No, we're not gone, nor idle or lazy. We've just had more on our plate than usual. That's something you might hear a lot if you ever get to spend a day at Maronqua. Due mostly to our obsessive compulsiveness, our never-ending quest for that perfect pixel just got much more interesting. But more about that, soon. Really soon.

In the meantime, here's something bound to put a smile on your collective faces:

We've told you before about Bogdan and his Cosmics, those little one eyed aliens that are hanging on to his glasses and playing with his beard.

Since then, the Cosmics have traveled to even further reaches of the universe, where they were intercepted by IQads, the biggest, meanest, mothership of advertising news in Romania. Here, they've been questioned about their origins and intentions and had no choice, but to release the information. So now, you get to read all you wanted to know about our amazing Art Director Bogdan, and his cosmic creations in this awesome interview.

And remember everyone, you can stalk the Cosmics on Facebook and Tumblr.

Proud of you BGD - keep being awesome.

Marius, is not only the most amazing copywriter we've met, but also one of those people that you only get the chance to meet once in a lifetime.

What will we miss most about him? His morning mumble (definitely not a morning person) or perhaps his passion for loud music (Dear Lord, how can he do that to his own ears?). Just kidding, Marius. The truth is that everyday he amazed us with his passion for perfection and his desire to always surpass himself with each new project, learning something new everyday while still having fun. But the one thing he did better than any of us is to remain chill, no matter how hectic things got.

But let's go back to the way he made his exit. If you've followed this blog at all, you must know about Marius's passion for cooking and of that time he spoiled us on his birthday with those delicious sticky pork ribs. So yes - you've guessed it - his farewell gift for us was another feast.

But this time he approached the meal like a true advertiser. He had a theme, he created anticipation and told a story. The delish dish was Shepherd's Pie (as British as it gets) and the context was created by letting it cook for half a day with the kitchen door wide open.

He kept torturing us for five excruciating hours with both mouth watering smells and delicious insights into the process itself. Finally, the sight of him carrying the long awaited masterpiece was it.

We stormed the tray, pausing only to smile and nod in approval. Like all he did, the pie was perfect and so the standing ovations he got from all of us, only came natural.

Rest assured everybody - just like he's taking Maronqua's perfection and values along for the ride of a lifetime, his craziness is bound to linger in each and everyone of us, sealing his place Inside the Maronqua family for good.

Chapeau Marius - Stay hungry, stay foolish!

On that note we wish to wish (how’s that for copy?) a Happy Birthday to... well... us!!! Yep, it’s actually been a year since Radu Tudorie and Oana Cojocaru founded Maronqua. Since then we’ve been breaking the boundaries of creativity and handcrafting perfection. Not only did we go out of the box, but we tore it up and turned the cardboard into an artboard. Moreover, we loved every minute of it...

...and we still do, which is why we still don’t see it as work. We listened and explored, we imagined and defined, we handcrafted and perfected. We provided integrated solutions. With each project we learned and grew, always keeping our eyes on the pearl and striving for nothing less than pixel perfect advertising.

What now you ask? Since it’s becoming a Maronqua tradition to have feasts on birthdays, we thought we’d go on a picnic besides a palace (not even kidding). Fun aside though, we’ll continue to do what we do best and that’s to solve and create for the select few who choose quality over quantity. Even though things have changed a bit along the way.

About half a year ago, Oana left for England to manage events on an international scale. Now Marius (the copywriter who is writing this: ‘trust me: it’s weirder for me, than it is for you’) is leaving to study Shakespeare in England. That country is stealing our talent!! Naah, we’re just kidding: we wish them the best of luck and are happy they can take the Maronqua Perfectionism wherever they choose to wander. While we will miss them both, we would like to welcome the newest members of our team: Uana and Irina. We can barely wait for their fresh approach and the awesome things their minds and imaginations create when unlocked by Maronqua.

So here’s to everyone who made this possible; to our stubborn attention for details; to our thirst for quality advertising; to making it ever better!

Here’s to a year of Maronqua!

Oh and one more thing... do bear in mind that this has been merely a warm up.

Well, today this lightheartedly smiling fairy waltzed into our office and manage to actually break the Monday Curse with:

• her upbeat and energetic attitude
• her enthusiasm and bright ideas during creative sessions
and
• (if you haven't figured it out from the pictures) this delicious surprize:

Who is she? Where did she come from? What does she want? Well, we'll tell you. But not today. Today we're going to have this hamburger instead:

We can't quite put our finger on it... but she actually broke the Monday Curse!

Maronqua is not your average (cup o') joe and neither is anything we do. But think about it...that's actually a really good thing, since our goal is to improve everything and do things differently.

That's the reason why our team buildings don't really follow the "21 ways to strengthen your corporate team" guidelines. What this means is that we don't force the fun on the people we take with us: it's just a trip where we shift from business to monkey business. Naah, we're just kidding...but seriously, we reaaaallly chill.

It also means our trips are not exclusive to the people who work at Maronqua. If we go on a team building, must it necessarily be with our team only ? Says who?

And, on that note: this weekend team Maronqua assembles in Vama Veche, so expect beachy pics on our Instagram and Facebook...with at least a couple of surprises.

Chill you there!

The following text will be shaped funny, because it's about Cosmics Comics...and they're funny: in more ways than one:

FROM
THE FAR
REACHES OF
THE UNIVERSE,
WHERE NO MAN DARES
TO END HYPERDRIVE, A NEW
RACE OF ALIENS COMES FORTH TO...
WELL, TO AMUSE YOU AND SHOW YOU HOW
THEIR WORLD IS EXACTLY LIKE YOURS. EXCEPT THAT
THEY ONLY HAVE ONE EYE. AND ANTENNAE. AND NO FINGERS.
BUT STILL, THEIR WORLD IS REALLY SIMILAR TO YOURS. IF YOUR
WORLD IS A SILLY, LOVINGLY CLUMSY AND AMUSINGLY GOOFY,
SORT OF NAIVE, SUPER-RANDOM & SHMOOPER-HEROIC OR
MAKES-NO-SENSE-BUT-STILL-FUNNY WITH SHYAMALANIAN
ENDINGS. FINE... IT'S NOTHING LIKE YOUR WORLD.
WHAT WERE YOU EXPECTING? THEY'RE COSMICS!
SEE HOW THEIR NORMAL IS NOTHING LIKE
YOUR NORMAL. ALSO... DID YOU EVEN
NOTICE THAT THE TEXT SHIFTED
180 DEGREES FROM THE
POINT IT WAS
TRYING TO
MAKE?

And that's why the text is shaped funny: because it doesn't make much sense. But Cosmics Comics does....sometimes. Check out these rough sketches. Bogdan hadn't yet managed to completely channel their signal and decode their latest (mis-)adventure.

Aren't they cute?
Told you they don't have fingers. See what this sketch turned into when completely beamed down right here.
This idea didn't make it yet, but reach out and keep in touch, because you never know what they will broadcast next... or how Bogdan will pick up that signal.

At Maronqua we play with brands. We play with brand images. We try to make them better and handcraft them to perfection. Let's show you how we played with ours.

By the way... if you just met us, know that we call "play" what you call "work".

But that's beside the point. So here are two wallpapers our designer came up with while playing with our agency's image that we'd like to share with you.

Neat, huh?

We hope that perhaps some of you will find it in their heart to give them a loving desktop, where they can quietly sit under the huge pile of windows you work with.

Letters

Download

Right-Click the corresponding link and Save As

Desktop

• 2560x1600
• 1920x1200
• 1440x900
• 1366x768
• 1280x800
• 1024x768

Mobile Devices

• iPad - Retina
• iPad
• iPhone 5/5s - Retina
• iPhone 4s/4 - Retina
• iPhone

Polygons

Download

Right-click the corresponding link and Save As

Desktop

• 2560x1600
• 1920x1200
• 1440x900
• 1366x768
• 1280x800
• 1024x768

Mobile Devices

• iPad - Retina
• iPad
• iPhone 5/5s - Retina
• iPhone 4s/4 - Retina
• iPhone

Warning: These works of art may cause you to experience jealousy, envy and awe. Now available in all shapes and sizes, tutorials not included.

Advertising has NO pension plan!

We don't live that long!

No Country for Old AdMen

• backstage stuff
• sneak-peeks
• the things advertisers don't usually let you see
• the mess behind the perfect package

Last week we posted one of the latest projects Maronqua did, for MTV Mobile Romania, on our website.

But, like every other showcase in the world, we only displayed the finished product, the carefully handcrafted and neatly polished pearl.

But how did we get there? What was the process? What was it like in the messy stages?

Well...it looked something like this:

Yeah, we actually understand those schematas and doodles and what-not.

Proof? We turned them into versions and layouts and mock-ups. Lots of them! All perfectly aligned within really, really strict grids.

Let's zoom in, because Bogdan's artboards are crazy big:

Then, at one point, Alexandra got an e-mail that approved the designs and implementation followed.

But Radu doesn't just write code like every other web designer. His code is so bug free, we suspect it's from a galaxy far, far away:

Finally, 44967 perfectly optimized lines of code later, this is the preview we showed the world, in order to get them to cheer for us (why be hypocrites about it? That IS the purpose of a showcase, right?):

Want to know what each of us did for this project? Here's a really cool treat!

I, Marius - the copywriter - am really excited about the treat... I didn't know these things existed. Seriously cool... even if you web developers think it's lame and overdone, overused and you're already used to this kind of things.

I just found out, so it's new to me!!

Joey thinks so too!

And what better way to do that, than by killing beasties, spawns of hell and minions of doom and saving the world while we're at it.

Yup... we're talking about Diablo III aka the big, red guy whom Marius (our copywriter) is currently slaughtering:

So here's our team from a different perspective:

Radu "Conqueror of Pixels" Tudorie

NOX

Barbarian

who mainly uses Diablo for debugging blocks...no, seriously, whenever he gets stuck with debugging code, he goes in, kills a few creeps and gets back on track... yeah... it actually works!

Alexandra "Mindbender" Tataru

Aimae

Wizard

she actually wanted to play Borderlands, but we got her to try this out too. She'll like it eventually :P

Bogdan-Alexandru "Clipping Ninja Mask" Ungureanu

Unf3lde0m

Demon Hunter

if you ask him why he plays, he'll answer: "because he made me"

Marius Michal "Wordlock" Klimowicz

Lyra

Monk (yup, it's a she)

mainly uses the game to clear his mind when transitioning between projects

Because all work and no play makes Maronqua a dull agency! :D

If you speak moldavian Romanian..this is really, really funny

Nimeni nu-ti face caninii ca mini!

Moldavian dentist's tagline

And they wrote me a little poem too:

Though we don't have as much talent in rhymes
We sure can loudly use our chimes
To wish you: Happy Birthday - a thousand times!

A little poem for H.I.M.

Some say he dreams in text

And that makes everyone perplexed

But we all know he is complex

For as he is skilled in words

His imagination breaks records,

So that we may call him - Lord of the boards!

We dont know how good he sings,

But you should taste his sticky chicken wings

For it is a feast fit for kings

And though he seems a little cryptic

We can tell you he is artistic

And his presence is addictive.

So Happy Happy Birthday for yesterday

To our fellow Copy, yay!!!

Copy's edit:

I seriously didn't touch that text. Not one word, comma or full stop. Neither corrected, changed, moved nor added. So thanks guys!

For the ones who are thinking: "why is this guy so personal all of a sudden, isn't this text supposed to be the voice of the agency or... stuff?" ...just enjoy it will ya? :)

Just one thing: The sticky chicken wings... they were actually sticky pork ribs ;) But hey... you can't mess with the poet's rhyme, right?

Aaaand, here's the actual food:

On this sweet girl's day of birth did we meet...
We bought her a gift - a book just as sweet!

But getting us drunk is just not her style,
She went to the kitchen and cooked for a while.

"What could be that smell, that scent so delish'?" "It's just a surprize, a marvelous dish!"

Th' chicken was tanning, this meal looked high-class,
But what is the thing that stuck out its ...?

A bottle that boiled and cooked the inside,
Raped the crisp chicken that roasted with pride.

"I don't need a fork!": Bogdan's hungry roar; Marius stood speechless, like never before;

Through wide open eyes, Radu seemed to steal
This feast for a king, this heavenly meal.

With tummy now full, content and with glee,
She gleamed over sweets: a chocolaty sea.

All on her own made the meal so complete
And still found the time to make us this treat!

Happy Birthday Alexandra!

And thank you, from the bottom of our stomachs!

Seriously though, this blog will feature a behind-the-scenes peek into our prefectionism, our personal sand-box, our playground, how Radu finds inspiration for designs and fixing coding bugs in the Diablo III universe.

OK, maybe that wasn’t so serious, either. Let us try again: it’s Alexandra’s wonderful cuisine and the food she delights us with from time to time. Smell-o-vision and taste-o-vision not included, ‘cause, to quote some seagulls from a fishy animation, "mine"!

Wait, wait, we really can be serious about this...we hope. Here goes nothing: it’s a trip through the complexity of Bogdan’s process to achieve that perfect design, with a side order of spontaneous amateur haircuts.

Ah, damnit! One more try... we think we can get it right this time. It’s our identity in-between projects, when we unwind and Marius lets his sanity go out the window, then jumps after it to catch it and belly flops the pavement.

Ah, fine, we can’t be serious about it. Or maybe we don’t want to.

This is the fun side of Maronqua ;)