Age 17
The first freelance work
A caricature for American Way Real Estate in Port Jefferson was an early step into making creative work for someone else. It was the beginning of learning that an idea could become a business.
Career & CV
I’m Dean Lambros. Designer, digital builder, and entrepreneur. My professional education came from making things for real businesses—and learning what those businesses needed next.
My curriculum vitae (CV): a living record of my work and experience, from the early creative projects to the connected systems I help build today.
A caricature for American Way Real Estate in Port Jefferson was an early step into making creative work for someone else. It was the beginning of learning that an idea could become a business.
I joined Stone World Imports in inside sales and negotiated my own salary. I knew the material through my father’s fabrication shop; the job taught me wholesaling, relationships, renovations, and the realities behind a business purchase.
I made my first paid website with centered images in a Word document, saved it as HTML, and uploaded it by hand. I charged $250. The surviving artwork is dated 2004; my recollection of the first build reaches earlier.
The freelance practice grew across websites, logo design, packaging, print, and photography. TS / Team Speed, Shoreham Wireless, Silent Snooze, Harmolin Studio, Energy Wise, Lux, and Lumber List Express are part of that surviving record.
On and off over these years, I ran the graphics department in a company building high-end exhibits and architectural interiors. About 40 trips to Las Vegas, repeated trade shows, and the people at Gilbert shaped my standards for craft, service, and leadership.
After leaving Gilbert Displays, I won the Canon booth project through Adaptive Graphics and developed the layouts independently. Large format panels, camera artwork, and a booth placement plan survive in the archive.
I began organizing the work more intentionally with a team. That chapter taught me about collaboration, delivery, structure, and responsibility. After leaving the company we had started, I carried those lessons into New Paltz Marketing.
My work today spans Holistic Tech Solutions Group, New Paltz Marketing, Long Island Web Systems, and regional endeavors in the Catskills and Las Vegas. The current portfolio brings together 23 sites I’m proud to have built with clients and collaborators.
What experience taught me
I learned to design and build, then had to learn how to explain, price, sell, repair, and maintain the work. A business owner needed the phone to ring, the form to work, and the next step to be clear.
Over time, websites led to search and content. Client problems led to analytics, CRM, automation, software, and the operations around them. The questions became broader: who follows up, what gets measured, and how does the next person know what good work looks like?
Today I’m also working on listening, delegation, and creating more room for other people to think and lead.
A clear design and a working system should make someone’s day easier.
Small failures in forms, handoffs, and information become real problems for the people using them.
This site gives the history, the current work, and the evolving ideas a shared home.
Faster tools increase what we can make. They also increase the need to review, explain, and own the result.
The visual archive and current portfolio show the progression more clearly than a list of job titles can.
An AI guide to Dean’s writing and work.
I’m the illustrated one. Tell me what brought you here and I’ll help you find a useful place to start.
