THE AVERAGE. IS BORING.
Illumic is the studio of Laszlo Nagy — Head of Art and Senior Art Director with 20+ years across North America, London and Europe. Brand, campaigns, film and performance creative, led from the first idea to the last pixel.
I set the look. Then I build the team and the system that keeps it.
More than twenty years of art direction, nine of them leading multidisciplinary design teams. I've worked inside McCann Erickson and Ogilvy, shot on location in Munich and Chiang Mai, built acquisition creative for the UK market in London, and directed broadcast and digital output for one of Hungary's largest media groups. Today I lead the art team at DeepInsight and run Illumic, my creative studio, for clients like Swatch Group, Lacoste, Carlsberg and Nespresso.
- 20+ years in art direction
- 9+ years leading design teams
- 4 markets: CA/US, UK, DE, HU
- 50+ brands & agencies
Four markets. One standard.
I've worked inside the markets I design for — North America, London and Germany — and bring that perspective to every Budapest brief. Available B2B to global, US and EMEA teams.
- Winnipeg, Canada (1999 – 2000) — Powerland Computer — North American B2C/B2B
- US-backed, Verizon (Yellow Pages) (2000 – 2002) — New media specialist & graphic designer
- Munich · Hanover, Germany (2008 – 2009) — GZL-ART — art director & photographer
- Chiang Mai, Thailand (2008 – 2009) — On-location commercial photography
- London, United Kingdom (2015 – 2017) — Smart Live Gaming · Escape Studios VFX
- Budapest, Hungary — HQ (1996 – Now) — McCann · Ogilvy · Origo · New Wave · DeepInsight · Illumic
Career
Head of Art — Senior Art Director — DeepInsight Creative (2022 – Now)
Lead, mentor and line-manage a 4-person multidisciplinary design team: task distribution, capacity planning, 1-on-1s, hiring and strict QC. Creative direction for performance campaigns (Meta, Google, paid social) and 360° brand systems. R&D lead for AI image/video pipelines and vibe coding — shared prompt and style libraries for the whole team.
Managing & Creative Director — Illumic-Solution Ltd. (2012 – Now)
My own B2B creative studio. Hands-on art direction and production across paid digital, print, commercial video, 2D/3D motion and photoreal visualisation for international clients — Swatch Group (Swatch, Tissot, Certina, Mido), Lacoste, Timberland, Police, Carlsberg, Nespresso. Full cycle: briefing and competitor analysis to 3D rendering, grading and post.
Head of Art — Creative Team Lead — New Wave Media Group (2017 – 2022)
Directed the visual strategy and high-volume production of digital campaigns, broadcast TV spots and social video for one of Hungary's largest media groups. Ran end-to-end workflows across designers, video editors, copywriters and producers — removing bottlenecks while keeping one visual standard.
Senior Digital & Performance Designer — Smart Live Gaming, London (2015 – 2017)
Concepted and produced performance ad creatives, affiliate acquisition campaigns and animated banners for the competitive UK iGaming market. Worked daily with London media buyers, marketers and developers to test visual angles and optimise conversion funnels.
Senior Web & Graphic Designer — Origo Zrt. (2009 – 2015)
Led concept and UI/visual design for flagship media properties — origo.hu, life.hu, videa.hu, freemail.hu, Ozone and Life Network, investor.hu. High-CTR display ads, interactive animated interfaces and campaign landing pages built together with developers.
Art Director & Commercial Photographer — GZL-ART GmbH — Munich · Hanover · Chiang Mai (2008 – 2009)
Creative concepts, visual adaptations and on-location commercial photography in Germany and Thailand, with a strong focus on studio lighting, human composition and high-end retouching.
Freelance Art Director — Ogilvy & Mather (2007 – 2008)
Integrated advertising campaigns, new-business pitch decks and key visuals for RTL Klub, Nestea and Burn Energy Drink.
Art Director — LastMinute Advertising (2005 – 2007)
Creative concepts, retail customer-acquisition campaigns, packaging design and production for Sony, Extreme Digital, Medico Uno and Zalakerámia.
Graphic Designer & DTP Specialist — McCann Erickson (2002 – 2005)
Layouts and high-precision visual production alongside art directors on global accounts: Coca-Cola, Honda, Microsoft and Pannon GSM.
New Media Specialist & Graphic Designer — Verizon (Yellow Pages) (2000 – 2002)
US-backed corporate publications and B2C/B2B promotional creative.
IT Hardware Advisor — Powerland Computer, Winnipeg (Canada) (1999 – 2000)
Direct North American B2C/B2B client consulting and system configuration — my first international role.
Graphic Designer & DTP Specialist — Graphitech Ltd. (1996 – 1999)
Full-cycle design, high-end scanning, retouching and colour proofing — where the craft started.
Disciplines
Team leadership
Hiring, mentoring, capacity planning and QC for multidisciplinary teams that ship on tight deadlines.
Art direction
The standard everything else is held to. I set the look and protect it, from pitch to the last adaptation.
Campaigns & 360°
One idea that reads the same on TV, in a feed, on a citylight and on a shelf.
Performance creative
Hooks, angles and A/B loops with media buyers — craft that earns its keep in CTR and CPA.
Film, motion & 3D
TV spots, social video, VFX and CGI — After Effects, Premiere, DaVinci, Maya, Blender.
Photography & light
Studio and location lighting, composition, retouch. The craft that makes every image believable.
AI-native, not AI-dependent.
Generative tools are part of my everyday production, not a gimmick on top of it. I've been shipping AI-made campaigns since 2023 — and I lead the team pipelines behind them. The tools speed up exploration and production; the eye, the light and the decisions stay human.
- 2023 first fully AI-made fashion campaign (Árkád)
- 4 AI book trailers for Libri
- 15k+ files sorted by a vibe-coded curator
Photoreal image pipeline
Midjourney and Flux/ComfyUI for the base, Magnific for detail, Photoshop for the finish. Photography and 3D lighting knowledge fixes what models get wrong: hands, light direction, product accuracy.
Static-to-video
Art-directed key frames turned into motion with Kling, Runway, Higgsfield and Sora, then cut, graded and finished in Premiere and After Effects — book trailers and promo films in days, not weeks.
Team systems
Shared prompt and style libraries, brand-safe guardrails and QC checklists, so a whole design team produces consistent, on-brand variations for A/B testing.
Vibe coding
Claude Code, Cursor, Lovable and v0 for tools that remove studio friction: an asset curator for 15,000+ files, prompt libraries, prototypes — and this website.
How I use it
- Brief first, tool second.
- Light and composition decide — not the model.
- Product accuracy is checked like a packshot.
- Every output is retouched and approved by a human.
Software I build with AI.
As an art director, my job has always been to turn an idea into something real that works. In 2026 I picked up a new tool for that: Claude Code. In four months I built six working pieces of software with AI as my pair programmer: a native macOS app, a Blender add-on, a 24/7 automated trading system, a multi-agent research system, a web app and a publishing automation. Close to 60,000 lines of code. The model wrote most of the code. The product vision, the decisions, the design and the quality control are mine.
- 6 working pieces of software
- ~60k lines of code
- 4 months, July – November 2026
How I work with AI
- The project never forgets. Every project has a CLAUDE.md “project memory” with the decisions, the reasons behind them, the dead ends and the open tasks. A new session picks up exactly where the last one stopped.
- Measure, don't assume. Test suites, end-to-end tests, and backtests with training and validation data kept apart. If a change can't prove itself, it doesn't ship.
- I extend what the AI can do. Custom MCP servers, subagents, skills, slash commands and scheduled tasks, so Claude works directly in the real tools: TradingView, Blender, web archives.
- Products, not just code. Pricing, licensing, landing page, user manual, marketing plan. A project is finished when it's ready to sell.
- Design stays with me. UI, icon, website, motion: the art director's eye decides, the AI executes.
WiredDisplay (macOS app)
Two 5K iMacs from one Mac, over a cable, at native resolution.
A macOS app that turns any old Mac into a true second display. Plenty of beautiful 5K Retina iMacs sit on desks gathering dust, because Apple won't let you use them as external displays: Retina iMacs never supported Target Display Mode. WiredDisplay fills that gap. It's one app with two roles: on your main Mac it creates a real virtual display, and on the old Mac it shows that display as an encrypted stream, no dongle needed. What sets it apart: it can drive two old iMacs at once, both at native 5120 × 2880 over a cable.
The product around it: an offline Ed25519 licensing system tied to machine fingerprints, a Cloudflare Worker activation endpoint, a swappable payment provider, a one-time $39 price backed by market research, a user manual, and a three-month social media campaign plan with 118 ready-to-post posts.
Landing page: a single-file site (React + Tailwind + GSAP) with a scroll-scrubbed hero video and a custom design-token system. The brand orange was sampled from the app icon's pixels, and every color pair was checked against WCAG AA contrast. Custom Swift tools test the page (rendering, overflow, layer order), and the screenshots come from the real app in demo mode. SEO schema included (SoftwareApplication, FAQPage).
Behind the scenes: the Swift package manager on the dev machine was broken, so the whole build runs on direct swiftc calls. The app can also screenshot its own windows through a developer switch, without screen recording permission. That's how the AI could check with its own eyes what it had built.
- A real extended display: it appears in System Settings and works with Mission Control
- H.264 and ProRes 422 LT / HQ / 4444 streaming, adaptive bitrate, a low-latency “newest frame wins” pipeline
- TLS 1.2 PSK encryption from a 6-digit pairing code, Bonjour discovery, auto-reconnect
- KVM: the old Mac's keyboard and mouse control the main machine
- Drag-and-drop file transfer: the file lands exactly where you dropped it on the streamed desktop
- Remote drive browsing and smart network routing (wired links preferred)
- A custom Metal screensaver (“Span”): every instance draws its own piece of one shared image, so a single continuous picture runs across three machines' screens
- macOS 10.15+, Intel and Apple Silicon, universal binary
- Stack
- Swift, AppKit, ScreenCaptureKit, VideoToolbox, Network.framework, CryptoKit, Metal, CGVirtualDisplay (Objective-C bridge), Cloudflare Workers, React + Tailwind + GSAP
- Size
- ~12,000 lines of Swift + ~2,600 lines of tests
- Status
- App and website finished, pre-launch
WPG — Workshop Package Generator (Blender add-on)
Shop drawings straight from your 3D model, in one click.
A Blender add-on that turns a modeled piece of furniture into a complete workshop package for makers. Woodworkers don't build from a 3D file. They build from a printed, dimensioned drawing and a cut list. WPG automates that step: from the modeled part it produces vector PDF shop drawings, a cut list, an assembly drawing and a cutting plan — for woodworkers, metalworkers and technicians.
Engineering: the drawing engine is pure Python with no Blender dependency: its own vector math, ray-cast occlusion testing, cylinder fitting, a dimension-layout algorithm, and its own PDF writer with TrueType font embedding. That makes it portable to other 3D apps (Rhino 8 in development, Fusion and SketchUp planned). Drawings follow ISO 128, 129, 3098, 5455, 5457 and 7200.
- Front, side and top views with hidden-line handling, plus an axonometric view for reference
- Hole detection: a 48-sided mesh becomes a clean Ø8 with a center cross, callouts grouped (4× Ø8)
- Automatic, collision-free dimensioning and always a standard scale (1:1, 1:2, 1:5 …)
- Workshop package: assembly sheet with balloon numbers, cut list, one sheet per part, CSV, material totals in m²
- Woodworking module: edge banding, grain direction, a cutting-plan sketch with sheet count and waste estimate
- Pre-export checks (unit errors, name clashes, overlapping parts)
- Drawings in English / German / Hungarian, metric or fractional inches, A4/A3/Letter/Tabloid, DXF/SVG export
- Tiers: Free / Pro / Full / Studio
- Stack
- Python, Blender 4.2+ Extensions API, custom PDF/TrueType engine, DXF/SVG
- Size
- ~15,700 lines of Python + ~5,600 lines of tests (300+ test cases)
- Status
- The Blender version works; product sheet, pricing, manual and landing page are done
IMR — automated crypto trading system (Automation · trading)
From research to production: a self-healing trading infrastructure that runs around the clock.
A trading idea grew into a complete system that runs unattended: TradingView strategy → webhook → custom bot → exchange API. Every parameter is backed by measurement: a custom Python backtesting lab, separate training and validation periods, and checks on coins that were never used for tuning. The system runs on a demo account until a pre-registered 45-trade test is complete. Going live is decided by the data, not by enthusiasm.
- Pine Script v6 strategy: intraday momentum + RSI pullback, ATR-based exits, partial take-profit, breakeven stop
- FastAPI webhook bot for the Bybit V5 API: risk-based position sizing, exchange-side backup stop, kill switch, webhook queue
- Self-healing operation: Cloudflare tunnel, macOS launchd agents, automatic recovery after reboots and network drops, alert-expiry monitoring
- Shadow log: it also tracks how the filtered-out signals would have done, so every filter's real value is visible
- Self-documenting: a scheduled script updates the project's status page and decision log by itself
- AI drives TradingView: an open-source MCP server, installed and patched locally, so Claude compiles, saves, backtests and sets alerts on its own
- 50+ research scripts: filters, exit logic, BTC market regime, funding costs, correlation
- Stack
- Python, FastAPI, pybit (Bybit V5), Pine Script v6, TradingView MCP (Chrome DevTools Protocol), Cloudflare Tunnel, launchd, HTML dashboard
- Size
- ~9,000 lines of Python + Pine Script
- Status
- Running continuously on a demo account since July 2026, across 21 coins and 42 alerts
Demo-account test, not investment advice.
Forensic research agent (Multi-agent system)
The AI searches and weighs, the code records.
A multi-agent Claude Code system that finds evidence in public sources, authenticates it and organizes it. A legal case needed a decade of public communications material found, recorded in a verifiable way, and organized into a court-ready table. The principle: the language model searches and proposes, but every evidentiary step is done by deterministic code — so no hallucination can get into the chain of evidence.
Results: 460+ documented items, authenticated PDF dossiers by year (1,400+ pages in total), thousands of automated integrity checks.
- 10 specialized subagents: 7 channel researchers (web archive, video, press, events, ad library, social media, company records), a classifier, an independent verifier and a curator
- Custom MCP server with 37 tools: Wayback Machine (CDX, timemap), GDELT, a news agency archive, the WordPress API, Google search and the Meta Ad Library
- Forensic capture: PDF/PNG snapshots, SHA-256 hashing, RFC 3161 timestamps
- Rules enforced in code: items only from captured documents, any change forces re-verification, only a human gives final approval
- 5 slash commands for the whole workflow (collect → classify → select → status → export), 3 skills, permission deny-lists
- API quota tracking for free tiers, Excel master table and hash manifest export
- Stack
- Python, Model Context Protocol (MCP), SQLite, Claude Code subagents, skills and commands, Wayback/GDELT APIs
- Size
- ~5,700 lines of Python + agent and skill definitions
- Status
- Finished, in use
Night City Card Index (Web app · game)
Type a card code and get the rules, the price, the price history, and an opponent if you want one.
An unofficial fan-made collector's web app for the Cyberpunk TCG. Collectors type in a card code and instantly see the card, its rules text (in Hungarian too), current prices from the two biggest marketplaces, and the price history. It grew into a collection manager, a deck builder and a playable card game with an AI opponent.
- A database of 703 card printings from a public API, with optimized WebP images
- English/Hungarian interface, plus my own unofficial Hungarian rules translation with a consistent glossary
- Market prices: Cardmarket (EUR) and TCGplayer (USD), converted to HUF, updated daily, with a custom SVG price-history chart
- Accounts, collections and decks
- Game engine and AI with three difficulty levels, play styles (aggro / midrange / control) and commentary; a beginner mode with a coach; an optional 3D table
- 9 tournament-meta archetypes, tuned by simulation
- A portable Windows package: unzip, double-click, done
- Stack
- Vanilla JavaScript, HTML/CSS, Python (server and SQLite), web scraping and data processing, SVG
- Size
- ~6,500 lines of JavaScript + ~1,000 lines of Python
- Status
- Working; non-commercial fan project
InDesign form automation (InDesign scripts)
Interactive PDF forms that behave the way people expect.
A familiar problem in publishing: on interactive PDF forms made in InDesign, the Tab key jumps around at random, and single-character boxes (like the boxes of a tax ID) don't move on by themselves. One script fixes both problems from a single dialog.
- Tab order in reading order (left to right, top to bottom), page by page, with row tolerance
- Sets the fill-in font of every text field at once
- Interactive PDF export with post-processing: single-character fields advance automatically, pasted text is spread across the boxes, and Backspace steps back
- One Cmd+Z undoes everything
- Also in the toolbox: Smart Fit Text, which sizes text to fill its frame exactly, and check boxes that act as a single choice
- Stack
- ExtendScript (InDesign JSX), Python + pypdf, PDF AcroForm JavaScript
- Size
- ~1,000 lines
- Status
- Finished
After Effects AI bridge (MCP plugin)
Motion graphics from a plain-language brief.
Lets an AI assistant drive After Effects: it builds compositions, text, shape and camera layers, masks, keyframes and expressions from a plain-language brief. Inspired by an open-source MCP server, rewritten in Python: 58 tools, zero dependencies.
- Stack
- Python, Model Context Protocol (MCP), After Effects ExtendScript
- Status
- In use
This portfolio (Website · CMS)
Designed and vibe-coded end to end.
A horizontal scroll engine, light and dark view, a database-free CMS, automatic image optimisation, private CV pages with personal links and visitor stats, and a search layer that serves the full text, structured data and an llms.txt to search engines and AI assistants.
- Stack
- JavaScript, PHP, HTML/CSS, schema.org JSON-LD
- Status
- Live
Selected work
Logos, brand systems and stylescapes — a whole brand on one wide canvas, before it goes live.
- L!fe — brand identity stylescape
- Neobrand — digital brand stylescape
- Széchenyi Intézet — brand system
- Byryby — tech brand stylescape
- Dr. Matuz Organic — pet food brand
- DeepInsight — stylescape, warm
- DeepInsight — stylescape, cool
- Neobrand — one visual voice
- My Spa — massage therapist brand
- Argosz — logistics stylescape
- Argosz — Art of Wood stylescape
- Argosz — air-con stylescape
- Cabaret — feather logo
- Cabaret — top hat logo
Key visuals and campaign series for media, FMCG, retail and insurance — one idea, every format.
- Effie — the perfect fit
- Black Ice — office
- Black Ice — tram
- Origo Sport — fencing poster
- Honda — Wings of Motion
- Honda — road into the clouds
- BioTechUSA Crush — in the city
- BioTechUSA Crush — “Miért hagynád ki?”
- BioTechUSA Crush — for everyone
- BioTechUSA Crush — hero shot
- BioTechUSA Crush — caramel
- Köpönyeg — “Eső előtt Köpönyeg!”
- VG.hu — relaunch, growth
- VG.hu — relaunch, city
- VG.hu — relaunch, compass
- Onbox — “Közvetlen is lehet!”
- Onbox — “Olcsón is lehet!”
- Onbox — “Átláthatóbban is lehet!”
- Mediaworks — IT ServiceDesk 2.0
- Ozone TV — Senegal
- Ozone TV — Morocco
- Ozone TV — Tuscany
- Origo — “Újra egy ismerős”
- Origo — “Újat mutatunk”
- Origo — “Újat mutatunk”, office
- Origo — “Újat mutatunk”, family
- Árkád AI stylist — summer
- Árkád AI stylist — city
- Árkád AI stylist — winter
- Árkád AI stylist — photo step
- Árkád AI stylist — retake or go on
- Árkád AI stylist — questions
- Árkád AI stylist — generating
- Árkád — “A divat elmúlik”, rain
- Árkád — “A divat elmúlik”, snow
- Árkád — “A divat elmúlik”, mall
- Árkád — “A divat elmúlik”, suit
- Árkád — “A divat elmúlik”, ruffles
- Árkád — “A divat elmúlik”, roses
- Árkád — “A divat elmúlik”, summer
- Hunrisk — Edison
- Hunrisk — Lao Tzu
- Hunrisk — “Nem állunk meg!”, vehicle
- Hunrisk — “Nem állunk meg!”, runner
- Hunrisk — “Nem alkuszunk!”
- Hunrisk — “Nem alkuszunk!”, red
Generative AI imagery with a photographer's eye — art-directed, brand-safe and print-ready.
- Cover — gold leaves, version 5
- Superbrands 2024 — cover still life
- Cover mock-up — sculpted 20
- A '2' in obsidian and gold
- Twenty, as sculpture
- Gold ribbons on black stone
- Branching gold — pattern study
- Black vines, golden leaves
- Organic black and gold — four studies
TV spots, book trailers and animated social posts — cut for every screen.
- HOT! — the hottest celebrity secrets
- Origo — relaunch spot
- Árkád — Halloween castle riddle
- Árkád — Halloween candy count
- Árkád — Halloween maze
- Babanet — a comic about autism
- DrivingCamp — Christmas voucher
- Kenyeres Birtok — cheer with us
- Libri — “7 év múlva” teaser
- Libri — Fábián Janka, Christmas
- Libri — Fábián Janka, 45 s
- Libri — Grantsmere gyermekei
- Libri — “7 év múlva” trailer
- Natur Tanya — ancient knowledge
- Natur Tanya — ancient + innovative
- Végzetes Kékszalag — trailer
Social posts, stories and banners for retail, insurance, automotive and B2B brands, cut for every format.
- Árkád Győr — Joy Days story
- Árkád Győr — Joy Days cover
- Árkád Győr — Joy Days event
- Árkád Győr — Coupon Days post
- Árkád Győr — Coupon Days portrait
- Árkád Győr — Coupon Days web banner
- Fórum Debrecen — Spring Coupon Days poster
- Fórum Debrecen — Coupon Days banner
- CIG — “Wrong train?” beach
- CIG — “Wrong train?” glacier
- CIG — beach story
- CIG — glacier story
- CIG — leaderboard banner
- Drivingcamp — Mercedes B2B offer
- Drivingcamp — winter coupon
- Drivingcamp — Test Weekend
- Drivingcamp — “Vedd fel a kesztyűt!”
- Kärcher 90 — campaign rollout
- Kärcher 90 — “Legendary show” post
- Kärcher 90 — “Legendary show” portrait
- Kärcher 90 — “Legendary show” link ad
- Kärcher 90 — red carpet garden
- Kärcher 90 — premiere night
- Drivingcamp — Summer Specials
- Kärcher 90 — on the podium
- Schneider — Sedna × LEGO post
- Schneider — Sedna × LEGO tall banner
- Schneider — Sedna × LEGO teaser
- Schneider — Christmas card post
- Schneider — Christmas greeting banner
- Schneider — Christmas card portrait
Campaigns that help — for children with autism and for better classrooms.
- Ginkgo Ház — square post
- Ginkgo Ház — web banner
- Ginkgo Ház — landscape format
- Klassz Room — across screens
- Klassz Room — programme logo
- Klassz Room — key visual
- Klassz Room — banner
- Klassz Room — square post
Packaging, labels and product key visuals — lit like a packshot, built for the shelf.
- Visionnaire 1825 — key visual
- Visionnaire 1825 — crest detail
- Le Dandy — rosé on the bar
- Le Dandy — label macro
- Le Dandy — the pour
- Le Pont — night over the Danube
- Le Pont — in the showcase
- Le Pont — on the throne
- Le Pont — the throne, in motion
- Le Dandy — rosé night, in motion
20 years. Hundreds of launches.
Brands & agencies I have worked with / at: Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Sony, Honda, Pfizer, Merck, Swatch, Tissot, Lacoste, Timberland, Nespresso, Carlsberg, Kärcher, Lidl, Auchan, Schneider Electric, Continental, Verizon, Teva, Helly Hansen, Certina, Mido, Teladoc Health, Strabag, Omoda, Euronics, McCann, Ogilvy, Grey, RTL, TZMO, Bella, Seni, Libri, Videa, Freemail, Árkád, CIG Pannónia, Hungarikum Alkusz, Drivingcamp, DeepInsight, Superbrands, Babanet, Krisna-völgy, Bátor Tábor, University of Szeged.