Designer & Illustrator Iancu Barbarasa
About this episode…
GRAPHIC DESIGNER & ILLUSTRATOR IANCU BARBARASA
Iancu moved from a successful branding career as an employee in Romania to being a freelancer in London.
1200 miles. Smoothed over by 600 emails.
Not asking for work, but seeking connection.
Read the highlights in the next tab.
could you send 600 EMAILS?!
Having worked for a big branding agency in Romania, Iancu moved to the UK and didn’t leave making connections or finding work to chance…
“For quite a few months before moving to London and also afterwards I spent all my time looking at who's who on the market, who's doing really interesting work and then trying to get in touch with those people.
So I sent over 500 or 600 emails to people, and then some of them, not many initially, replied and I went to see them.
One really good trick was that I didn't really ask, Hey, do you have any jobs? I was just asking, 'Hey, I'm doing this kind of work, I think your work is really great and I really like this project and that project - would you have time to meet for a coffee or a tea and have a chat?'.”
PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS BRING WORK & JOY
Having real personal connections means a lot to Iancu…
“There was always, with all the people that I've kept in touch over the years, something that would go beyond just let's say, the design work or branding work that we were doing professionally. There was always a personal connection as well.
Usually the work that I get is based on a relationship that has a personal touch to it.
I kind of try to avoid just the purely business relationships because they don't really bring you as much joy as something that you do with someone that you really would like to go for a pint with.”
GET USED TO REJECTION
Being ignored or turned down is part of being in business…
“When you freelance, basically you have to get used to rejection.
This was how it was in the beginning. You would send a hundred emails and you would get 10 replies back at best, but that's how it is. You have to go through a lot of rejection and just be okay with it because that's how good things eventually happen.”
SAVINGS GIVE YOU OPTIONS
Having money set aside let’s you say ‘no’…
“When you're working freelance, I think that one of the best things that you can do is to have some savings.
Otherwise you're gonna get desperate and take any kind of job, which is not really a good idea because the kind of work that you get is the type of work that you will keep getting.”
DAILY PRACTICE
Iancu takes time every day to practice and to explore new ways of working that are emerging. Even if you don’t adopt them, he thinks it’s good to know what’s happening in the world if you want to keep moving forwards…
“The really, really important thing is to practice with intent and have a pretty much daily set time for practicing.
Let's say, one hour in the morning when you are doing something that you really love and you are just doing it for yourself, or maybe for a personal project that you want to publish at some point - that really, really helps.
Especially if you think long term, because I've seen so many really talented people who after, five or ten years of experience, they really stop learning. And once you do that, you are basically going backwards.”
“You have to get used to rejection.
Just be okay with it because that's how good things eventually happen”
Graphic Designer & Illustrator Iancu Barbarasa
More from IANCU BARBARASA
Iancu’s IANCUL website
Iancu on Twitter
Iancu on Instagram
More from Steve Folland
Transcript of the Being Freelance podcast with Steve Folland and Freelance Graphic Designer and Illustrator Iancu Barbarasa
Steve Folland:
As ever, how about we get started hearing how you got started being freelance?
Iancu Barbarasa:
Well I went to university in Transylvania. After university, I worked in advertising for a little bit, but I didn't really enjoy it much, so I switched to branding for a few years. I worked on really large projects in Romania. I was lucky to work with the best company branding agency in Romania.
Iancu Barbarasa:
And then in 2010, I decided to move to London. And because I was pretty unusual for a job candidate, you know, being from Eastern Europe and having no education in the UK, it was a bit difficult to get anyone to consider me for jobs. So freelancing was the only option. And I was lucky to work with a few people who trusted me based on the work rather than my CV. And since then, I've basically been freelancing. I had one year of a full-time job just to have on the CV, a UK experience job. But after that, I've been basically freelancing the whole time since 2010.
Steve Folland:
So how did you go about getting those first clients when you decided that actually, I don't really have much choice here. I'm gonna go freelance.
Iancu Barbarasa:
Well for quite a few months before moving to London and also afterwards I spent all my time looking at who's who on the market, who's doing really interesting work and then trying to get in touch with those people. So I sent over 500 or 600 emails to people, and then some of them, not many initially, replied and I went to see them. One really good trick was that I didn't really ask, Hey, do you have any jobs? I was just asking, 'Hey, I'm doing this kind of work, I think your work is really great and I really like this project and that project - would you have time to meet for a coffee or a tea and have a chat?'. And usually the really nice thing is that people are quite open about that and I was lucky to meet a few people who really liked me and gave me initially a couple of small jobs. And then, one of them actually got me to work on quite a few big projects. One of them was actually one of the largest projects that I've ever done, the ITV rebranding and his name's Matt Rudd. You know, he's a good friend now, and we've done lots of really interesting and really good projects since we met.
Steve Folland:
That's so cool. That huge job and that long term relationship came from essentially a, a cold email.
Iancu Barbarasa:
Yes. I have a couple of people who I've pretty much built relationships with based on just getting in touch, finding that we have something in common, for instance, Matt also does music and my mum's a music teacher, so I have a big passion for music as well. So there was always, with all the people that I've kept in touch over the years, something that would go beyond just let's say, the design work or branding work that we were doing professionally. There was always a personal connection as well. Usually the work that I get is based on a relationship that has a personal touch to it. I kind of try to avoid just the purely business relationships because they don't really bring you as much joy as something that you do with someone that you really would like to go for a pint with.
Steve Folland:
I mean, 600 emails. That's a lot of emails. Imagining that a lot of them didn't reply. How did you cope with that?
Iancu Barbarasa:
Well, I wasn't expecting most of them to reply, to be honest. I think when you freelance, basically you have to get used to rejection. And it's really interesting because I used to be quite good at it. But then because I started getting higher profile projects and clients, I kind of forgot what it feels like. And in recent years I was starting to expand into illustration. I kind of went back to zero on that side. So again, I had to write to a lot of people, not get any replies for most of my emails or letters or whatever. And it just felt really frustrating. And I remembered, oh yeah, this was how it was in the beginning. You would send a hundred and you would get 10 replies back at best, but that's how it is. You have to go through a lot of rejection and just be okay with it because that's how, good things eventually happen.
Steve Folland:
So you came to London as a designer, presumably you'd always illustrated as well. Just not done it professionally?
Iancu Barbarasa:
Um, yes, well initially I was really passionate about branding and that was mainly what I was doing. And I always had side projects, especially because when I was doing big corporate projects or rebranding projects, it was always fun in the beginning through the initial creative stages. But then once you go into implementation, which can take weeks, months, even years on some projects - there's not as much room for play or exploring, you just set the rules into motion, you make sure that the guidelines or the applications are done well. So there's not as much fun to be had. It's still enjoyable to a certain degree, but you don't get to do what really got you into the job, you know, having fun, doing things visually.
Iancu Barbarasa:
So side projects have always been kind of something that I've been doing on the side just to keep myself fresh in a way. And for some reason, I think based on the work that I was doing as well, at some point I started doing side projects that were completely handmade, so drawing or lettering without any computer involvement. And that led to doing more and more illustration. And at some point, because of one of my side projects that got featured in a couple of magazines, I had an email from Apple. And they wanted me to do something similar for them and it never really got published. As far as I've been told a lot of projects of theirs happen like that. So they do a lot of work with people, but I guess it's the tip of the iceberg that gets actually published. But the whole experience made me realise I actually really enjoy doing this and I'd like to do it for clients as well, not just for myself. So in the last four years or so, I've been actually working as an illustrator as well with various clients.
Steve Folland:
Wow, when you get a call from Apple, that's quite a thing. Where were you sharing your work that it got found and ended up in a magazine?
Iancu Barbarasa:
Well, I tend to write to magazines every now and then when I have an interesting project, I also post on social media channels - so Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, then every now and then I post work on Behance. I can't remember exactly. There was some blog, I think the guy's at Apple saw my project on. Then they checked my Behance page which led them to my website. I try to keep my website as updated as possible. Eventually they sent me an email and I had to kind of Google the person to make sure it wasn't a scam, but yeah, it was legit. And it was a nice project to do.
Steve Folland:
It must give you confidence as well?
Iancu Barbarasa:
Um, well it depends on how it goes and especially if the project doesn't get published, then you are kind of wondering, is it because of me or is it because it just didn't work out or they changed their mind. And when you're working with big clients in a way... that's what you are trying to do initially - to get big clients or high profile projects, but at the same time, it's really good to work with smaller clients as well. And be able to do things that a big client would not be open to. You can be a bit more flexible. I think it's really good to actually not pigeon hole yourself, at least from my perspective - just to be as flexible as possible and do lots of interesting different types of projects.
Steve Folland:
So does a lot of your work tend to be you working with an agency, a production house, for example, or do you work directly with clients? One on one?
Iancu Barbarasa:
There is a quite a mix. So for instance, when I'm doing branding and design work, I tend to work with agencies or clients directly. Up until the pandemic started, I was working mainly with agencies. So I would go into their office as a freelancer and work on projects for a few weeks, a few months, or like the ITV project and a couple of others, for a year or two. And then for illustration work, I tend to work with editors or an agency as well, or even a client sometimes - every project is different and it's really interesting to see different approaches. You know, it's very different when you're working with an agency and an art director or designer compared to when you're working with a client directly. Both have good sides and downsides, I guess.
Steve Folland:
And so that means that sometimes you're working in house as in, literally in a building with other people.
Iancu Barbarasa:
Oh, yes. Yeah. That was most of the time up until two years ago. Since the pandemic started, I've been working from home. My partner and I both work from home and we have a nice office at home and I'm quite happy with this approach and I think it works well. I'm pretty much on the 'working remotely from now on' camp. One of the silver linings of the whole last two year period,
Steve Folland:
Although, you know, you said about how important building up a relationship with people was, is that harder when you're not going in and spending time with them?
Iancu Barbarasa:
That's a good question. I think it depends a lot more on how you hit it off with the person or the people that you're working with. I've worked with people, for instance, from Hong Kong or Canada as well, basically in the last couple of years, I've had a lot of international clients and at the end of the day, it's all about trust. For instance, a Canadian client, even though we had quite a few bumps in the project, because the relationship was really good, we had a lot of trust between us, it really worked out well - even though we didn't know each other before that. While other projects with people, let's say that would be closer or even going to the same office because there's not really... you are just kind of seen as someone who does a job and that's it, you know? There's nothing else or no one really cares - that you are just there to tick a box.
Iancu Barbarasa:
It wasn't nearly as good in terms of how the work eventually happened or came out. And it's not like something that you would say, oh, I loved working with those people. You know, it's just something, okay. Yeah, that was nice. We've done the job, but that's it. So I don't think it really matters as much. It's nice to have a chat in the office sometimes and it does help, but at the same time, I think it's all very arguable. You know, it's much more about the level of trust between people than whether you are meeting in person or you are doing zoom calls or emails or classic phone calls, you know, anything works if you have that level of trust. Mm.
Steve Folland:
And given that you work with quite a lot of agencies, how do you go about showing your work? Like, are you allowed to show that online? I know sometimes that's a stumbling block for people.
Iancu Barbarasa:
Yeah. Well the bigger agencies, like international clients and agencies with lots offices, they tend to be a bit... not picky, but in most cases they have very long complicated contracts with their own clients. So they're not that happy about showing work, but at the same time, the work that I've done with clients like that is often a result of a much bigger team, which means my impact on those projects is smaller. And the work that I tend to show on my website and my social media channels is usually the work that I've done either entirely myself or to a really significant degree, let's say 70% of the work was my own work. I think this is actually one of the not very nice things that happen in design or in illustration as well...
Iancu Barbarasa:
You see a lot of people saying, 'oh, I was involved in this project and I did this and that'. But actually when you check the details for that project, you realise that they only did something very small or they weren't even significantly involved in the project. It's just that the project is very high profile and they want to get a bit of the fame. For instance, after we finished the ITV project. I remember seeing for at least two or three years afterwards, a lot of people showing the work that I had done, basically I knew all those visuals by heart because I was the one who created them and they were showing them in their portfolios saying, 'I was involved in this' and I didn't know the person at all. So yeah. Interesting how people behave publicly,
Steve Folland:
And how have you coped with the business side of it? Cause originally you were set out to go get a job, just a normal job and then found yourself being freelance. How have you coped with that?
Iancu Barbarasa:
Well, when you're working freelance, I think that one of the best bits of advice and things that you can do is to have some savings. Otherwise you're gonna get desperate and take any kind of job, which is not really a good idea because the kind of work that you get is the type of work that you will keep getting. Unless you take time every now and then to do slightly different types of projects, or you just show certain projects in your portfolio, you're gonna keep getting work that people know you can do. And as a freelancer, that's really difficult to have a bit of a direction intentionally and not let yourself slide one way or another just based on whatever clients you have or whatever project you get by chance.
Iancu Barbarasa:
And I think, besides savings - just enough to allow you for a few months, ideally at least two months that you can basically, if you don't get anywhere or if you get some work that you really don't want to do, you can say 'no', I think that's really, really important. And then after that, it's good to kind of plan in advance and think okay, what do you want to do slightly longer term and try to go in that direction and get more clients from a certain field or a certain type of client and just plan things a bit and not let it go based on luck and chance.
Steve Folland:
Do you work as your own name or do you have a company name?
Iancu Barbarasa:
Yeah, well, it's a bit complicated. Especially because I have such an unusual name. So I have a company, a limited company. The name of the company is not the one that I'm promoting. So basically people know me either by my own name or by let's say my 'signature name'. I don't really like to say this, but let's say my artist's name is 'Iancul' with an L at the end, just like my website and the name is more or less a different version - in Romanian you can articulate the names, you know, like say if you were to say Steve, you would add an ending after your name. So that's kind of how it works. And when I was doing my website, I couldn't just get Iancu.com, I Iancul.com.
Iancu Barbarasa:
And when I'm doing illustration, I usually sign my work like that. Otherwise I'm just kind of signing off emails and any type of communication with my own name. I don't have a proper studio name that I'm promoting. I don't know. I've been thinking about this for quite a while. I still don't know what the best solution is. You know, quite a few people just say whatever their name is, and then add 'Studio' at the end. And that works fine. I mean, it's not really, that important at the end of the day. It's more about the work that you do.
Steve Folland:
Now, if you could tell your younger self one thing about being freelance, what would that be?
Iancu Barbarasa:
I think the really, really important thing is to practice with intent and have a pretty much daily set time for practicing. And that could be, let's say, doing design work if you really want to be just a graphic designer or even if you want to go into code or doing something else... But having that, let's say, one hour in the morning when you are doing something that you really love and you are just doing it for yourself, or maybe for a personal project that you want to publish at some point - that really, really helps. Especially if you think long term, because I've seen so many really talented people who after, especially five or ten years of experience, they really stop learning. And once you do that, you are basically going backwards.
Iancu Barbarasa:
It's not like you're gonna keep at the same level because things change all the time. There's new stuff coming out, new people, new styles, or interesting things - things that you can do. And even if you don't, and I think that's actually good to avoid trends and not get into them, it's still important to know what's going on and try and see - okay, is it something that I can use in a way or not? Do I enjoy it? Or doing something like that as well, or do I keep searching for my own thing? And you can't do that if you are not serious about putting in the time every day or at least every week. It's like ChristophNiemann was saying in one of his books and his talks as well - that athletes and musicians, for instance, they practice every day, you know? So why shouldn't designers and illustrators do the same as well?
Steve Folland:
Iancu, thank you so much and all the best being freelance!
Iancu Barbarasa:
Thank you very much for having me Steve. It was really good fun.
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