About

Iancu Barbărasă is a British-Romanian designer and artist whose work has appeared almost everywhere, from stores and offices, TV and online, books, magazines and packaging, to film festivals, art galleries and public squares. Born in Transylvania, Romania, Iancu has spent most of his career in London, UK. He now lives in France with his wife and daughter.

Over the last 20 years, Iancu has developed a multidisciplinary approach characterised by a search for simplicity, delight, and a considered balance between lines, shapes, colours and white space. All his projects start by drawing with pen on paper, the best way to make unique, memorable work, especially in an age when many people are looking for tech-based shortcuts, and most things tend to look the same. He is inspired by the works of Milton Glaser, Alan Fletcher, David Hockney and Studio Ghibli, among many others.

Clients

Past clients, agencies and studios include WeTransfer, ITV, Rapha, Apple, Design Bridge and Partners, JKR Global, Lippincott, Landor, Carré Noir, NB Studio, Rudd Studio, Jack Renwick Studio, WMH&I etc. Iancu has also worked directly with many start-ups, small companies and local businesses.

Services

Design, illustration and hand-lettering for branding, publishing, editorial, packaging, hospitality, pattern design, signage, print, digital product and website related projects.

Testimonials

Kind words from some great people:

He’s an unusual designer with an open mind and a bright brain.”
— Michael Wolff

I enjoyed meeting Iancu and talking about his great work when I met him in 2010, and we quickly started working together. I had no hesitation in asking him to join the ITV rebrand team and he has made an invaluable contribution to the project. Iancu draws on an incredible knowledge of design theory and practice and a great imagination to produce work which is appropriate, original and exciting. Always positive and calm, I cannot recommend him highly enough.”
— Matt Rudd (owner, Creative Director, Rudd Studio)

Iancu’s systematic approach to design brings simplicity and rigour to otherwise complex projects. His thinking and diligence are great additions to grown-up design teams and I hope we’ll work together again in the future.”
— Daniel Vasconcelos (Partner at Lippincott)

I worked with Iancu at a critical stage on a huge branding project for Puma & Arsenal FC in 2014, and found him to be a vital member of the team, diligently bringing an eye for detail and well written structure to help govern a global launch campaign for our client. He was a pleasure to deal with: fair, passionate, and extremely focused.”
— Mark Bonner (Founder, Creative Director, GBH)

Interviews

Some of the interviews in which I’ve had the pleasure of sharing my experience:

Features

Many publications, books, events and exhibitions have kindly featured my work: