Lucas Rees

Building upon a broad artistic and technical background, I craft all sorts of cool stuff with passionate people who love what they do —like me.

I feel especially comfortable creating for screens, but I’m notoriously curious, driven to explore, learn and experiment across all kind of media. That’s why I like to collaborate interdisciplinary and do projects that cross-scale in production.

If you need to slap a single label on what I do, I like the German term ‘Gestaltingenieur’ (which translates to something like ‘engineer of form’), but basically I’d prefer for you to simply think of me this way: I’m not specialized in anything, I’m specialized in everything.

Beeing a habitual beginner and ‘learn-aholic’, I grow my skillsetmy skillset primarily by doing. Most recently I’ve leveraged my roughly 15 years of experience in creation and code by

You might be thinking “That’s a hell of a lot of stuff pal!” and you’re absolutely right. I do a shit load of things.

Do I do too much?
Maybe.
Do I spread myself too thin?
Probably.
Do I enjoy every little piece I’m working on, though?
Abso–fucking–lutely!

Due to my numerous long-term commitments and extremely limited remaining capacities, I rarely take on new assignments for the time being. If you have something special you want to collaborate on and therefore talk about, though, message me on Linkedin.com or get in touch via good ol’ Email. Charles Bukowski’s basically summed it up perfectly:

»Understand me …
I do not have time for things that have no soul.«

That being said, I’m always down to casually meet and muse over fresh ideas with a good cup of coffee or a nice matcha. And if there’s only one thing about me to take away from this website, it’s that I’m always interested in learning something new to broaden my horizon.

Alternatively, there’s of course the solid option to join forces with the tried-and-tested team of Wagnerwagner or the collective mind of Virtuelle Kultur e.V. if you want to end up working together.

Even though I’m utilizing design in as many forms and for as different projects as I possibly can, I try to align all of my creative work with what I like to call my design ethos. And while preferences and focus points change and my attitude towards specific style concepts and design philosophies shifts, the following ideas are meant to be way more fundamental, allowing potential collaborators for a better understanding of my thinking, my design values and how I aspire to approach projects;

I believe design is best approached with a ‘don’t-know-mind’ and in a playful yet meticulous manner. At the beginning of each project, we need to learn as much as possible about context and the flow of things, to then develop an individual approach and finally design from inside to outside, from user experience backwards to technology.

The design process is a steady search for value, it’s meant to be organic and iterative. The crucial part always is to ask honest questions, listen closely and be empathetic to the culture we create for.

And since design draws from and feeds back into the world around us, good designers borrow from multiple places. We have to go through life with our eyes wide open, we need to study everything around us.

As designers, we have to acknowledge circumstances as they are, but our work has to be future-positive, it has to be accessible and empowering. After all, design is not just “what it looks like”, or even “how it works”, ultimately design is about the meaning it produces, it’s about what it enables.

We might be hired by companies and organizations, but we work for those affected by our craft. We design for people.

I furthermore believe in doing good work without rushing, crafting with intention and that the best ‘stuff’ is usually built by happy folks. To craft consistently well we need our working relationships to be long-term partnerships built on trust and care. Design is not meant to be a sprint, but a process of growth.

Lastly, to design is to shape the future. Therefor, good design needs to be holistic and sustainable, robust and consistent, intuitive yet innovative. To achieve that, the baseline is simplicity, but we can’t shy away from offbeat aesthetics, playful storytelling and even vast beauty, if appropriate, either.

Design needs balance, it has to speak to the head and the heart. Form follows feeling, just as form follows function.

/ last updated November 2024

I’m convinced how we spent our spare time not only tells a lot about us as a human being, but strongly influences our output as creatives, as well. In the wise words of the amazing Frank Chimero:

»The things that nourish you are also the things that will nourish your work, give it purpose, depth and soul. It’s hard to say what those things may be, but life has taught me over and over that you don’t need to know if you are willing to ask.«

So here are a few things that nourish me.

Music

Besides art, all kinds of design and technology, I get most excited about music. I’ve worked on graphics and artworks for a few bands in the past and I’m dabbling into making music myself from time to time, but mainly I enjoy growing and listening to my beloved record collection.

Here are some of the LPs occupying my record player most often at the moment.

/ last updated December 2024

I probably do not deserve the title ‘Gamer’ and might not conform to the stereotype either, but I’ve been into video games since eight year old me watched my big brother play Secret of Evermore on his SNES back in 1996.

Besides the sheer entertaining qualities and the frequent utilisation of experimental hardware and emerging technology, I believe video games are still crucially underrated as an artform and cultural property.

Here are some good (or at least interesting) games I’ve played recently.

/ last updated September 2024

Books

Even so I spent most of my reading time with my first-born daughter and her favourite children’s books right now, I manage to squeeze in a few pages of the books recently added to my ‘antilibrary’ and some re-readings of a few of my favourites every now and then.

Here are some books I’m currently reading.

/ last updated August 2024

»I’d say slow down, find a quiet place and create time for solitude so you can hear yourself. It’s so noisy out there. And find the good ones around you –the patient, compassionate and interested– then elevate the conversation as often as you can. The things that nourish you are also the things that will nourish your work, give it purpose, depth and soul. It’s hard to say what those things may be, but life has taught me over and over that you don’t need to know if you are willing to ask.«

I’ve been fortunate to meet and work alongside some amazing creatives during my career already. Here are some shoutouts to friends and fine people who have inspired and/or supported me on my journey:

• Steffen Rümpler (aka mediastart)
• Michael Jakob (aka forcewerk)
• Fabian Hönig
• Rainer Wiest
• Tobias Wolf

But there are many more talented and interesting people I’d love to spend time with (in real life). Here’s an incomplete list:

• Alberto Vacca Lepri
• Carl Barenbrug
• Cornelius Schmitt
• Borre Akkersdijk
• Salehe Bembury

On the topic of reading and time spent; Thanks kindly for stopping by and taking the time ( so far) to read through this website, your attention isn’t taken for granted!

That’s it with the ‘me-me-me-fest’ for now. Have a great day and remember to scroll slow.

Much Love.

This is the 2024 iteration of my personal website which has existed in various forms since around 2009. The current version is composed of a bunch of dead simple handwritten files.

If given a choice, I build websites without tracking, fingerprinting or personalised cookies. This one leads by example.

Text is set in ‘Satoshi’ by the Indian Type Foundry
Some of the JavaScript utilizes GSAP
This website is hosted green, all files necessary to run lucasrees.com are served through my own webspace

©2024 Lucas Rees•Imprint (in German)
日々是好日 (nichi nichi kore kōjitsu)