About/@

Easy Heathcliff! You've strolled into the yard of 23 year old Bristol-based designer and developer Lewis Dexter Litanzios. He enjoys designing bright, expressive front-end websites, print/artwork and illustrations in return for your mothers homecooked meals.

Coming off the back of a Batch of Honours in New Media from Leeds University, UK 3 year keyboard exercise at University of Leeds he has a great sense for things that look good and work well, relishes the poshness of speaking in third-person, topping up his 60,000 strong MP3 collection and dreaming of the perfect logo. If you need a fresh colour wash for your blog, website or visual identity and don't care about IE6 then give him a bell Click to email or ring me on +44 (0)7504 907304 .

Stay a while, listen to my music View my music taste at Last.fm , browse my work items and have a read. But most of all let me know if you're feeling the love :P

Skills

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March 13th, 2009

Blow Design web blog!!

Thrown in the Build scrapheap. Expand post

I’ve just completed designing and building a new website with a great studio based down here in Bristol. Blow DesignVisit Blow’s new site!, who I’ve been working with for the past few months on a few digital projects (including pitching at BoxfreshBoxfresh Clothing HQ in London!!). Anyway, go check out some of their work, cause they’re nice people and gave me my first ‘real’ job fresh out of Uni (It’s a risky ol’ business that, so I hear).

Blow Design website/blog screenshot

Blow Design website/blog screenshotBlow Design website/blog screenshot

Check the site >here<!

PS. The photos in the screenshots featured aren’t mine. They’re Buff MonsterVisit my hero’s website (Buff Monster)’s doh! In case you hadn’t already guessed.

November 22nd, 2008

Work item: Young FoEE logo work

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Young Friends of the Earth (EU) recently asked me to come up with a logo for their ‘Countdown to Poznań & Copenhagen’ campaign (codenamed ‘Countdown to Poz n’ Hagen’). UN climate change talks will be held later this year in Poznań, Poland, and then again in 2009 in Copenhagen, as the Kyoto protocol is rewritten. Young FoEE will be lobbying at both events for delegates to take a stronger international approach towards climate change, highlighting its importance. Hopefully this logo will kick up a fuss and catch some glint, cementing their efforts :P Best of luck guys!

View them in larger sizes through my Flickr here and here.

November 3rd, 2008

♥ for patterns with CSS/PHP

Thrown in the Art scrapheap. Expand post

So I got little caught up in making generative patterns this evening (and well into the morning for that matter). Friends of mineMr. Ben Tappin - one of my bestest chums in the whole world! are crudely messing around with ProcessingIt’s the new Flash yo! and ActionScript all over the shop, so I thought I’d throw some standards into the mix. With the addition of some buff colour obviously!

Tiled hearts pattern using PHP/CSS

Tiled hearts pattern using PHP/CSSTiled hearts pattern using PHP/CSS

Tiled hearts pattern using PHP/CSSTiled hearts pattern using PHP/CSS

Tiled hearts pattern using PHP/CSSTiled hearts pattern using PHP/CSS

Tiled hearts pattern using PHP/CSSTiled hearts pattern using PHP/CSSTiled hearts pattern using PHP/CSSTiled hearts pattern using PHP/CSS

I first got carried away with [BB][/BB] codeIt’s an acronym for ‘Bulletin Board Code’ in case you didn’t know over at my Last.fm profile, which then spilled over to my Twitter backgroundMy new second blog having noticed lately that people are going crazy for tiled backgroundsSome dudes YouTube profile right now.

Seen as Twitter doesn’t accept any BB code shenanigans I had to get creative with some PHP loops and CSS styles. You can see my simple script, complete with colour, here. I’ve included some examples of what I came up with in a few hours above. I’ll definitely be exploring this more for future projects me thinks :P

Go wild, cause trust me; it’s allllllll about the patterns at the moment! Let me know what you come up with in the comments if you use the script. If you dig some of the art in this post then you can see some of the desktop wallpapers I knocked up over at my Flickr page. Additionally there are some higher resolution wallpapers (1920×1200) for download using the links below. Spread the wealth and enjoy!

Download 1920 x 1200 desktop wallpapers here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here!!!

June 11th, 2008

Work item: Version 4.0 has dropped!

Thrown in the Build, Work scrapheap. Expand post

Emulating that warm feeling you get knowing there are a few other people between you and the vehicles at the traffic lights: a new incarnation of ldexterldesign is well and truly bosched – or should I say botched?! – More on that later. Hindered by a blown PSU, horrible customer support from a certain website I won’t mention (Overclockers), a relocation (I now reside in Bristol, England, which is an awesome volcanic hub of creativity), and a rather crippling hand injury this site has been many months in the making. I actually started designing it in March, over six6 months ago would you believe?!

Screenshots and print photographs of ldexterldesign.co.uk version 4

Screenshots and print photographs of ldexterldesign.co.uk version 4Screenshots and print photographs of ldexterldesign.co.uk version 4Screenshots and print photographs of ldexterldesign.co.uk version 4Screenshots and print photographs of ldexterldesign.co.uk version 4

Screenshots and print photographs of ldexterldesign.co.uk version 4

Alas it’s all systems go over the next few months as I aim to document my play and work through this lovely platform. Thanks to WordpressCheck out the world famous blogging tool, which really has taken the mind numbing hours of coding out of the equation (less of those I feel), it now frees me up to concentrate on the eye candy side of things for a while, which I’m finding really refreshing.

As of this post I’m ‘leisurely’ seeking work of all types related to the content of this site; both paid and un-paid. I’m currently doing bits and bobs for, and through, numerous other exceedingly talented people across the internet so if I can’t help, for whatever reason, I know people who can. Just drop me a line or give me a callClick to email or ring me on +44 (0)7504 907304. My name is Lewis and UK rates will apply if you’re calling from abroad.

‘Lewis, I love the colours, but isn’t it a little too much for the eye?’

Screenshots and print photographs of ldexterldesign.co.uk version 4

Screenshots and print photographs of ldexterldesign.co.uk version 4Screenshots and print photographs of ldexterldesign.co.uk version 4Screenshots and print photographs of ldexterldesign.co.uk version 4Screenshots and print photographs of ldexterldesign.co.uk version 4

Screenshots and print photographs of ldexterldesign.co.uk version 4

I’ve been designing for the best part of five5 years now and I’m aware, as a designer, that style is important – now so more than ever. It’s a given we live in a very visual culture. I still count myself lucky I’m a fairly versatile designer and don’t pitch everything I do through a text editor. I look at the drabbest (we’re talking aesthetics here) websites of friends and acquaintances who are developers and software people and wonder how the hell they ever get work (I don’t know if they actually do btw). Hell I’m often ashamed they don’t ask me for a quick and cheap design overhaul half the time but there you go.

Anyway, I digress… I had the realisation about six6 months ago that I could be an adaptable designer and work on corporate layouts all my life or could forage for and develop a style of my own; a style that made me happy and excited to sit and work at my desk on a day-to-day basis. Sure my style might not be for everyone, but I took that oath a long time ago when I stopped relying on constant feedback on my work. In time it helped me and so continuing to adopt this mentality and work ethic I’m designing stuff that pleases me. Client stuff is good, and always welcomed, but I feel it’s so much more important to have a client come to you because they want you to work on their stuff. From past experience; trying to avoid the ditch in a tug-of-war battle until the deadline date is not fun and I think until you put yourself out there by cementing a style you’ve always got that danger of enticing clients who just want a job done, and not a designer to do it for them. Given that all my friends who make a living out of designing things had already adopted a style you could say I’m learning from common sense more than anything.

Screenshots and print photographs of ldexterldesign.co.uk version 4Screenshots and print photographs of ldexterldesign.co.uk version 4

Screenshots and print photographs of ldexterldesign.co.uk version 4

Screenshots and print photographs of ldexterldesign.co.uk version 4Screenshots and print photographs of ldexterldesign.co.uk version 4

It also occurred to me that this attitude (ultimately my personal attitude) can easily be interpreted as stubbornness. Stubbornness to allow myself to develop my talents as a versatile designer – some would call this the Holy Grail and one in the same thing – but who knows. I’d welcome your opinionsShare your thoughts on how to be a happy designer.

Grabbing usability feedback when you can!

Screenshots and print photographs of ldexterldesign.co.uk version 4

As with most projects I tend to try and keep them ‘hush hush’ until they’re ready to be released in order not to get influenced too much, but seen as this project spanned on and on I’d managed to gain quite a bit of, both positive and not so positive, feedback from people gazing over my shoulder and the like. Predictably feedback on the aesthetics of this website occurred, which for the most part was handy but influenced me little, as the look and style I wanted to achieve had been brewing for a while. The juicy stuff came from the usability – watching peopleJakob Nielsen: The First Rule of Usability? Don’t Listen to Users take in the homepage, locate the content, use of the browser back button always interesting for instance – where one starts to become enlightened. It never occurred to me before that the way I design websites might be heavily influenced by the way I use a browser. The two merge on so many levels. Just as users expect desktop application functionality from web apps these days, many also expect web pages to do the browsers work too – using ‘back links’ on pages instead of relying on the browsers to facilitate this for them etc. However, I don’t think this point has come yet so tend to leave more of the obvious navigation out in favour of letting the browser do the work. I’ve read Jakob Nielsen’s stuff over the years and relying on one single, generic interaction techniqueSee spiel on ‘”Return to Top” Links by Jakob Nielsen is something he endorses too. So we’ll go with it.

As the experienced in usability will know; letting someone test your ideas on a monitor can be notoriously hard to witness without influencing their natural way of doing things. Think of it like this: the more negative stuff they tell you the more you have to improve on – and keep this in your head the whole time. Aim to suck out more and more spiteful comments. Aim to adopt the tone of a teenage schoolgirl slumber party, where each of you makes comments on the tone of the language, intuitiveness of completing tasks and ways to navigate to different content. Yes it would make for a boring slumber party, but ultimately one hell of an improvement list.

Wordpress and how to integrate it nicely :P

[Just in case you can’t be arsed to read the following few paragraphs: to cut a long story short my tip (until I find a better way) is set up WP on your web server and work with the WP Theme Editor from your browser; copying and pasting into your local text editor as you go if you require the convenience of all the WYSIWYG and colour-codery.]

One thing I’ve been asked a few times since releasing this site/theme/whatever you want to call it is how I’d customized it so heavily without hacking up the default Wordpress HTML? For example having the ‘About’ text on every page. The answer, ashamedly but learnedly, is that I have hacked it up. I’m not proud of it, because doing it all again I would have simply modularised any div sections further and tucked them away in their own place ready for PHP include()’s. The handy thing about WP framework is you don’t expect it to cater for your needs and you go and try something by mistake and it facilitates it like you’re weaning a young pup. Adding new files to your content inventory then appear in the backend (Google tracking code for instance) – it’s all really swell and has since encouraged me to start adding new scripts. MattVisit Matt Mullenweg’s site - the founder of Wordpress and the guys at WP really have amazed me to the point of educating me with everything from backend-menu usability to software engineering etiquette to standards and structure (and I’m so hard-line about standards they give me sleepless nights sometimes!).

First and foremost at this point I would declare myself more of a designer than developer, although I’m constantly in flux about where I fall in this spectrum. If I need to do something generally I just find a way of making it happen. It’s only when I get compliments that push me toward one end or the other, which allows me to ground myself and discover where I’m at in the grand scheme of things.

The main reason I wanted to deploy a blogging tool was to get to grips with the challenge of integrating my designs with someone else’s fruits ala designer/developer studio scenario, given the fact collaboration is the phrase of the year more than ever right now imo, especially since SOOO many web people are joining forces and declaring they are now working with ’so and so’. Designing the site was the easy thing. Integrating it was not so easy (at first). You see most people I know who dabble in WP set the platform up first and then style it. It’s inherently boring to begin with and only gets worse from there on in as it spirals up their own arses. I designed ldexterldesign V4 first, knowing what I wanted to improve upon from the previous version. I needed to harmoniously blog and show work off in a space that reeked of my style from the outset. I didn’t want to bear the constraints of WP, or get led by the hand of an interface that already existed.

I’m still split between what’s best: design a screenshot or a front-end first and then integrate WP or vice versa? The more I think about doing it an alternative way, the more I recall the positives of doing it the way I did it and, again, vice versa. I still feel the crux of the matter is if you want to fully customize a WP theme you need a good understanding of, not surprisingly, all the technologies involved, which is a drawback if you don’t (have the understanding).

I initially tried to install WP locally along with my DB. Instead I find half way through weaving the platform into my design that the comments, among other functionality, doesn’t work for some reason. A few posts on the Wordpress support forumVisit my post on the Wordpress forum didn’t shed much light on the issue, so along with the discovery of the built in ‘theme editor’ (yep, I almost slashed my wrists) I collected my coat and left for the tiled browser yellow-brick-road. I’ve since become quite comfortable working in and out of theme editor, copying and pasting code into my favoured text editor locally and pasting amendments (CSS/XHTML/PHP) back into the browser. It’s really not ideal, but I don’t see much of an alternative without everything working 100% locally. Perhaps I had something set up incorrectly. Only time will tell because I’m still going to pursue the local environment route the next time I work with WP to see if I have the same problems. I’ll endeavour to report back to you… :P

June 8th, 2008

Work item: Tado vs. ILoveDust vs. eBoy

Thrown in the Design, Work scrapheap. Expand post

Just finished up some gorgeous garden fete print work for a friend of mine over at Newnham CollegeYou CAN walk on the grass, Cambridge. The brief was fun, the colours were fun and the typography: definitely fun. The less said about A Illustrator’s 3D functionality and my CPU the better - at 300DPI not very fun :S

Newnham College Garden Party print work poster

Newnham College Garden Party print work poster

Newnham College Garden Party print work posterNewnham College Garden Party print work posterNewnham College Garden Party print work posterNewnham College Garden Party print work poster

Newnham College Garden Party print work posterNewnham College Garden Party print work poster

101 limited – printed full bleed on A3 170GSM glossy it looks freshly splendid :P

May 29th, 2008

Rolling on raw steel – 19lb BMX!

Thrown in the Art scrapheap. Expand post

Stop your grinnin’ and drop your linen – I have a new ride which I’ve been quietly excited about unleashing on the web for a fair few months now. I’ll pretend I wrote this post in May when in fact it’s now October – who cares – I can give some honest feedback on the new ride I’ve been donning for the past few months. The bike was heavily inspired by Aaron (the boss) Ross, so if you’re unaware of what this absolute genius can do with two wheels and a top tube – CHECK CHECKWatch Aaron Ross – ‘Chill Bro’ on pooTube y’all!

To cut a long one short it’s the rudest, lightest, strongest, most fluid gorgeous machine I’ve had since the last ride I burnedCheck out my last ride on Flickr. Parts list below. Enjoy the eye mafia :P

Lewis Litanzios\' BMXLewis Litanzios\' BMXLewis Litanzios\' BMX

Lewis Litanzios\' BMXLewis Litanzios\' BMXLewis Litanzios\' BMXLewis Litanzios\' BMX

Parts list:

  • S&M Lighter Than Fuck frame (rawed)
  • United Squad ’08 forks (rawed)
  • Kink Relief stem
  • United integrated headset
  • Profile three3-piece race freestyle cranks w/titanium axle
  • Shadow Conspiracy Shadowlite chain ring 28t
  • Abike (Steve) HamiltonProbably the most insane BMX rider of all time. Now a raving crack head apparently? clear plastic pedals
  • KHE Kool chain
  • Demolition Zero drilled out double skin rims
  • KHE Reverse Freecoaster rear hub (36h, 14mm) 9t
  • Demolition Bulimia front hub (36h, 10mm)
  • Demolition spokes
  • Fit Bikes FAF Kevlar tyres
  • Simple Studio bars (rawed)
  • Federal glow in the dark grips - they really do!
  • Hoffman Uber Alloy Micro post (cut)
  • Simple Front Row Seat w/cro-mo rails
  • Wireless baby!

Can’t fault it, although I reckon pink and white are *in* atm :(. Let me know what you reckon in the comments.

May 26th, 2008

Work item: LTD print work

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This week I whipped up an iconographic beauty to promote the first (hopefully first of many) LTD warehouse party night in Leeds, UK. All 100% customized icons with the theme/concept of limitation neatly woven in for good luck - took a while, but the result is fine fine FINE. Shame the print job wasn’tCowboys. We live and learn and breathe in hope of many proofs :)

LTD/limitedEvents/Limited Events print work ala Leeds, UK

LTD/limitedEvents/Limited Events print work ala Leeds, UKLTD/limitedEvents/Limited Events print work ala Leeds, UKLTD/limitedEvents/Limited Events print work ala Leeds, UKLTD/limitedEvents/Limited Events print work ala Leeds, UK

LTD/limitedEvents/Limited Events print work ala Leeds, UKLTD/limitedEvents/Limited Events print work ala Leeds, UK

Online promotions were made primarily through the Last.fm platform, as it provided a little more elegance and intelligence than some of the other well-known social networking sites also geared towards music. For that added je ne sais quoi, the metadata of arbitrary MP3 files were rigged with fake ID3 data from artists playing on the night’s roster and run overnight in neatly arranged playlists to generate user listening tastes mimicking the event’s line-up.

Visitors to the LimitedEvents profile page could benefit from all the usual Last.fm goodness, including hearing new music, viewing detailed event listings (which, although risky, facilitated a more minimal print design) and being able to correspond accordingly, as well as viewing other attendants and connecting similar artists and events.

All in all: so much better than the lonely corridors of the likes of Myspace. Someone just needs to tip-off Last.fm about mining Myspace for remaining events now!

May 15th, 2008

Work item: Web Designer Mag’ feat.

Thrown in the Design, Work scrapheap. Expand post

I’m humbly featured in this month’s Web Designer MagazineHit up the WDM website (Issue 144, p33) as part of a 14-page creative careers showcase special; documenting the cream of design talent from six6 of the top creative Universities and College regionsBournemouth, Aberdeen, Leeds, Falmouth, Brighton & London in the country. Obviously I’m really proud to be part of it (even if the work featured was well over a year old), so thanks to my tutor, Catherine StonesLecturer in Interactive Design @ University Leeds for prompting me to submit some colour.

Lewis Litanzios\' Web Designer Magazine feature

Lewis Litanzios\' Web Designer Magazine featureLewis Litanzios\' Web Designer Magazine feature

Lewis Litanzios\' Web Designer Magazine featureLewis Litanzios\' Web Designer Magazine feature

Here’s all the shizzle in a high def’ article download for your local perusal convenience.

May 1st, 2008

Work item: Something I prepared earlier… (Old work)

Thrown in the Art, Work scrapheap. Expand post

So here they are: a few pieces I threw together (it took me a whole night) to demonstrate the full extent of my production over the past few years. The majority completed whilst studying my BA (2005-2008).

Below are examples of websites, design promotions work, print work, logo and branding explosions, concept ideas and some massive client-relation learning curves (which you can’t possibly see, obviously). Aside from the many hours of production time; fine tuning layouts, skulking around colour swatches and trawling code manuals for functions the few pieces of advice I could give to anyone would be:

  • Only once you are finished and completely happy with your work; reveal the fruits of your labour to the client.
  • It’s pointless reinventing the wheel. The more inspiration you take to a job, the more clued up you are, subconsciously, about your task.
  • Hand a job in late and don’t expect bounce work.
  • It’s all about modularity.
  • Make it explicit to clients that screen proofs at 72DPI are exactly that – screen proofs, not print proofs – especially if they are in charge of going to print themselves (not advisable in the first place).
  • Your own work heals the soul.
  • Keep the good clients (you’ll know them), even if it means doing free work occasionally.

I’d be really interested to hear anyone else’s tips for successful freelancing.

Emma-dalzell.co.uk

Web using (XHTML/CSS/jQuery/PHP/MySQL)

Something effeminate, cool, stylish, with a touch of streetsy. Out of a fountain of accessibility comes a website for Emma to show off all her awesome photography. Lovingly crafted over many months, after a few aesthetic changes along the way, using the strictest of XHTML/CSS/jQuery running on top of a PHP/MySQL back-end.

Ruffage Logo & Branding

Print using (human flyer interaction/my foot prints)

Three separate lots of print work during 2007 to pave the way for each respective Ruffage night – a collective of multi talented Dubstep DJs and producers putting on wickedly successful events around Leeds, UK. To this day, the ‘Ruffage’ logo goes on to provide the club night with a distinctive identity, cementing it as one of the most well known and successful Dub/2-step/Jungle nights in the UK.

Where Do You Draw The Line?

Web using (XHTML/CSS/Coldfusion/MySQL)

Made up of 2008+ independent images - Where do you draw the line? is a rhetorical question aimed at society’s popular commercial believes of quantity over quality. We are falling from the shoulders of giants, as we parody, plagiarise, regurgitate, and corrupt the dignified meaning of past progression. Fredric Jameson, speaking on postmodernism, remarks after reflecting on the eighty-or-so years of classical modernism just passed; ‘Picasso, Proust, T.S. Eliot – older models no longer work anymore (for are positively harmful), since nobody has this kind of unique private world and style to express any longer.’

This project was my reply to a 2007 New Media Arts brief which aims to push the boundaries of digital art. The piece highlights the exigency for considered thought leading to unique action in today’s culture. In a sorry world where we can publish yesterdays news and still command accolades.

View the artwork website here.

ldexterldesign Version 3.0

Concept using (vectors & pixels)

Lippymag.co.uk

Web using (XHTML/CSS)

The fine ladies at Lippy Magazine approached me to provide them with a web presence for their long running (we’re talking 1970s here) feminine publication. Now an established Leeds University society each issue has its own dedicated flavour; focusing on a range of engaging and informative topics which relate to both male and female audiences alike.

Retaining brand colours, logo, and a nod in the feminine direction (but not too much) the front-end is coded to strict standards with a site architecture which harmoniously integrates their back catalogue of print-only issues, with future digitised releases.

LSRFM.com

Web using (XHTML/CSS/jQuery)

Complete overhaul of the LSR website and logo schema to help them kick of the 2007/8 academic year in style. Built in standards compliant XHTML/CSS using as much transcendence as humanly possible.

With potential for lots of content and boasting over 40,000 annual hits the site earned its new site architecture and streamlined navigation. (The design has since been devastated by some poor soul.)

Anyplan

Web using (XHTML/CSS/Coldfusion/MySQL)

E-journalism barebones site built for a University module brief. The module; ‘Creating DB Applications for the Web’ teaches Adobe ColdFusion. A front-end wireframe solidly serving up the tightest, leanest, CSS I’ve written to date, coupled with strict unadulterated XHTML provides a clean, fast, accessible platform for the user.

Although validation could be improved, the site boasts a fully fledged search facility, article archiving, registration system, and the dynamic upload.

Credit must also go to the photographic brilliance of Rick Harrison.

View the website here.

Grassroots Ghana

Print using (pixels)

Some good friends of mine, who travelled to Ghana for a year during 2006 in order to learn about the country’s socio-economic issues as part of their degree programme, organised a fund raiser and asked me to produce something eye catching and appealing which advertised the connection to music the event promised. With some personal landscape photography and some stock imagery I crafted a fun and zany scene which conveys African musical appreciation.

Entries (RSS) Blog navigation: Reveal all postsExpand all posts - I want to see them all / Conceal all postsContract all posts - I don't want to see them / Opposite postsRead the opposite to what I'm currently reading