About designsbyandra

I never felt like I belonged.

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The first decade of my life was spent in a small rural town in Romania, waiting for my parents to bring me to the “land of opportunity”: the UK. When I migrated at age 10, I was hit with a new language, new culture, new rules of how to exist, and I was very lost. Confused. And a whole lot of scared.

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So I adapted the best way I knew how: I blended in until I disappeared. I studied people and soaked in everything around me, searching for the version of ‘normal’ I was supposed to dress up as. But normal shifted depending on where I stood. Romania carried a closed-off mindset, where certain things were endured and never spoken of, while in the UK there was a strong sense of openness and conviction. The social rules didn’t align.

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Caught in-between, the belief intensified: I don’t belong.

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I didn’t fit in the UK, and I didn’t fit in Romania. Romania had the food, the countryside, the slower pace I craved. England had the diversity, the openness, the opportunities. But neither place ever felt like home. When you’re too Romanian for the UK, and too British for Romania… where do you stand?

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At some point, I fell in love with Italy. To me, it was a beautiful in-between: a language close to my mother tongue, history and culture that felt familiar, but also the diversity and forward-thinking I admired in England. Italy wasn’t about choosing one identity over another. It was about weaving together the pieces that resonated with me.

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And that’s when I realised: belonging isn’t something you stumble into. It’s something you create. Home isn’t handed to you. You build it out of what feels true.

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That’s exactly what design means to me.

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I help small businesses do the same thing. Take the raw, honest pieces of who they are and stitch them into something that feels like home. Not blending in with trends. Not disappearing into the noise. But creating a brand that feels real, that feels like them, that creates a sense of belonging strong enough for others to say, “me too!”

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Because when you stop waiting to belong and start designing your own place - you finally stand where you were meant to all along.