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, Nintendo and more. His work has been featured in Forbes, TechCrunch, and on The Tonight Show.[8][13][18][14]
Born in Washington, D.C., 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 , , and . 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, including roles at cubix.co (2 years), Virid (1 year), Google (5+ years), LinkedIn (3+ years), Peanut (1 year), Culprit (1 year), and Fiveonefour (3 years).[8]
Branching out
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Before joining larger product teams, Alex worked across independent web, identity, and interactive projects. Around 2012, he joined and to form a small 0-1 dev shop based in San Francisco, CA. This focused on agency style work that funded their own ideas. Clients included the Air National Guard[20] and .[21]
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 place listing management, local discovery, Live Popular Times, wait 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 - collaborating with folks like YC Alum, , , , , , , and . 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 worked with product and systems designers like and to 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
In 2021, during the Covid pandemic, Alex and co-founded Peanut, a Chrome extension that surfaced travel info during online booking, later acquired by Insured Nomads. Peanut was featured in Best of Product Hunt in 2021. He then served as Design Director at Culprit on a stealth social media app spanning VFX, design, and product, working with , , , 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 and .[2]
The work focused on making data 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 focused on ClickHouse, Redpanda, and Temporal tooling that made data easy to translate and monitor, helping companies like F45 and District Cannabis reimagine their data in a fraction of the time and cost.
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]
Alex's work has been covered across product, travel, and technology. Forbes featured Peanut in its travel-planning reporting, TechCrunch covered his LinkedIn work on polls and live video-based events, LinkedIn detailed its modernized homepage and sharing experience, and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon featured his Google Live Popular Times work.[18][16][2] Publications also covered Fiveonefour's data-infrastructure practice and other independent creative projects.[14]
In 2022, after Peanut was acquired, he and appeared on 's As Told By Nomads podcast to discuss building it remotely as a side business while working full time.[4]
- Fiveonefour raises $17M. PR Newswire.
- Building Peanut. Nomads podcast.
- Insured Nomads acquires Peanut. ITIJ.
- Summer travel questions. Forbes.
- LinkedIn adds polls. TechCrunch.
- Google adds spa bookings. TechCrunch.
- Popular Times on Fallon. YouTube.
- LinkedIn's new look. LinkedIn.
Designing a simpler, more inclusive LinkedIn Home & Sharing
Reimagining a professional network.
- Claude
- Codex
- Hermes
- Vercel
- GitHub
- Linear
- Figma
- Midjourney
- shadcn/ui
- Tailwind
- 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
- 1.^Best UX portfolio examples. UXPin.
- 2.^Fiveonefour raises $17M. PR Newswire.
- 3.^Portfolio inspiration. Craftwork.
- 4.^Building Peanut. Nomads podcast.
- 5.^Insured Nomads acquires Peanut. ITIJ.
- 6.^LinkedIn redesign. Case Study Club.
- 7.^Summer travel questions. Forbes.
- 8.^LinkedIn adds polls. TechCrunch.
- 9.^Patents: D893,509, D892,816, D869,501.
- 10.^Google adds spa bookings. TechCrunch.
- 11.^Popular Times on Fallon. YouTube.
- 12.^LinkedIn's new look. LinkedIn.
- 13.^UX design portfolio examples. Shutterstock.
- 14.^Best UX portfolios. FounderJar.
- 15.^Product design portfolio examples. DesignPeeps.
- 16.^Google Maps. Portfolio.
- 17.^Alex Lakas on Dribbble. Dribbble.
- 18.^Alex Lakas portfolio. Behance.
- 19.^About popular times. Google.
- 20.^Air National Guard. Air Force.
- 21.^UI8 team profile. Adobe.
Social games and ecommerce
Beginning in 2009, Alex worked with cubix.co on social games, websites and apps primarily built for mobile and Facebook consumers, then from 2011 with Virid on 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]