The problem
A brand built on a rough red brushstroke, deliberately raw, had to become legible, accessible, repeatable interface components. The brand red could not carry link states at accessible contrast.
Case study · Shelter & Shelter Scotland
A rebrand in rough red brushstroke, made repeatable.
Shelter's rebrand was deliberately urgent and unpolished. My job was to turn that energy into components a team could ship every week, at a standard that let people in crisis actually read the advice.
At a glance
If you read nothing else · 40 seconds
What I did
Built the pattern library and design system: named colour variables with defined roles, component specs across three breakpoints, and a Storybook library developers could theme against. Then led the Scottish digital estate.
What changed
WCAG 2.1 AA across the estate, a wider audience reaching housing advice, and a team of eight shipping against one system instead of individual judgement.
The brand, as it arrived
Loud on purpose
How the work ran
Select a step
01 · Audit
The rebrand was designed for posters and protest, not for a form field at 320px. I went through the estate screen by screen and catalogued where the brushstroke, the type and the red stopped working — long advice pages, error states, anything a person reads under stress. That catalogue was the brief for the system.
Colour with a job
Encoded once, not argued per screen
Brand red
Campaigns and emphasis. Deliberately loud, and kept away from anything a reader has to parse under stress.
Link blue
Text links and their states. Introduced because the brand red could not carry them at accessible contrast.
Error / success / alert
Defined state colours, each with a role rather than a preference.
Disabled
One value, one meaning, so the same control reads the same everywhere.
What was handed over
8People led: designers, developers, content designers and a researcher
5Years across three roles
AAWCAG 2.1 met across the digital estate
3Breakpoints specified for every component
“Her UX knowledge is top-notch, and she always found the right balance between business goals and technical realities. A clear and constructive communicator who kept quality consistently high.”