Hi, I’m Zsófia Mihály, a digital designer based in Budapest, Hungary, with a background deeply rooted in visual arts.
I studied art and design from an early age — including attending an art-focused high school (Kepzo- es Iparmuveszeti Szakkozepiskola), followed by a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME), and international studies at Arts University Plymouth.
For the past 13+ years, I’ve worked professionally across digital product design, branding, visual identity, and design systems, building solutions within tight constraints, industry best practices, and complex guidelines.
For the past 13+ years, I’ve worked professionally across digital product design, branding, visual identity, and design systems, building solutions within tight constraints, industry best practices, and complex guidelines.
While I genuinely enjoy the structure of digital product design, over time I started to miss something essential:
a space where intuition, symbolism, and personal expression could exist without rules.
a space where intuition, symbolism, and personal expression could exist without rules.
Three years ago, I returned to painting.
What began as a quiet, personal practice gradually evolved into an artistic language of its own — one that balances discipline with instinct, structure with emotion. Painting became a way to reconnect with the tactile, symbolic side of making, and to explore themes that don’t fit neatly into systems or grids.
Guardian Beasts
The Guardian Beast portraits are modern protectors created for living spaces and inner worlds alike.
Visually, they are inspired by Korean and Tibetan tiger imagery, as well as the buddhist Dharmapala figures - not in a religious sense, but in their deeper meaning as protectors, watchers, and carriers of strength.
Rather than following traditional iconography strictly, I interpret the idea of guardianship freely and intuitively, allowing each figure to emerge with its own personality, presence, and energy.
Rather than following traditional iconography strictly, I interpret the idea of guardianship freely and intuitively, allowing each figure to emerge with its own personality, presence, and energy.
Each painting is an original, hand-made work, created slowly and intentionally, meant to live with you - not just decorate a wall.