RDW Young Design 2025: meet #graphicdesigner Iulia Mirică

“Just like an echo, our memories don’t replicate the original sound precisely; instead, they transform, influenced by the environment and the distance from the source. The echo becomes a metaphor for how memories evolve into reimagined versions of the original events”, says young graphic designer Iulia Mirică about her beautiful, delicate art work from recycled paper, cotton and graphic drawings presented at RDW Young Design 2025. I talked to her about the world of art, the fabrics and sustainability. 

*** #ArtBlogger #Interview #MadeInRomania #English

Romanian Design Week 2025 – between 16th and 25th of May at Cina (Benjamin Franklin nr.10) – www.romaniandesignweek.ro – About the whole program & exhibitions – HERE. 
See Iulia Mirică art works on – @iuliamirica.art / www.iuliamirica.art. 

Iulia, what is the title/ the theme and the symbols for your work at RDW 2025? And why did you choose this theme?

The title and theme of my work is “echoes”, a word that represents, in a very visual way, the subjective nature of human perception and memory. Just like an echo, our memories don’t replicate the original sound precisely; instead, they transform, influenced by the environment and the distance from the source. The echo becomes a metaphor for how memories evolve into reimagined versions of the original events.

The project takes the form of three handmade books housed in a minimal, elegant slipcase, inspired by Piet Gerards’s design. The stories I choose for the books differ in a lot of ways; they all have a common thread: they subtly play with our perception of reality. They have seemingly mundane and straightforward plots, but they have something hidden underneath the surface, something you can sense but not quite define. A feeling that there’s more than what’s being told. I aimed to translate the feeling into the artwork and the visual language of the project.

After all, Echoes is a project about the emotions that stay with us after the story ends. The memory of the story. I wanted to create a space where the meaning isn’t handed to you but discovered through intuition and reflection. It’s less about being shown and more about what is felt.

It is an entirely handmade project – how many hours did you spend to do it? How many paper files were thrown away in the process? 

I honestly lost count of the hours. It took me about a year to bring this project to life. A big part of that time was searching – the right concept, the right stories, the right voice. The rest of it was drawing, designing, shaping it piece by piece. A lot was thrown away in the process. The first idea isn’t always great, you have to dig deeper, test things out, experiment, give up on things and start over. For me, that is the joy of a personal project: the freedom to explore.

How did you choose the fabrics for the project? How important was the recycling / sustainability concept in the proces? 

Because it’s a book project, the materials are somewhat standard. but since I did everything by hand, at home, I didn’t have access to a printing press, book cloth and other things like that, so I improvised. I found a beautiful textured and recycled offset paper made of 10% cotton, which I cut down to fit my home inkjet photo printer.  I tested different types of cover materials, binding techniques and threads to find the right combination. I wish I could have done all the testing without having to throw away so many materials but I made a point to collect and save all the leftover paper and cardboard—either for recycling or for use in future projects.

Did you think about making more than one visual story like that, selling them as pieces of art? Are they pieces of art (I think so:) but you can duplicate this in different narratives? 

Yes, I do see them as pieces of art. I feel like this project is intimate, evocative, and it carries a personal voice. The process was slow and it required a lot of craft, which makes every copy feel unique. There is a very blurry line between art and design for me, I consider my work to be a blend of both. This project was a personal breakthrough and I think it influenced all the work I did after that. Visual stories are a way of expressing myself and the way I see the world.