Career
Short & sweet

Web design is now my core business – individual, well-thought-out, and with a clear eye for technology and design. Since 1999, I've been developing websites that not only look good, but are also technically sound and easy to maintain. In addition, I've developed my own tools and platforms – such as an intuitive CMS system for content management and a 360° panoramic tour platform that allows for convenient integration of virtual tours. My own panoramic cameras – the ilumicam 1 & 2 – also arose from the desire to create innovative solutions beyond the standard. Today, I work independently, with extensive experience and high standards of quality – as a creative one-man agency.
From then until now
Reverse order2025Relaunch ilumi.de

After six years, it was time to redesign the ilumi.de website. The new site not only has a new design, it's now fully responsive and better optimized for mobile devices. Even though ilumi isn't subject to the German Accessibility Improvement Act (BFSG), I still designed the site to be easy to read and use for people with disabilities.
2023Development of ilumicam 2

Although the first ilumicam worked well as a 360° full-sphere camera, I wanted more quality from the optics. Therefore, I adopted the concept and developed a platform for a professional digital camera instead of the camera module.
The automatic control system handles both movement in all directions and camera control. Instead of the touch display of the first ilumicam, the ilumicam 2 is controlled entirely via an app. The ilumicam 2 creates a Wi-Fi hotspot, whose IP address is displayed on the small ePaper display.
The results clearly exceed the quality of the first ilumicam!
2021Development of ilumicam

I've been offering 360° panoramic images using a full-sphere camera for a few years now. While the resolution is sufficient for many applications, the quality has never convinced me. The common alternative is to create the panoramas manually using high-quality digital camera equipment and a nodal point adapter. This solution seemed too expensive and cumbersome to me. Therefore, I developed my own camera tailored precisely for this purpose: the ilumicam.
The ilumicam consists of a digital camera controlled directly by an internal computer. The head is motorized and moves in all directions, and after basic measurements and settings, all images are captured fully automatically.
The quality and resolution far exceed standard solutions. The maximum resolution of the panoramas is 64K (normally 16K resolution), and the result is a 32-bit HDR image with an enormous aperture range.
Further information and examples can be found at 360° panoramic tours
2020360° ilumi.de

This is a separate platform that allows you to create linked sceneries from 360° panoramas.
Thanks to the simple graphical interface, even complex scenarios can be quickly realized and offered to customers at a reasonable price.
The 360° scenes are hosted on the ilumi servers and can be easily embedded into customer websites using a short code.
2019Development of the ilumi CMS 3

Maintaining data should be as convenient as possible for my customers. Therefore, I have my own CMS system (Wikipedia). The current system is the third version and offers a variety of options for maintaining data. The system is modular and can therefore be adapted to customer needs.
The system runs as a web app on all common platforms. It is currently being used by OK-Automobile, for example, to manage customers and vehicles. It is also used on various websites to manage content such as "articles," "news," or "events" in the backend.
The user-friendly interface is very intuitive and requires little training time.
2019Back to the roots

Now I'm back working for you in digital media - without a large company, but as a one-man show, with the know-how of a complete agency!
2010Excursion into the private sector
After our main client, Wilkinson Sword, moved to international agencies, I unfortunately had to downsize ilumi significantly and make myself available to the private sector as an office mercenary.
Over the next few years, as Head of Content Management, I gained a lot of experience in the area of PIM (Product Information Management) systems, as well as in data integration between different software packages such as SAP and Magento.
Ultimately, however, due to various bad decisions made by my boss, I had to replace him, and the best way to do that is to resign. Somehow, I prefer being the boss!
2006Development of ilumi CMS 2

After six years, the old content management system was beginning to show its age. A completely new CMS was needed that was flexible, easy to learn, and capable of building even large and complex websites in a short amount of time.
The result was a completely object-oriented CMS without rigid structures.
On this basis, many websites were created in the following years, some of which are still online.
2003Project Quattro for Wilkinson Sword
For the product launch of the new razor, Wilkinson Sword commissioned us to create a 3D animation to demonstrate the advantages of the razor.
We had a lot of freedom with this project and were allowed to really let our imaginations run wild. The result was a complete success, receiving a standing ovation at the in-house screening at the cinema.
The possibilities of 3D animation have now advanced considerably, but 22 years ago this result was very impressive.

In order to provide the computing power that was enormous for the time, we quickly rented another floor and equipped it with our own small render farm - and of course, despite the tight timing, we finished the animation on time.
2001ilumi relaunch

A lot happened in 2001. We took the plunge and rented a larger office in the heart of Düsseldorf's old town. Our team grew to five, then nine, and ilumi got a completely new CI and logo.
2000wilkinson.de
Since I'd been in contact with Wilkinson Sword for years and had built a great deal of trust through my 3D work in the past, we were awarded the contract to relaunch wilkinson.de after a few microsites. To better manage the number of pages we planned to create, I developed my own content management system (CMS). The plan was for wilkinson.de to grow to around 100 pages.
In retrospect, our first CMS wasn't all that bad, as it easily handled the 700 pages that wilkinson.de ultimately contained.
1999Birth of Ilumi

In 1999, I founded ilumi with my then wife. At that time, the internet was just taking off, literally. It was the era of slow modems and later "fast ISDN." By comparison, "fast ISDN" was about a thousandth of the speed we're used to today. Therefore, another medium became popular before the internet: the CD-ROM as a medium for company presentations. We therefore expanded our areas of expertise with this medium.
The ilumi logo and CI used to look completely different!
1996Virtual photography

Towards the end of my training, I had my first contact with 3D software and, contrary to all recommendations, I decided to start my own business in this field.
I called my company "VIRTUAL PHOTOGRAPHY" because I lit and "photographed" objects in the 3D program like in a photo studio. The name also explained a little bit about what I was doing. The terms 3D graphics and 3D animation weren't common at the time and needed to be explained.
One advantage, however, was that there was little on offer in this area at the time, so it was quite easy for me to acquire new customers.
One of the clients was Wilkinson Sword, with whom I had already had contact through my training. However, Wilkinson didn't need 3D visualizations, but rather animations, so I expanded my portfolio in that direction.
1995advertising photographer

After a few detours, I decided to train as a commercial photographer. This is where I learned the origins of the word "perfectionism": hours of work were spent positioning small mirrors, reflectors, and lights, as well as adjusting the view camera, so that the final result would be printable slides.
At that time, we were still shooting entirely analogue. The typical process involved inserting two slides (= two exposures) into the film cassette in the darkroom, taking two slightly different exposures of the subject, and then—when enough exposures had been taken—put everything into a developing machine, which developed the large-format slides in about 45 minutes. After another 20 minutes of drying time, the slides could be viewed on a light table.
Lint, fingerprints, dust, etc. could not be accepted because subsequent image processing would be extremely expensive and time-consuming.
If we needed to do things quickly, we used the Hasselblad, which allowed us to take 12 shots per film cassette.
1989mathematician
It was worth a try: I enrolled in a mathematics degree program in Cologne and even successfully completed several certificates and exams over the following years. However, my minor in business administration ultimately put a stop to my plans, as my extreme lack of interest in the subject left my brain with limited capacity to absorb information...
1981first computer

In 1981, my father bought what was probably the first commercially available home computer. It was connected to a monitor (or optionally a television), and programs could be saved on audio cassettes. The system was later expanded with an "expansion board," which increased the RAM to an incredible 48 KB and allowed us to connect floppy disk drives. The cost of everything at the time was approximately DM 3,000.
Many thanks to Thomas Gutmeier for providing me with this image.
One of the most spectacular programs can be seen in the following video. It utilized the device's full graphical and audio capabilities!
But since there weren't many programs available, and platforms like the Internet weren't readily available to buy or ship programs, I had to program them myself. During this time, I wrote my first programs in BASIC.
If you would like more information about this infernal device, you can contactWikipediainform.
1968birth

I was practically born in '68. You can tell that that was a really long time ago by the fact that there were no cell phones back then, for example.
In the photo we see the "Gray Mouse" from Siemens. This telephone was practically the standard for every household at that time.
Ok, in reality it is not a photo, but a computer-generated 3D model that I once created for a project.