Interview with Simina Filat

Simina Filat ("SF") interviewed on Tuesday, 17 November.

Could you please tell us about your experience as a designer, artist, architect or creator?

SF : I have been active in the design field for 10 years, until then I finished the Faculty of Economic Management, with a Master in Accounting and Auditing, and then I graduated from the Faculty of Arts in Bucharest, Clothing Design section. I mainly worked for my own brand, being an entrepreneur, but we have also been offering a design service for more than 10 years.

How did you become a designer?

SF : My mother being a clothing designer for more than 40 years, I have always had an affinity for textiles and materials in general. After college and master's degree in economics, I realized that the dream job is the job where you do what you like, in my case design, we create a product from sketch to finished product. And the feeling you have when you see your product worn or used is wonderful.

What are your priorities, technique and style when designing?

SF : The Simina Filat Design brand has emerged from the beginning as a sustainable brand with nature, having as values ​​no-waste, recycling, reuse. Now more than ever, when I think of a new product, everything starts from sustainability, or even from experiments with new materials produced from waste. Almost all our products talk about functionality, sustainability and something new. maybe something you've never seen in shape or material.

Which emotions do you feel when designing?

SF : I have the greatest pleasure when I receive the design theme, I start to think and flow lines of ideas towards the theme, then I choose from ideas to draw some sketches on paper. With the sketches I enter the workshop and it turns into a geometric sketch with dimensions, and then into a finished product. The whole process is creative and that's what I like the most. We often face challenges, but there are always design solutions to the problem in the working technique of the product.

What particular aspects of your background shaped you as a designer?

SF : I always drew and painted with great ease, I saw my mother's tailoring from an early age, inclined towards economics I became an entrepreneur, and the inclination towards art and design made me become an entrepreneur designer. I think that my whole life, since I was a small child, was shaped in such a way that now I am an entrepreneurial designer.

What is your growth path? What are your future plans? What is your dream design project?

SF : I really want to develop new materials, from waste of all kinds, and to succeed in educating the consumer towards sustainable products with nature and sustainable consumption.

What are your advices to designers who are at the beginning of their career?

SF : To listen to his/her instinct and try not to pollute nature any more with his/her products, but to find sustainable solutions. It is not about who makes more beautiful products, but about who finds the sustainable solution with the social in which we live now.

You are truly successful as a designer, what do you suggest to fellow designers, artists and architects?

SF : To work as much as possible, and to always find innovation for the environment.

What is your day to day look like?

SF : Every day I wake up in the morning, get to the workshop, drink my coffee and make plans for the day. I enter the workshop, in production 2-3 hours a day, I spend 2-3 hours with the clients, and 2-3 hours at the computer, then the day ends with drawing some new ideas and I start all over again the next day;) It's more fun in reality than this little summary.

How do you keep up with latest design trends? To what extent do design trends matter?

SF : I always choose my products to be in accordance with the requirements of my direct clients, but I always try to be innovative, not necessarily in trends, although I follow them very strictly for inspiration.

How do you know if a product or project is well designed? How do you define good design?

SF : I consider a good design, it is the solution to a problem / requirement. That is, a product must be functional and in accordance with the needs required by the customer, including the style and pattern of the product.

How do you decide if your design is ready?

SF : We can always change and improve the model. We can adjust the model according to other needs of another client for example. I don't think a design is nailed or finished, you can always make declines on it, commercial or not.

What is your biggest design work?

SF : My undergraduate project, called Ruumy, is the project I'm most proud of. Ruumy is an architectural wall composed as a puzzle of 49 holders, which disassembled / assembled with the help of external accessories you can form a multitude of products, such as: bags, pillows, beds, tents, toys, clothes, desi, even walls architectural in a space where you can not intervene through construction.

Who is your favourite designer?

SF : Iris van Herpen - because she always came up with fashion innovation. She is the one who is trying in this century to break down the barriers in this field.

Would you tell us a bit about your lifestyle and culture?

SF : I currently live and create in Bucharest, Romania. Here I was born and did school, last years I succeeded and I got 4 international awards and 2 national awards for my design projects. I had many national and international exhibitions about art, culture and design, collective or not. And in my free time, which I honestly don't have, I will always be at an opening in an art gallery somewhere.

Would you tell us more about your work culture and business philosophy?

SF : Being an entrepreneur and having employees, it is certainly not easy to work with me;), because I am a perfectionist and secondly because I am directly interested in this brand to work and grow. I like to work in a team, and especially to brainstorm new ideas.

What are your philanthropic contributions to society as a designer, artist and architect?

SF : Yes, we have always donated through associations for various humanitarian causes, we have done workshops with disadvantaged children, we have donated masks to all those who have visited us now in this difficult period, we always donate materials and accessories to educational institutions that need teaching materials.

What positive experiences you had when you attend the A’ Design Award?

SF : It is an honor and a pleasure always when you receive an award, a recognition of your work. Our clients are proud of us, and we are happy to always be on their high expectations.

Simina Filat Profile