Hi, I'm Ana M. Popescu
Designer @Room022
Hi, I'm Ana M. Popescu
Designer @Room022
Hi, I'm Ana M. Popescu
Designer @Room022
I never start with what looks better, but with what the space, the product, or the brand needs to do for the people experiencing it. The visuals come after the research, never before. That’s how I’ve spent two decades making the invisible visible as an art director, designer, and the person who studied mathematics and computers, then walked into a printing house to start over.
How I got here
I studied mathematics and computers, and I liked the logic and structure, but my heart wanted something else. Something I could see, touch, and share, so I decided to take my fate into my own hands.
I walked into a printing house in Bucharest, told them I was a programmer who knew nothing about what they did but couldn’t stop thinking about the smell of freshly printed books, and asked them to teach me. They did. I worked endless nights, reading and learning everything about design and pre-press from the ground up. Every important skill I have was earned the same way: with ink-stained hands and a stubborn refusal to stop until the work felt right.
From there, every move was driven by the same instinct: to understand the full picture. Editorial design at a financial magazine taught me the importance of precision and deadlines. Advertising taught me persuasion, scale, and how to grow a team from scratch. Running my own creative studio for eight years taught me that good design has to survive real constraints, stakeholders, budgets, and still deliver something worth looking at.
I designed environmental experiences for PTC that integrated their own augmented reality technology into the layouts, a concept that sparked enthusiasm and was adopted by other offices worldwide. I stepped in as interim Marketing Manager for Gorenje and led a national campaign across 21 cities, doubling their sales. I built a full rebrand for Ciprian Cucu: positioning, visual identity, UX, website, art direction for photo shoots, which doubled the brand awareness. Each project confirmed what the printing house experience first taught me: understand the system before you touch the surface.
In 2021, I moved with my family to the Netherlands and joined a pharmaceutical marketing agency, where I led art and creative direction for a team of 12. Every project started the same way: a scientific team handed us a complex clinical story, and we turned it into a visual narrative that clinicians could follow and patients could understand. Science and beauty, hand in hand.
The mathematical brain never faded; it just learned to work with the designer’s eye instead of against it. The combination of logic and craft, structure and warmth, became the foundation of everything I do.
I never start with what looks better, but with what the space, the product, or the brand needs to do for the people experiencing it. The visuals come after the research, never before. That’s how I’ve spent two decades making the invisible visible as an art director, designer, and the person who studied mathematics and computers, then walked into a printing house to start over.
How I got here
I studied mathematics and computers, and I liked the logic and structure, but my heart wanted something else. Something I could see, touch, and share, so I decided to take my fate into my own hands.
I walked into a printing house in Bucharest, told them I was a programmer who knew nothing about what they did but couldn’t stop thinking about the smell of freshly printed books, and asked them to teach me. They did. I worked endless nights, reading and learning everything about design and pre-press from the ground up. Every important skill I have was earned the same way: with ink-stained hands and a stubborn refusal to stop until the work felt right.
From there, every move was driven by the same instinct: to understand the full picture. Editorial design at a financial magazine taught me the importance of precision and deadlines. Advertising taught me persuasion, scale, and how to grow a team from scratch. Running my own creative studio for eight years taught me that good design has to survive real constraints, stakeholders, budgets, and still deliver something worth looking at.
I designed environmental experiences for PTC that integrated their own augmented reality technology into the layouts, a concept that sparked enthusiasm and was adopted by other offices worldwide. I stepped in as interim Marketing Manager for Gorenje and led a national campaign across 21 cities, doubling their sales. I built a full rebrand for Ciprian Cucu: positioning, visual identity, UX, website, art direction for photo shoots, which doubled the brand awareness. Each project confirmed what the printing house experience first taught me: understand the system before you touch the surface.
In 2021, I moved with my family to the Netherlands and joined a pharmaceutical marketing agency, where I led art and creative direction for a team of 12. Every project started the same way: a scientific team handed us a complex clinical story, and we turned it into a visual narrative that clinicians could follow and patients could understand. Science and beauty, hand in hand.
The mathematical brain never faded; it just learned to work with the designer’s eye instead of against it. The combination of logic and craft, structure and warmth, became the foundation of everything I do.
Hired for
→ Art and creative direction → Visual identity design → B2B and B2C design systems → Brand and communication consulting
Hired for
→ Art and creative direction
→ Visual identity design
→ B2B and B2C design systems
→ Brand and communication consulting
Room022
The name comes from a room in the Oslo National Museum where a poem printed on red paper, protected behind glass, triggered a 22-year-old memory and connected things I didn’t know were related. That’s what I do professionally: I walk into a brand, a product, or a company’s communication and see the connections that are already there but haven’t been made visible yet.
Room 022 wasn’t built from a brand strategy document, but from objects and experiences I collected over time, each one waiting for the context that would connect them.
The poem behind glass. A braille poem on red paper at the National Museum in Oslo. Words meant to be read and touched at the same time. A design decision, not just a decoration, that brought me back to the printing house where my career started.
The Plain Paper magazine. The physical object the poem came from was tracked down in a secondhand bookshop in Rotterdam. A Dutch magazine, made in Amsterdam, was exhibited in Oslo and was brought home to the Netherlands. I couldn’t rest until I could hold it in my hands.
The Riemannian surface. A mathematical object I’ve carried in my head for years without a context to live in. A shape from complex analysis where two separate sheets connect through a single origin point. It waited for Room 022 the way the poem waited behind glass. Now it’s part of the visual identity because the brain and the heart share a root.
The Pirandello and Hesse article. A piece I wrote about leadership and identity, drawing from two novels that seem unrelated. It turned out to be the Room 022 manifesto before Room 022 had a name. “A soul that doesn’t need to be frozen into one shape to be real.”
Room022
The name comes from a room in the Oslo National Museum where a poem printed on red paper, protected behind glass, triggered a 22-year-old memory and connected things I didn’t know were related. That’s what I do professionally: I walk into a brand, a product, or a company’s communication and see the connections that are already there but haven’t been made visible yet.
Room 022 wasn’t built from a brand strategy document, but from objects and experiences I collected over time, each one waiting for the context that would connect them.
The poem behind glass. A braille poem on red paper at the National Museum in Oslo. Words meant to be read and touched at the same time. A design decision, not just a decoration, that brought me back to the printing house where my career started.
The Plain Paper magazine. The physical object the poem came from was tracked down in a secondhand bookshop in Rotterdam. A Dutch magazine, made in Amsterdam, was exhibited in Oslo and was brought home to the Netherlands. I couldn’t rest until I could hold it in my hands.
The Riemannian surface. A mathematical object I’ve carried in my head for years without a context to live in. A shape from complex analysis where two separate sheets connect through a single origin point. It waited for Room 022 the way the poem waited behind glass. Now it’s part of the visual identity because the brain and the heart share a root.
The Pirandello and Hesse article. A piece I wrote about leadership and identity, drawing from two novels that seem unrelated. It turned out to be the Room 022 manifesto before Room 022 had a name. “A soul that doesn’t need to be frozen into one shape to be real.”
How I work
My methodology is simple: Analyze, Map, Present. Understand the system first, find the structure underneath, then give it a visual form that earns its place. I don’t decorate or follow trends. I research, listen, find the pattern that’s already there, and make it visible.
If your technology is brilliant but your audience can’t tell, that’s where I can add value.
AMP:[A-side] & AMP:[B-side]
I sign my work as AMP, and it comes in two layers.
The A-side is the professional work: structured, precise, research-driven. Brand systems, visual identities, and strategic communication for tech and science companies whose products deserve better than a blue gradient and a geometric sans-serif. This side thinks in systems, wireframes, and data. It reads like a well-constructed argument.
The B-side is the thinking behind the work: articles, observations, illustrations, the curiosity that feeds the craft. I write about why certain words feel trustworthy before you’ve read the sentence. About what a dream combining Philip K. Dick and Saint-Exupéry taught me about the invisible link between precision and warmth. This side thinks in textures, stories, and cross-modal connections. It reads like a conversation over coffee.
They’re two sides of the same surface, quite literally. The visual identity is built on a Riemannian surface, a mathematical object in which two sheets connect at a single origin point. Precision and warmth. Logic and craft. The brain and the heart are at peace.
How I work
My methodology is simple: Analyze, Map, Present. Understand the system first, find the structure underneath, then give it a visual form that earns its place. I don’t decorate or follow trends. I research, listen, find the pattern that’s already there, and make it visible.
If your technology is brilliant but your audience can’t tell, that’s where I can add value.
AMP:[A-side] & AMP:[B-side]
I sign my work as AMP, and it comes in two layers.
The A-side is the professional work: structured, precise, research-driven. Brand systems, visual identities, and strategic communication for tech and science companies whose products deserve better than a blue gradient and a geometric sans-serif. This side thinks in systems, wireframes, and data. It reads like a well-constructed argument.
The B-side is the thinking behind the work: articles, observations, illustrations, the curiosity that feeds the craft. I write about why certain words feel trustworthy before you’ve read the sentence. About what a dream combining Philip K. Dick and Saint-Exupéry taught me about the invisible link between precision and warmth. This side thinks in textures, stories, and cross-modal connections. It reads like a conversation over coffee.
They’re two sides of the same surface, quite literally. The visual identity is built on a Riemannian surface, a mathematical object in which two sheets connect at a single origin point. Precision and warmth. Logic and craft. The brain and the heart are at peace.
A few personal touches
I sign my projects as AMP. Three letters, one mark that started as initials and became an identity. But my colleagues call me TM, as in trademark for quality. It’s the nicest compliment I’ve ever received at work, because I didn’t ask for it.
My team gave me a trophy that says: “For being our sweetie-pie.” In an era when leadership is often confused with distance, I take this as proof that you can hold high standards and still be someone people enjoy working with.
I cook the way I design: by understanding the ingredients before deciding what to make. I bake sourdough, craft mixed-media projects, work with leather, and grow things in soil. I collect “Art of” books because the making of something interests me as much as the result. I photograph architecture, skies, textures, and tiny creatures, and I read philosophy and science fiction without discrimination.
I walk into a room with confidence and curiosity, but I’ll stop on the street to photograph a leaf skeleton or play with a cat.
The door to Room 022 is always open, and the cookies are on the table.
Brands and clients
PTC · Gorenje · Raiffeisen Bank · Orange · Cora · ICDL · Intesa Sanpaolo Bank · UPC · The Royal Bank of Scotland · Pfizer · Roche · Merck · Novo Nordisk · AstraZeneca · Johnson & Johnson · Bristol Myers Squibb · Moderna · Novartis · Biomarin · Danone · ING · RBS
Brands and clients
PTC · Gorenje · Raiffeisen Bank · Orange · Cora · ICDL · Intesa Sanpaolo Bank · The Royal Bank of Scotland · UPC· Danone · ING · RBS · Pfizer · Roche · Merck · Novo Nordisk · AstraZeneca · Johnson & Johnson · Bristol Myers Squibb · Moderna · Novartis · Biomarin
Education
→ UX Research and Design Specialization, University of Michigan via Coursera
→ Scrum Product Owner Certified (SPOPC), International Scrum Institute
→ AI Fluency, Anthropic
→ Industrial Robotics, Polytechnic University of Bucharest
→ Mathematics and Computers, Ovidius University of Constanța
Education
→ UX Research and Design Specialization, University of Michigan via Coursera
→ Scrum Product Owner Certified (SPOPC), International Scrum Institute
→ AI Fluency, Anthropic
→ Industrial Robotics, Polytechnic University of Bucharest
→ Mathematics and Computers, Ovidius University of Constanța
Languages
Romanian (native), English, French
Languages
Romanian (native), English, French