Today we’d like to introduce you to Vasile Tiplea.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I studied Graphic Design at the Art Institute of Orange County. The 1st month in school, I landed my very first freelance design job designing DVD covers for a company called Electric Pictures. I remember I was so scared as I did not want to disappoint the client. This was new to me. So, I went to my perspective drawing teacher and asked, hey what would you do in my place if you had the chance to take on this freelance job. He said to me “Vasile, if you fail, you will learn a-lot and it’s a good thing. If you don’t fail, you will learn lot and it’s a good thing. It’s just the push I needed to take on the job. So, I did.
From there on, I applied to every freelance opportunity that came by. I did a lot of freelance work while full-time in school. Doing freelance 30+ hours a week, and constantly practicing design, helped me excel in my studies. Balancing both school and work taught me to manage my time and expectations. It taught me when to say no. It taught me when to say yes. It taught me how to prioritize. It taught me how to work with others, respect people, understand other’s limitations and eventually learn how to build a reliable team.
Once out of school, I was balancing a full-time job and freelance to the point where I was enjoying more doing freelance and make more money than with my full-time job. Eventually I let go of my full-time job and did freelance full-time. It was a scary move. But looking back, it was one of the best decisions I’ve made.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It was definitely not a smooth road.
I remember several times I quit doing freelance because I had a hard time managing, establishing, and running a business. I loved doing design work. I did not enjoy managing the business side of things and that’s because I knew nothing about it. I did not enjoy asking to get paid when I was not being paid on time. I did not enjoy seeing how much taxes were taken out.
Please tell us about Creative27.
Fueled by excellence and founded on expertise, Creative27 is a pioneering app development and design powerhouse that has been making waves in the market.
Featuring aesthetically creative and functionally distinctive products across platforms, we have certainly carved a new benchmark in this industry.
Our rich portfolio has been the proud recipient of prestigious awards including the CES Innovation Award, IF Design Award, Appy Awards and the Best International Mobile App Award among others.
We are most proud of the great relationships that we were able to cultivate with our clients throughout the years that came from the caliber of work we’ve done which helped our clients raise their bottom lines.
What sets us apart is that we’re not a big faceless corporation. Clients connect with us and see the human side of app development and design. They partner with us and get the personal touch with world-class work.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Growing up in Romania, my favorite memory from childhood is going up the mountain in the winter, December time with my friends. We each had toilet seat covers that we would use to slide down the mountain.
This one time we started hiking up a hill. It took us about 2-hours to get to the top and it was around 4:30 p.m. Evening was slowly creeping in on us. From the top of that hill you could see the entire town lit up. Smoke coming out of the chimneys and that fresh wood smell. While at the top, my friend Marius spotted a pack of wolves. This was not news to us. We knew that wolves were up there. We also knew that when they travel in packs, there were many incidents were kids were attacked. We quickly got on our toilet seats and slid down that hill. I sled down all the way to the edge of a cliff that had a tree growing perpendicular. I dropped from that tree all the way to the bottom of the hill, right on top of a frozen river.
I very much enjoyed the whole experience of going in the wild, in the unknown, being scared but also thrilled of the unknown and always pushing the boundaries.
