Alexander Stephanos Lakas is a Los Angeles-based designer and art director with over 15 years of experience whose work spans product and interaction design, identity, prototyping, and generative AI. He’s collaborated on small and large scale projects with folks like Google, Ueno, LinkedIn, Zippo, Converse, Culprit, Nintendo and more. His work has been featured in Forbes, TechCrunch, and on The Tonight Show.[8][8][13][18][14]
Alex grew up on the East Coast and got into design through illustration, animation, and the web. He studied art and computer science at the University of Maryland, College Park, under James Thorpe, Brandon Morse, and Helen Armstrong.
Fueled by software and creativity, Alex has spent years understanding theory, trends and research sitting atop a background in studio work. He later moved to the Bay Area to join the tech movement, then to Los Angeles to freelance and live by the beach.[8][11]
Alex has held design roles across agency, startup, and large technology company contexts. Public profile summaries list early agency and ecommerce work for 0-1 startups, etailers and FAANG companies, followed by roles at Google, LinkedIn, Peanut, Culprit, and Fiveonefour.[8][8]
Branching out
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Before joining larger product teams, Alex worked across independent web, identity, and interactive projects. That early practice established the editorial systems, motion studies, and direct visual language that later carried into product work.[8]
These projects treated websites and prototypes as complete experiences rather than static portfolios: each combined narrative, interface, and behavior. The work formed the foundation for Alex's later focus on clear systems and useful digital tools.
Local search for merchants and consumers
At Google, Alex worked across Google My Business, Local Search, and Maps. His visual design, prototyping and systems thinking helped shape local discovery, Live Popular Times, visit-duration information, and booking flows that connect people with nearby businesses and services.[8][11][7]
Those experiences turned complex local data into timely signals people could act on: whether a place was busy, when to visit, and how to make a reservation without leaving Search or Maps. For small businesses, the same tools made practical information and conversion paths easier to maintain and find. The role also gave him the chance to work with agencies such as Ueno and Method on a range of projects.
Modernizing social media for professionals
As a Senior Product Designer at LinkedIn, Alex helped re-shape and design the home experience and sharing tools, including polls, posting, comment controls, a modernization overhaul, and more, as the platform expanded how professional communities could participate and connect. The work spanned design systems, product design, and prototyping.[8][15][18]
The goal was to make professional participation feel less formal and more immediate. Streamlined sharing, lightweight polls, and live formats gave members more ways to contribute, while preserving the context and utility people expect from a professional network.
Freelance, 0-1, Gen AI
Alex co-founded Peanut, a Chrome extension that surfaced travel info during online booking, later acquired by Insured Nomads. He then served as Design Director at Culprit on a stealth social media app spanning VFX, design, and product, working with David Dinetz, Andre Cabral, Jo Murayama, and Povio.[8][6]
Peanut delivered booking-time travel intelligence for thousands of destinations across Expedia, Booking.com, and Google Flights. At Culprit, Alex carried the same product thinking into creative direction.[8]
This later led to conceptual and public work using AI, video and motion to explore new mediums, including Midjourney, Claude and MCPs.
New territory — Data Infra & AI
As Head of Design at Fiveonefour, Alex joined another 0-1 team, shaping a Vercel-inspired data-infra suite built on shadcn-style components and AI agents, used by F45 and District Cannabis.[13] Fiveonefour has raised nearly $17M from firms including Stage 2 Capital and Dimension.[2]
The work focused on making technical systems easier to understand and operate: interfaces that reveal what data is doing, workflows that support faster decisions, and a shared design language that can scale across a growing product. The team also built AI agents that ingest, stream, and transform data in just a few clicks. The F45 and District Cannabis projects carried that discipline into consumer-facing experiences.
Alex describes himself as a generalist with a focus on visual design and prototyping. His published work often uses restrained typography, black-and-white palettes, kinetic transitions, image-led case studies, and direct editorial writing. LinkedIn recommendations describe a collaborator who brings clarity to complex problems, pairs a strong visual point of view with practical product judgment, and makes teams feel heard throughout the process. His Dribbble profile describes his practice as art direction and design.[8][8]
Alex's work has appeared in coverage of independent product, travel, and technology projects. Forbes featured Peanut in reporting on travel planning, while TechCrunch covered LinkedIn work involving polls and live video-based events, as well as the modernization of LinkedIn's homepage and sharing experience.[18][16][2]
His Google Live Popular Times work was featured on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, alongside publication coverage of Fiveonefour's data-infrastructure practice and other independent creative projects.[14]
In 2022, following the acquisition of Peanut, he appeared on Tayo Rockson's As Told By Nomads podcast with Brady Simpson, discussing how Peanut was built remotely as a side business while working full time.[4]
- Fiveonefour announces its $17M raise. PR Newswire.
- Building a side hustle remotely while working a 9-to-5. As Told By Nomads podcast.
- Insured Nomads acquires Peanut. ITIJ.
- Designing a simpler, more inclusive LinkedIn Home and Sharing experience. Case Study Club.
- Do I need a COVID test to travel? And other summer travel questions. Forbes.
- LinkedIn adds polls and live video-based events. TechCrunch.
- Google adds salon and spa bookings through Maps and Search. TechCrunch.
- Google Live Popular Times featured on The Tonight Show. YouTube.
- LinkedIn is gearing up for a redesign. TechCrunch.
Designing a simpler, more inclusive LinkedIn Home & Sharing
Reimagining a professional social network.
- Claude
- Codex
- Hermes
- Vercel
- GitHub
- Linear
- Figma
- Midjourney
- shadcn/ui
- Three.js
- WebGL
- Webflow
- React
- GSAP
- IXD
- Visual design
- UXD
- Web
- iOS
- Android
- Mixed Methods Research
- Strategy
- Leadership
- Gen AI
- Rapid prototyping
- Brand
- Presentations
- Weird stuff
- Grids
- Minimalism
- ^Alex Lakas featured in UX designer portfolios worth studying. UXPin.
- ^Fiveonefour announces $17M raise. PR Newswire.
- ^Alex Lakas portfolio. Craftwork.
- ^Building a side hustle remotely while working a 9-to-5. As Told By Nomads podcast.
- ^Insured Nomads acquires Peanut. ITIJ.
- ^Designing LinkedIn Home and Sharing Experience. Case Study Club.
- ^Do I need a COVID test to travel? And other summer travel questions. Forbes.
- ^LinkedIn adds polls and live video-based events. TechCrunch.
- ^U.S. design patents: D893,509, D892,816, D869,501. Patents.
- ^Google adds salon and spa bookings through Maps and Search. TechCrunch.
- ^Google Live Popular Times featured on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. YouTube.
- ^LinkedIn is gearing up for a redesign. TechCrunch.
- ^Alex Lakas featured in 10 UX design portfolio examples. Shutterstock.
- ^Alex Lakas featured in 30 UX designer portfolio examples. FounderJar.
- ^Alex Lakas featured in product-designer portfolio case studies. DesignPeeps.
- ^Google Maps redesign case study crediting Alex Lakas. Simon Fung Creative.
- ^Alex Lakas portfolio and product-design archive. Dribbble.
- ^Alex Lakas product-design portfolio. Behance.
- ^Google Business Profile help: popular times, wait times, and visit duration. Google.
- ^Alex's design portfolio archive. The Creative Finder.
Social games and ecommerce
Beginning in 2009, Alex worked with Cubix Labs and Virid on digital experiences spanning social games and ecommerce. The work combined product thinking, interaction design, and campaign systems at a time when social platforms were becoming a primary place for brands to meet people.
That period included work connected to Converse, Nintendo, Journeys and Zippo, translating established brands into playful, participatory web experiences. It established an early interest in designing systems that balance clear utility with character, motion, and a strong visual point of view.[8]