Who I am

I originate from an ancient noble family from Hungary. This upbringing still fundamentally determines my attitude towards life and any of my activities: aspiration, responsibility, maximalism, precision, professional humbleness. I believe that one was not given their abilities to lie in waste, or to squander them, but rather to use them; to influence, create, enrich the world with them, because the ability is an obligation, ability comes with responsibility!
In this way, from a very young age -whether it is ballet, my studies, competitive sports, work, or anything else I get into- in every instance I always strive for more than the expected maximal achievement, for the almost impossible. I am proud that as a result, in 90% of cases, I am even able to greatly exceed what I had originally planned!
Setting these goals may make me seem like a dreamer to the average person, but in reality I just dare to dream big and firmly believe that human talent, coupled with the right conditions and resources, as well as tireless diligence and obstinate perseverance, can overcome all obstacles. This is my “super-ability.”

Production Designer

My other special ability is that I can operate and use both hemispheres of my brain at the same high standard, in fact it is even necessary because otherwise I will not feel in balance. I am an artist and simultaneously an economist. I move with complete confidence in both the abstract artistic and material economic-financial worlds.
This is an essential skill for the activities, because in this profession it is necessary -and moreover at a pretty high level!- not only to be able to simultaneously see through both the artistic and financial-economic elements of a “production”, but also as a responsible, leading “compass” to navigate the entire production from the very beginning of design to the very end of execution. While keeping project within budget, creating the highest possible quality of creation with their team by defining artistic principles and harmonizing the participants.

I am responsible for managing, designing and executing all different kinds of art projects, both artistically and financially; including interiors, film, exhibition, corporate identity, events, etc.

My Professional Principals

In the course of my work, whenever I can, I strive to pay attention to other “guidelines” and aspects in addition to the usual -economic, aesthetic, functional, etc.- criteria.

One such guideline is that in my designs and executions -whenever possible- I aspire to use environmentally friendly solutions: usage of natural materials, usage of as little energy as possible, production minimum of waste, recycling, and so on. With this I not only spare the planet’s resources and protect the environment, but generally I also save money, because such solutions most often enable a cheaper execution.

Since creating something really magnificent is only possible in a calm and “human-friendly” environment and the mental well-being or ill-being and peace of mind or disquiet of the team members can earnestly influence the result of the project, this is why the other aspect I always pay attention to and put a lot of emphasis on is that I strive to minimize the stress associated with work while collaborating with a team.

Professional Background

Studies

As a child, I experienced my artistic vein in the dance arts and then in competitive sports, and I was also the top of my class throughout my elementary and high school years, with mathematics being my favorite subject. I graduated with honors.

After graduating, I studied economics in Budapest and -so that I could additionally use my artistic vein- I also started to learn about graphic design.
It was then that I learned to use graphics software (Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator), which I continue to use with complete confidence for more than the past decade and a half.
During this time, I also made layouts for an online newspaper for a year.
In addition to college, I also got a taste of event planning. This, too, as an excellent experience, helped my later career.

After college, also in Budapest, in addition to working, I started going to a school of interior design. In the end, I didn’t finish this because they couldn’t really teach me anything new (because by then, for many years I had been using the knowledge and those software that they were teaching in their courses at the time). When I signaled to the school board that I was unenrolling, I was called back to teach there…

Employee: Beginner

After attending the College in Economics, I first started working for a market research firm as a market research assistant. I created complex excel tables and functions. I learned the job extremely quickly, and I was quickly accepted and appreciated professionally.

After that, in order to satisfy my creative side, I settled in a smaller graphic studio, where, in addition to designing advertising posters, flyers and car decals, I also took part in the execution. We foiled, wrapped and decorated countless cars, billboards and buildings. I also gained my basic knowledge of printing here, e.g. how something will look the same in print as it does on a computer; what a cutting edge is, how to use a squeegee or a utility knife, etc. I’ve always thought that the foundation of design is execution. Thus, it is essential for a good designer to know the practices and methods of execution, because anything can be dreamt up on a computer, but it has to be able to be executed, because without that, it’s not worth anything.

Employee: Manager

After that, I quickly moved to a much higher position which laid the foundation for my entire professional career, in terms of the field of art, company management and professional relationships. I started working with János Szabolcs, an Emmy-nominated film production designer. In 2009, essentially the two of us had restarted his former company and soon I was coordinating 12 people, and by 2015, I even carried out up to 15 projects at a time, and we increased our revenue tenfold.
During the 6 years I spent there it’s true that I worked almost day and night, but in this way I was able to take on the management of as many projects as possible, and since they varied they covered almost all areas of the profession; in this way I gained a huge amount of invaluable professional experience from them. As a creative studio, we have dealt with everything from international feature films to interior design to the development of digital exhibition enhancements for museum pedagogy, to tasks that have “found” us. For example, we regularly worked with Andy Vajna, an American-Hungarian film producer (Rambo, Terminator2-3, Basic Instinct, Evita, Die Hard 3, etc.) and businessman and e.g. I managed the design and execution of the exterior of his restaurant called Nobu Budapest and his casinos called Las Vegas Casino Budapest.

Entrepreneur: Freelancer

After building an extensive, wide-breadth of professional knowledge and being in a leadership position for 6 years, I decided to stand on my own two feet and continue to work as an entrepreneur following my own ideas.
I first worked as a freelancer. Initially, my orders consisted largely of my previous responsibilities, but over time they were also supplemented with event planning and the design of international interactive city games and designing furniture for public spaces.

Entrepreneur: Business Owner

I created my first company in 2017, in Budapest. We designed and executed. Our assignments came mainly from Hungarian commercial television, local governments, museums, art galleries and corporations. Our profile included the design and execution of corporate identities, websites, various graphic design tasks, sets for TV content, exhibitions, sets for TV series, various events, sets for commercials, etc.

In 2019 I moved to Los Angeles, California, and in 2020 together with my partner (business partner and co-creator), I created the Los Angeles-based Vivalogy LLC, whose primary objective is the production, propagation, distribution and sale of such products and services which support physical and mental health. As a first step -during my time in the company (in 2020)- we published a truly unique book, with a real wood cover stained with particularly developed natural dyes. Not only was this book a complete novelty in the book market in terms of the structure of its content, but it was also one-of-a-kind in the world in terms of its external appearance -a real little “work of art”. This is why e.g. even the customs officers only scratched their heads because nowhere is there a tariff for books with wooden covers (in fact, there was not even a legal category for this), so our book could ultimately travel duty-free between countries…

Starting from 2022 I have been continuing the work in the field of spatial design with my third company called Kata Kellényi Design.

Hungarians

“The Hungarian clan fellowship was a horse-archer lifestyle conjuring nomad nation (as well as the Sioux Indians or Genghis Khan’s Mongols), who around 1000 A.D. with a giant spirit, galloped into the center of, at that time thousands of years old, the European ploughman agrarian cultural area; reserved a home for themselves and fought for their justification in the heart of Christian Europe. 

Although in the past circa 1100 years they were well mixed together with the ambient nations, impacted each other (and thereby also “domesticated” a lot), still this vehement cast of mind, fiery temperament is theirs up to this day; this, on rangelands freely-impetuously galloping horse and its rider, still lives at the bottom of the soul of every Hungarian people, keeps riding in this not everyday, talented nation’s pride and warrior restless heart.”

Excerpt from 
Vivien Lőrincz: Motivational Almanac
- or the Book of LIFE