Miruna Sorescu, Creative director, Sindroms
Copenhagen’s Sindroms magazines takes a single colour as its starting point each issue. After launching with Red, it has just returned with an issue about Yellow. We caught up with its creative director and founder Miruna Sorescu to look at what the week holds for her.
Tell us about your typical Monday journey to work
The magazine is a side gig of ours, so the Sindroms work starts on a Monday in the afternoon after our day job. I take the train back to the city centre, where we usually meet for dinner or drinks, and the creative process begins. As summer has finally touched down in Copenhagen, we often sit in the sun to work.
Describe the state of your desk and what you can see in your office
My home desk is set up in my living room, next to the windows so it catches all the sunlight. Its state really depends on where we are in the magazine-making process. For example, if we’re in the brainstorm stage, it will be filled with books about colour, if we’re in the production stage it can be filled with random yellow props for photoshoots, and if I’m in the layout stage it will be filled with colour and paper samples, or test prints. The constant elements are always other great magazines, and coffee.
Which magazine do you first remember?
The first memories I have are probably those of old issues of Paris Vogue, and The World of Interiors, which my mother was always reading. But one magazine that first introduced me to a different kind of printed press was TATAIA, a magazine about contemporary Romanian folklore, which launched around 2010. It gathered work from several artists and creatives, and spoke about the cultural creativity and environment in Romania.
The colour for issue two is yellow. How does this change in colour affect the magazine — does it look and feel drastically different? Are the stories about very different things to the red issue?
It does look quite different! First of all, it has a cover jacket on top of its monochrome yellow cover - a beautiful artwork by Carl & Evelina Kleiner, which nicely captures the content of the issue. It’s also about 50 pages bigger than the red issue. Yellow has a very different feeling than red, and so does the issue - while the red one was an intense dive into love, passion and anger, the yellow issue is a fresh take on happiness and optimism, which also delves into anxiety and jealousy. It’s a lovely balance, we think.
Another difference is that the first issue was done very much in-house: we were a small team and it was very much our own vision throughout the whole issue. That was great because we got the chance to show what our direction is, but this time we’ve worked with a lot more talented contributors, and we’re excited to show yellow through many different perspectives.
What’s your favourite colour?
This question has been getting harder and harder for me - and our whole team I think. I was never a fan of neither red or yellow, but completely fell in love with each of them as we started working on the issues. I start seeing the colour in a completely new way and train myself to be very aware of it, and spot it everywhere. So, if you’re asking me now - it’s yellow! That, and I have a soft spot for pink - which I can’t wait to work with.
The launch issue of Sindroms featured the colour red, what was the most surprising thing that you discovered about that colour?
I think the most surprising was seeing the big differences in cultural associations of the colour - how red can mean one thing to one culture and the complete opposite to another. I'm not sure if there is any other colour as dual in symbolism as red is - it is both the colour of love, passion and romance, but it can also represent fury, war, and even death.
What magazine matters to you most right now?
It’s tough to pick one - I love discovering new magazines and getting just a little bit obsessed with each new one. Anxy’s Workaholism issue is a personal favourite right now, and I can’t wait for the Boundaries issue to come out. They have great quality content that’s so relatable, speaking up about things that affect so many of us. Other than that, I’m always excited for a new issue of The Gentlewoman and The Gourmand.
What are you worrying about at work this week?
Our Kickstarter campaign ended last month, and our second issue was just released a couple of weeks ago, so we’re still in the process of sorting out all orders and organizing shipments to stockists – it’s a lot of manual work and I’m always worried about missing something.
What’s going to be the highlight of the week for you?
This week we will slowly start planning the next issue and debating what the next colour should be – so that will definitely be the highlight of the week. Plus, we slowly start seeing the yellow issue hitting stores and getting in the hands of the readers – and that’s a huge thrill!
What will you be doing after this chat?
I’ll be catching up on emails and scouting for a location to host the yellow dinner event we are organising in Copenhagen at the end of this month.
Instagram: @sindroms_