Lee Black grew up drawn to design through an unlikely gateway: vinyl records. The composition of album artwork, the tactile process of cutting from magazines and building typographies by hand - it all fed a creative instinct that he carries to this day. “Rules were made for breaking,” his mother told him, and it stuck.
From print to interaction design
His early career ran through print and into the web, where Flash became a turning point. For the first time, the web felt alive - animated, interactive, full of possibility. It was Lee’s first real taste of interaction design, and it set the direction for everything that followed.
Finding that feeling again in Framer
Twenty-five years later, Framer gave him that same feeling. After an initial foray building landing pages to get a feel for the platform, Lee quickly pushed deeper - asking not just what Framer could build, but how far it could go. The freedom of the canvas, the speed of shipping, the ability to move from idea to live product in a single day: it reminded him of why he fell in love with design in the first place.
Since then, he’s released around 26 components through the Framer community, carving out a space he describes as a natural fit - somewhere to keep pushing boundaries and exploring what’s possible with components.
Design needs story
For Lee, great design needs more than craft. It needs story. Music has always been a source of creative fuel - a piece of music can spark a visual idea, and that combination of emotion and tooling is where his best work lives. Without meaning behind the form, even the most polished design can quickly lose its hold.
Framer as a foundation for a real business
His message to other designers is direct: if you have the skills and the passion, Framer can be the foundation of a real business. It takes hard work and genuine commitment - but the platform makes the leap feel possible.
Lee says.
