From agency designer to directing global campaigns
I have spent most of seventeen years in agencies, starting in Skopje on print, outdoor and digital campaigns and working my way up to global brands like Samsung and PayPal. Along the way, six years at a fashion magazine taught me to edit. Today I direct campaigns, lead the teams that make them, and still put my own hands on the work when a project needs it.
- Skopje, North Macedonia
- London, daily. Campaigns from New York to Singapore
- Macedonian, English and Serbian
- 2009
The long version
2009–2015
Agency foundations
I started as a graphic designer at Art Alliance, a marketing agency in Skopje, making advertising campaigns, layouts and assets for print and digital across industries. At Republika, as senior graphic designer, I worked on campaigns across print, digital and outdoor, refining concepts directly with clients.
2015–2021
Agencies and the magazine
I kept working with agencies while I was art director of Portret, a fashion magazine: senior graphic designer at Sign Up in 2015, and in 2021 art director there, defining the visual style for six client projects, all delivered within scope and deadline. At Portret I designed 70+ covers and 200+ spreads, and a visual rebrand grew our social following by 40%. The magazine taught me to edit: what leads, what goes, and which image carries the page.
Pages from the magazine2021–2023
Into digital
At Codeart, a digital agency, I developed concepts and full campaigns for five major clients in healthcare and tech, and built a design system used across more than ten projects. It is also where mentoring became part of the job: both juniors I mentored were promoted within 15 months.
2023–2026
Directing at scale
At Iris Worldwide I led concept and art direction for PayPal, Ripple, Samsung and Siemens, working remotely from Skopje with the London office. I grew the design team from three to ten in 18 months, and led 20+ creatives across eight global campaigns.
How I lead2026
FIFA, freelance
For 50 Sport in London I built and led a team of four senior designers to deliver the FIFA Fan Festival toolkit for the World Cup: close to 1,000 templates for 14 host cities in three weeks.
See the FIFA workNow
What I’m curious about
AI is changing production faster than anything since I started. I use Claude, ChatGPT, Midjourney, Runway, ElevenLabs and Firefly every day. I write reusable Claude skills, set up AI agent teams, and build apps and games with AI coding tools, then bring what holds up to the team. Outside work I follow urban art and street culture.
Portret Magazine
A product, a games studio and a template shop
MaxDog
An iPhone app that helps dog owners keep their dog’s growth and daily care on track. I came up with it and designed it, and I build it with Claude and ChatGPT as coding partners, and an AI team I set up for its business and content.
Splendid Forge
Since October 2026 I have been Creative Lead at Splendid Forge, an independent games startup making small, strange games. I lead marketing and game design: what each game is, and how it is presented to players. Eight games are in development or at concept stage, among them Orbit, Blink and Higiri.
splendidforge.com
Under-Dot
Since 2011 I have designed and sold print templates on GraphicRiver, Envato’s marketplace, under the name Under-Dot: menus, posters and flyers, many of them for seasons and holidays. 89 templates and more than 1,700 sales so far.
Under-Dot on GraphicRiver
What people I have worked with say
“His ability to manage and lead a team effectively doesn’t just mean delegate work, it means allowing the people in the team to own the project which in turn means that the projects were always delivered on time (even before the deadline) to an impressive quality and with minimal to no changes.”
Filip S.Visual Designer, reported to Dushan directlyLinkedIn recommendation, October 2026 “I really appreciate his honest feedback and the trust he puts in me. It feels good to work with someone whose opinion you respect, while also feeling comfortable sharing your own ideas and figuring things out together.”
Filip L.Design, animation, sound at Splendid Forge. Dushan was his Design Director at IrisLinkedIn recommendation, October 2026 “Dushan’s one of those people who just gets what a client actually wants, sometimes faster than the client does. He’s positive even when a project’s a mess, and honestly that attitude rubs off on the whole team.”
Duncan W.Commercial Operations DirectorLinkedIn recommendation
Hiring a Creative Lead or Design Director?
Open to Creative Lead, Design Director and Art Director roles in the UK, Europe and the US, on site or remote, and to a few art direction projects with agencies and brands.