01 / 04iOS app + website
GunStatus
An iOS app that tracks South African firearm applications and licence renewals.
- My role
- Design, development and App Store release
- Platform
- iPhone and iPad
- Status
- On the App Store
Independent developerFiled from East London, South Africa30 years of visual communication
I buildwebsites, apps& digitalplatforms.
I’m Rudi Louw, an independent developer in East London, South Africa. I design and build custom websites, web applications, iOS apps and publishing platforms, and thirty years of visual storytelling shape how they look, read and work.
01Selected work
Current
builds
Apps, platforms and websites I’ve designed and built, with the details of what I delivered.
All work →02 / 04Digital news publication
The Coastal
An independent digital newspaper for the Eastern Cape coast, and the platform that runs it.
- My role
- Co-Founder and Technical Lead
- Platform
- Web
- Status
- Live
03 / 04AI-assisted web application
MotivAI
A web app that helps South Africans write firearm licence motivations that are ready to submit.
- My role
- Design and development
- Platform
- Web
- Status
- Live
04 / 04Immersive website
Grand Safari
A cinematic website for a hunting-safari outfitter working across four countries.
- My role
- Design and development
- Platform
- Web
- Status
- In development
02More client work
Also built
Company sites, product sites and small-business websites.
03What I do
What I
build
Custom development first. WordPress and Elementor where they’re the right tool, and ongoing support afterwards.
How I work →- 01
Custom websites
Designed and built from scratch, never bent out of a template.
- 02
Web applications & business tools
The plumbing that turns an idea into something people can sign up for and pay for.
- 03
iOS apps
Native apps in Swift and SwiftUI, from first screen to App Store release.
- 04
Publishing platforms, content systems & integrations
Editorial tools and the systems behind them, for publishers who need more than a blog.
- 05
Ongoing support & development
Sites and apps keep needing work. I stay on it.
04About me
From the front page
to the platform
Rudi Louw, East London
- 01
The newsroom
About 19 years at the Daily Dispatch, then Media24 in Johannesburg as Senior Designer and National Graphics Editor, and Visual Editor at the Sunday Times. The job was making complicated things clear on a deadline, with typography, hierarchy and a lot of editing.
- 02
The web
As newsrooms moved online, I moved with them: interactive reports and data graphics first, then WordPress and Elementor websites for clients, and a clear sense of what makes a site fast, findable and easy to look after.
- 03
Platforms & apps
Now I write the code as well as design it. Custom websites, web applications, iOS apps and publishing platforms like The Coastal, built with the same instincts: lead with what matters and leave out what doesn’t.
Recognition for graphic journalism
- 2010CNN African Journalist AwardsTeam winner, online digital category: Slumlords
- 2016Standard Bank Sikuvile Journalism AwardsWinner, graphic journalism
- 2018IAB Bookmark AwardsSilver, special features: A Medical Milestone
05From the archive
Visual storytelling
Graphic journalism from my newsroom years, kept as the background to everything above.
Open the archive →
Start a project
Got
something
to build?
A site that needs to be better, an app that needs to exist, a platform that has outgrown its tools. Tell me what it is and I’ll tell you honestly how I’d approach it.
hi@rudilouw.com