Intro

Diana Moldovan

Creative Director & Founding Partner

What is Publicator for you?

A sort of construction site, a platform that allows us to put things into motion and ideas at work, for our clients or for our own projects, when it comes to publishing or communication projects.

What’s your entrepreneurial experience?

In 2002 I co-founded Re:ply, a communication agency, with Iulian Puiu and Maureen Lloyd (Meeng). There were very exciting and tough times, as entrepreneurial creative projects just started to take shape in Romania. Our generation has built (figuring all out while working hard) this whole new sector – creative industries – within about two decades, with virtually no local entrepreneurial models. I’m amazed and very proud of what our generation came to accomplish in such a short time!
At Re:ply, we specialized in publishing, identity, corporate & brand communication. Our 35 people team developed hundreds of projects for big and small companies, across all fields. In 2015, me and Iulian started Publicator and decided to focus more, in the coming years, on what is our core competency – publishing. Our goal is to develop our own publishing projects and to increase the number of our consultancy projects, both in Romania and abroad.

What do you usually do at Publicator?

As a creative director, I’m taking care of the editorial and copywriting aspects of our projects, writing or supervising our colleagues’ work. As a managing partner, I’m involved in managing the company’s activity, including meeting new potential clients. Together with Iulian, I take part in training sessions and various events. And I love when we cook at the office while talking about everything, from politics to movies.

Cristian Herța

Art Director

What’s your role in the team?

I am an art director, but I started as a DTP for our advertising and publishing projects 10 years ago. For several years I worked with Tabu magazine and Romania Libera newspaper, then re-joined the team when Mega Image became the agency’s client. These years, I came to specialize in retail publishing. I’m also involved in production issues. And I’m more and more interested in packaging.

What particular aspects of your job do you like most?

I’m very meticulous, I pay attention to every minute detail of my work and refine it to perfection. I know that many designers don’t like cutting out difficult images from background, for example – such as curly hair –, but I enjoy it. It looks spectacular in the layout, so it’s worth doing it.

What do you do apart from your job?

Play chess online, solve math problems, watch movies and series, go to the gym, meet with friends, and take photos. I try to compensate for the time I spend in front of the computer by walking a lot – I cross Herastrau park everyday from the subway station to the office and back.

Iulian Puiu

Creative Director & Founding Partner

What did you do before setting up the company?

I was a photographer with “22”, a weekly magazine focused on politics and culture, then a graphic designer with Romanian Publishing Group (now Ringier), where I was part of the team who launched the first glossy magazine in Romania, Avantaje, and the first big international title, Elle. I briefly worked for the in-house advertising team of Connex (now Vodafone) with a group of people who started in the following years some of the most successful entrepreneurial businesses in Romania – in branding, advertising, media, online, communication. As a creative director in Media Pro Group and an art director for Sanoma Hearst I was in charge with launching and supervising several international titles such as Playboy, Madame Figaro, Beau Monde. In 2002 I started a company named Traffic Jam (don’t laugh – or laugh) with Diana and Istvan Lorincz, who left after a few months – it was a sort of experiment, that first initiative. Then we changed the name into Reply and welcomed our new partner for 6 years, Maureen Lloyd (Meeng). From 2015, we’ve continued our journey as Publicator, as we wish to focus more on our publishing competencies.

What do you do at Publicator?

I ensure creative direction for our identity, branding, communication, and publishing projects. I’m also involved in new business meetings and trainings. But the most exciting thing is to work on a new magazine or newspaper concept.

What’s you particular topic of interest, professionally speaking?

Typography.

What do you like to do when you are not in the office?

I try to spend as much time as possible with my son Toma and my daughter Letitia, with my friends and family.

What’s the most frequent question people ask you?

Are you Cristi Puiu’s brother?

Gabriela Micaci

Project Manager

What is the biggest project you managed so far?

I joined the team in 2006 as a project manager of what was called “the Metro Post catalogue” – the main marketing tool for Metro, the largest cash & carry retailer in Romania. We had to produce bi-monthly a set of several food and non-food catalogues (summing up an average of 180 pages). We put in place a dedicated team for this project, which included an art director and 6 DTP people, plus editors, a photographer, a photo editor and the proofreader of the agency. It was a huge project.

What other projects have you been in charge with?

I was an account manager for “Styler” (Baneasa Shopping City), the first premium lifestyle and fashion customer magazine on the local market, and “Oxygen”, an energy customer magazine for Distrigaz Sud (now Engie). More recently, I coordinated the weekly Tchibo catalogues and the Raiffeisen Bank annual reports, as well as several employees’ publications, such as Staff Only (Raiffeisen Bank) and TeamWorks (Piraeus Bank). One of my favourite clients is RMI Analytics, a Swiss & German advisory firm specialized in brewing raw materials.

What other things do you like to do?

Recently I started dedicating more time to HTML and CSS coding. I also like organizing trips. Planning them is as interesting as arriving to the destination.

Cristina Armaș

Project Manager

For how long have you been a member of the team?

I started in 2007 and felt at home, so to speak, from day one. At one point I had to take a break for several years, as I had two babies one after another, but then came back in 2013.

What’s the project you are most proud of?

“Mega”, the monthly customer magazine we developed for Mega Image, the largest supermarket chain in Romania. I loved that project! I think we did a great job, and I’m glad that people who read the magazine appreciated it.

For which clients do you manage projects currently?

Mihai Eminescu Trust, which is involved in the conservation and regeneration of villages in Transylvania, notably the area around Sighisoara and Viscri. They want to encourage the locals to open small businesses in tourism, crafts, agriculture, restoration and constructions, so we help them with various brochures and materials. Another client I’m happy to work with is Kredenz, for which we’ve developed the brand identity platform. They are a “culinary curator” and will soon open a store and an e-commerce website. The most notable client I deal with currently is Carrefour, for which we’ve developed several catalogues, catalogue templates, identity projects, and print materials.

What fun project do you have?

I’d like us to open a new business direction and publish children’s books. More specific, I want to find a way to re-print some of the books that I used to read as a child, in that exact form, and that are not on the market anymore. I’m working on it.

Violeta Marian

Strategist

How would you define in one line what you do and your working style?

I always choose to have a down-to-earth approach as I think it’s the way to aim for results.

What’s your relevant professional experience?

I have over 15 years of entrepreneurial and corporate experience in marketing communication and brand strategy. I’ve been working with local and international clients, big corporations and start-ups alike. For some of them I developed extensive projects, from conducting the brand audit to creating the brand strategy and platform, and then implementing the strategy through brand communication. For others I developed internal or external communication campaigns, proposing creative concepts and implementing them together with people with specific expertise (copywriting, design, online, PR, advertising, production). In some cases, I was an acting Marketing Manager for the clients, helping them hiring and building a marketing and communication team.

Which industries have your clients been part of?

I’d say medical services (I created the brand communication strategy for Medicover and supervised the launch campaign of Medicover Hospital, and for Osteore, an osteopathy clinic and school, I coordinated the new brand identity and its implementation), media (B1 TV, Digi TV – Digi World and Digi Life, for which I was in charge with the brand repositioning strategy, the base for their launch campaigns). I’ve been working with lots of local entrepreneurial businesses, such as Roddia (event planning and advertising), for which I was fully responsible for creating a new brand, starting with a new name, brand strategy, brand platform, and then implementing the strategy through brand communication, or Noyo (an artisan cupcake shop). Other clients come from retail, food, consumer finance, fashion, consultancy, training – such as frufru, Otherside, f64, La Fantana, Telecredit, Mihai Eminescu Trust, MMM, Viva etc.