RIZI

HISTORY
RIZI is the expression of the professional interaction between Alina Rizescu and Bogdan Ștefănescu combined with the mix of know-how and creativity of the extended team, consisted of developers, visual artists, furniture and textile manufacturers, constructors and engineers. Alina finished architecture, has four years background in Romanian design, worked for 3 years as an architect in Barcelona and she's focused on design for events, commercial and urban spaces. Bogdan studied economy, communication and multimedia production, worked in finance, journalism, radio and NGOs, is the project manager for independent art platform Formaje and deals with communication and implementation strategies for the design concepts.

SPECIFIC
RIZI is a creative studio that approaches design as a context oriented communication medium. RIZI brings visual communication integrated solutions for both offline and online projects and custom design for objects, installations and commercial spaces. The elements behind RIZI’s concepts are design in context, effective communication, great user experience and added value.

ROMANIAN DESIGN WEEK APPEARANCES
2017 // Branding & packaging for 1717 craft beer
1717 is a Romanian craft beer brand. The recipes are developed in Sibiu, Romania, and the production is done at a traditional microbrewery in Bavaria, Germany. The name refers to the year that, in early 18th century, the first craft brewery on today’s Romanian territory opened in Sibiu.

The brand identity was built based on 3 elements: its origin and local identity, the mix between contemporary recipes and traditional artisan production and a heterogeneous target audience, which spans from young locals to tourists of all ages.
The labels are built on a pattern formed of a stylized, minimal representation of the typical Sibiu house and a coat of arms for each assortment, composed of heraldic elements that invoke the city’s coat of arms and underline the particular characteristics of each beer. Besides the crest, the assortments are are differentiated also by color and the shape and size of the bottle.

2017 // This place is pretty good - Spatial engagement with Braila’s latency (book design)
The book, published by Bergen School of Architecture (NO) in collaboration with UAUIM (B, RO), explores architectural processes and the usage of limited resources to maximize the effects of latent capital of post-industrial cities, using Braila as a case study – with strong monographic aspects. It is a result of a joint project of the two universities which involved students and teachers of both in research and field work in the city.

The design reflects the nonlinear research process and the feeling of Norwegian students facing the realities of Braila for the first time with a scrapbook like approach. Photographic inserts with “postcards from Braila” and short essays pop up throughout the book to help the reader build context and get more personal in the exploration. The use of raw, common materials to build a design object with a contemporary feel is in line with the main idea of valuable latent potential in things that appear to be of little worth. The look is also a refined invocation of the socialist industrial era.

2017 // Ethnic Minorities in Visual Culture – Focus Romania (book design & expo design)
The research project, led by Cosmin Nasui of Postmodernism Museum, presents the way ethnic minorities were portrayed in Romanian visual culture since the dawn of the modern state until today. The project resulted in a traveling exhibition, first presented at Brussels, and a book.

The core of the exhibition is formed by 14 tall textile panels, dedicated to each sub topic addressed. The design of the panels is similar to an infographic and it shows the analyzed works, context data and information from the research in chunks that can be consumed randomly or in a specific order. The book is presented as a folder which contains the panels of the exhibition, as individual leaflets, and the whole text of the research in a fascicle attached to the third cover. The folder underlines the process; the splitting of the content allows the reader to get an overview, similar to the exhibition, as well as to read the entire research undistracted

2016 // Soapmill cosmetics packaging
Soapmill is a high-end natural cosmetics brand, handcrafted in the countryside of Transilvania, Romania. The packaging design reflects the brand values – respect for beauty and nature and discreet elegance. The soap and cream boxes come in pastel colors and white and they are covered with embossed textures inspired by natural patterns and wild flowers mixed with refined traditional patterns. Each pack’s look changes subtle with the way light lays on the embossed texture, thus giving the product a feel of intimate playfulness.