Who the hell is Victor Lascar Bahneanu?

Get to know some of the brilliant minds behind our work. We’re chatting with members of the DixonBaxi studio about what makes them who they are. From the professional to the personal, nothing is off limits here. Introducing: Victor, our motion designer who embarked on an odyssey of partying before he came to London.‍

Who are you and what do you do?
I'm Victor and I move pretty little things on the screen.

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What’s your story?
I was born in a small town in the northeast of Romania. At the supple age of 4 I decided I'd had enough of that, so I toddled off to the other side of the world in search of adventures. I, of course, took my travel companions and my 7 year-old associate. My first stop was Costa Rica, and there was just something about that place – I knew as soon as the plane landed this was going to be LIT. I spent my days playing golf, drinking margaritas by the pool and enjoying the scenery. It was all happy days till disaster struck. Turns out money doesn't grow on trees and I must admit I wasn't great with money. So from one day to the next I went from looking like a million bucks to barely affording a meal deal. My life was turned upside down but I didn't let that cramp my style. I needed to move on.

Now as a humble 5 year old, I decided I had to keep it moving, so I set my sights on my next destination: Panama City. Although I didn't have the same initial impression as I had with the previous location – quite the opposite actually – it kinda grew on me over the two years I spent there. I started school, I made friends, I kept the tradition of partying hard no matter what. Money was thin, the streets were dangerous and at times my travel companions had to make sacrifices to make sure me and my associate had what we needed to keep on groovin’. After a while things were so bad that we unfortunately had to make the executive decision to pack our stuff and move once again. 

With my newly acquired Spanish proficiency, it only made sense to keep it Latino so this time I moved to Spain, specifically to a small town north of Madrid called San Lorenzo de El Escorial, where I would end up spending the rest of my childhood. At the beginning it was obviously a struggle. One of my travel companions had to stay behind, so the other one had to do most of the heavy lifting to keep the party going. However at some point it was just too much work for two people, and we needed someone new to join the party.  Me and my associate were not a fan of the idea but it had to be done. Things got a little better before it got a lot worse, call it the eye of the storm or whatever.

Our original companion made it back to us eventually, and oh boy, he did not like what he saw. A fight between the old and the new broke out, all to see who could party with us, and it was vicious. Chill, guys. We tried to come to some sort of agreement and we tried a few things, like partying with one on the weekend and partying with the other during the week, or half a sesh with one, half a sesh with the other. This was clearly not working, so one of them decided to leave.

At the age of 10, I was starting to get pretty sick of partying. It’s been a whole decade and I can’t keep doing this forever. I gave other activities a good go, like going to school, walking the streets with other kids. I was never great at school but I wasn't terrible either. I wanted to have a good time so I just did enough to get by, but I didn't want to waste more time than I had to. I knew however that all this had an expiry date. Deep down, I kept hearing the call to adventure. I was almost 16 and I'd been stagnant for too long. At this point, I was losing brain cells by the minute, and as much as I loved the bench life I knew I was meant for more. 

As soon as I got the opportunity to join my associate in London, I took it. Goodbyes are never easy but this one was particularly hard, since I was leaving all my friends. Starting all over again wasn’t easy, especially when you needed to learn a new language to interact with the locals. I was sleeping on my old travel companion’s sofa. I started attending a BTEC diploma in Media. I would work on campus until they kicked me out, and then I’d skate at Stratford Centre till midnight. It was a pretty depressing time, but then I discovered Photoshop and After Effects and I quickly became obsessed with the craft. 

I'm realising that this is getting very long, so I'm gonna sprint a bit through the rest. I wanted to become a film director but thought it'd be too hard so I decided to become an editor first. At 17, I started working odd jobs to get by, and at 18 I went to university to study video editing and post-production. At 19, I got kicked out of my house and met the person that would become my business partner. In the second year of my degree, I realised editing wasn't for me, so I focused on making a career out of my interest in motion design.

Shortly after graduating, I started taking freelance commissions, although I would have to work in the office in the mornings and in the bar in the evenings, it seemed like things were going in the right direction. I had the pleasure of working with a bunch of nice studios with cool people, but I also worked in a handful of terrible places. Fast forward to 5 years later, I’m now a motion designer at DixonBaxi.

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What are you working on right now?
I'm rebranding a brand.

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"Good design is unexpected, like it shouldn't work but it somehow does. There’s an initial discomfort that then grows on you."

Describe your working style in 3 words.
Keep it silly.

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Tell us about some of your interests. What are you into?
I have two lovely cats. I enjoy listening to and mixing electronic music. I like playing games of all kinds, skateboarding, building robots, beer and cigarettes, dancing, jumping, running, and falling.

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Do you think design can change the world? How?
Obviously, and in so many ways, some good and some bad. But the way I want design to change the world is by inspiring people to be nice.

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If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?
Nothing. Everything is great. Lol.

What’s the last song you listened to?
Andrew - Jonwayne.

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Why do you do what you do? What motivates you?
The fear of getting bored.

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What’s your definition of good design?
Something unexpected, like it shouldn't work but it somehow does. There’s an initial discomfort that then grows on you.