolling for, what do we even hope to find down there? I tell you exactly what, we want to find each other.

Let's meet in person

When I started working as a freelancer, I felt the need of a community to either vent or search for approval. I wanted to be part of a group that goes through the same shit. Years later, one designer from Cluj that used to sell design resources decided to start an online community of freelancers and I decided to support it and be part of it. I hoped for something different and Stefan, he seemed like he was down to business, so I joined his project, Libraria De Design. Beautifully branded, well written copy, amazing illustrations and a good platform to hang out with strangers that had more in common with me than I thought. The community grew, good people joined and stayed and good efforts went into this to make it work right, so I give credit to Stefan and his team because it is well deserved.

In 2024 the first physical meeting was set to take place. Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to join the club, one of my friends was having his wedding the same weekend, but in 2025 I promised I will go. And I did.

Thursday – A day ride and a precise landing

The sun was up, good weather, I was packing my bags on my motorcycle and I left Targu Jiu - where I spent a few days -  in the company of my friend, also a seasoned motorcyclist, who was heading for Brasov. He said he knew a good road for me to get to Sibiel and that we will part ways once I reach the destination. I must admit, the route he picked was superb, lakes, crystal clear rivers, mountains and forests that seemed endless made this ride a dream.

Once I reached the spot, I was immediately greeted by the group that came outside and while we barely knew each other by WhatApp avatars, the welcoming was warm and all the hugging caught me by surprise. We had a nice dinner and had time to get to know each other little by little as the night came and we dropped our prejudices and reservations. It was amazing how fast everyone seemed to enjoy each other.

Friday – Flight Academy

The first day officially began with breakfast and we went straight to workshops. A couple of us, me included, prepared a few talks, workshops and activities to do during these three days. The first workshop was held by Dalibor, a veteran designer who ran a renowned branding agency, full of know how, extremely energetic and a pleasure to listen to. His talk was about using AI in work and in life and it was focused on understanding the tool, adapting and proper prompting. We are to become curators and our job of graphic designers might prematurely evolve to an art director. He spoke with confidence and conviction. I believe I followed and absorbed the way he talked and presented himself more than the actual subject.

The second talk was held by Anamaria Toader, a colorful presence that was also responsible for a lot of the preparations that took place for this event to run smoothly. Anamaria’s presentation was about the client avatar, defining who you are selling design services to, who do you want to work with and who is actually this person that hires you. These observations and arguments had roots in psychology and real life experiences. Her presentation was well built, nice slides and a good smiling presence that made you feel at ease and relaxed.

The third talk was Stefan Asafti, the founder of LDD, and he talked about the importance of a good calendar in the life of a freelancer. And boy oh boy, can we ever get enough organisational skills in order to maintain a good work-life balance? This was a practical talk, explaining his own routine, how he split the day between personal time, family time, client work and other personal projects. And even something small like minimising your phone screen time through small tricks was good advice. I know this man is as ambitious as he is busy. Good and detailed in his presentation, his presence was serious and he was very supportive and encouraging to those who wanted to apply some of his advice right away.

The last talk for the day was from Robert Herineanu, an effervescent figure, high on his own energy, that talked about personal brand and how giving a few fucks, especially on your own insecurities, can help you step up your personal image. Shout out to him for mentioning me as an example for a good personal brand. You know how they say, game recognises game. While he was a bit timid, his energy was great and I believe everyone remembers the mantra of the talk, “FUCK THAT”, as in ignore what may cause doubts and follow through with what you believe in. He was motivational and brought in good energy and fun to close the talk series.

As you can imagine, everyone just kept connecting more and more, and all you had to do was observe how these strangers shared stories and found a mirror in each other. The games, the dance, laughter and late night talks, this was the real thing, the real connection, missing link in our solitary lives of designers, artists and creative personalities. You can ask anyone who attended, they will say that it was magic. What is so appealing about opening up to people you know for barely 24 hours? You could be vulnerable and everyone would match it, you could have doubts and fears and not only would you find real empathy but you would feel real courage in yourself. Say what you want, human connection is the real drug we never get enough.

We ate together, we danced for the rest of the night and when we woke up the second day, we were back at it in no time. The night closed with a series of gifts and a surprise video compilation for Stefan, who had just celebrated his birthday.

Saturday – Fly in formation

After breakfast, Petra encouraged us to return to our primal WHY. Finding a good why could be the catalyst you need to create or change things in your life. A series of exercises guided us to simple answers and helped us establish goals and plan ahead. A very practical workshop. Petra, who is not a designer, stayed by herself mostly observing from the distance when she arrived, but was quickly absorbed by the group and she enjoyed the magic. A soft balanced presence that pushed us to look inward and not only to find what we want from ourselves but to use the WHY as fuel to get it done.

Andrei Coman had a beautiful presentation and proposed a series of questions that we should use when we are designing in order to find what is truly important. Solutions come from a deeper understanding of the client’s problem and that understanding requires good communication. Being relevant to the client and to the scope of the project adds to professionalism and that was a good lesson with good questions to steal and put them in your own brief. Coman was full of common sense and his attitude matched his talk.

Last but not least was yours truly, where I talked about a series of observations and bad design practices and I tried to offer a better understanding of our nature as designers and how some of our beliefs can hurt us. I went through a bit of history, tied the branding practices, bureaucracy and capitalism all together and how sometimes design practices are sustaining commercial systems that don’t align with our values. I ended the talk with a few observations of how the influencer culture and ignorance are creating a bad image about our work. The entire talk can be read here in Romanian language but feel free to use your browser to translate the page. At the end of the talk I gifted everyone a print from my first series. They were well received and made me feel very appreciated, a feeling that I took good care of and brought home with me.

The evening was spectacular again, lots of bonding over games, talks and dancing. It was almost impossible not to hear a laugh coming from a small group. We were scattered everywhere around the chalet’s yard. Why did it feel so natural, so comfortable, so safe to be there? Because we shared the language. Not just design terms, but the rhythms of life, we think, we doubt, we obsess and we care about beautiful things in life.

One thing I appreciated was that there was no hierarchy, no competition, in fact it felt a little like a collaborative way to make it better for everyone. Time was shared in useless conversations, meals, play and silence too. There was this board full of envelopes. Each of us had his name on an envelope there, and we could write a short message for anyone and put it in their envelope. Encouraging words, words of appreciation, jokes, hugs on paper, little drawings, the envelopes were filled in no time.

You have a group of passionate and ambitious people, full of creative ideas, a childlike attitude, we are sensitive as fuck, vulnerable, but we are also craftsmen, we are artists, we are visionaries, we pursue our calling in spite of the hardship and we doubt our decisions at every step. So, to get over this doubt, we don’t need to believe, we need to see others believing in it. These are smart people, self taught even if they went to a school or two and it also takes a lot of courage to do what you want, especially walking this path that offers no form of financial stability or inevitable success. There are no ranks to be graded, no stairs to go higher, if you work, if you have a little talent, a good and educated mind and a tad bit of luck, you might do quite well but even then, a scarcity mentality will follow you everywhere you go.

Sunday and back to our home nests

As much as we loved this, all good things come to an end. The last day ended in lots of hugging, we took so many photos in our last day there as if we were trying to immortalise what we’ve been through, as if we were to lose this magic once we were out the gate. Hugs and hugs and more hugs and lots of best wishes were given that day. It’s not a designer community without proper branding, so Stefan gave us LDD goodies which were so much expected, a good quality T-shirt with an amazing illustration done by none other than Robo. Stickers made by Dwuamna Artabarcea, a participation diploma, lots of little beautiful things and a little air from Cluj that got trapped while all the packaging happened.

As I left the chalet and took the road back home, I felt full of energy, the magic was still within me, in fact it is still within me as I write this post, almost a year later. The next event is about to take place and I remember this one as if it was yesterday. I have a good feeling that this next one will be sold out instantly I have no doubts that it will be just as magic and this time will feel like meeting some old friends.

As Uncle Iroh said, “While it is always best to believe in oneself, a little help from others can be a great blessing.” And help is always given to any LDD member in need.

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I'm Cajva, a graphic designer from Timișoara, Romania. I work on logos, brand identities, illustrations and I hand-draw everything I make. If you enjoyed this article, there's more where that came from, and if you ever need a designer, you know where to find me.

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