Brand Systems and Identity in Cambridge
Ten years of brand, systems, and delivery work; from identity and guidelines through to Figma component libraries, UX frameworks, and the end-to-end processes that let teams produce on-brand work at scale. Including nearly three years embedded in the brand team at Redgate Software.
Hi, I’m Daniel,
I’m a Design Systems and Brand Designer with experience building and maintaining the systems that keep design consistent, scalable, and sustainable. My work covers component libraries and Figma design systems through to brand guidelines, templates, and asset management.
Good design systems make everything else faster and more consistent. They reduce the bottleneck on the design team, give non-designers the tools to produce on-brand work, and ensure that as an organisation grows, its visual identity grows with it rather than fragmenting.
I’ve built and maintained brand systems across freelance, studio, and in-house environments, working with independent businesses and enterprise-scale organisations. That includes nearly three years embedded in the brand team at Redgate Software, a Cambridge-based SaaS company, where brand systems and design infrastructure were a core part of my role throughout.
My approach
Design systems are part creative, part operational.
Defining the brand experience, and building a visual language that’s distinctive and flexible enough to work across contexts. Operationally, it’s making that experience usable: clear guidelines, well-structured templates, organised asset libraries, and UX systems that designers and non-designers alike can work within.
At Hay & Rice I built brand systems for clients across a broad range of sectors, designing identities that clients could scale with and maintain without a designer on call. At Redgate, a Cambridge-based SaaS company, I worked within an established brand at scale, consolidating guidelines, building Canva and Brandfolder asset libraries, designing templates for campaigns and internal communications, and contributing to an enterprise-level UX framework and Figma design system creating a 1:1 pipeline between design and development via Storybook.
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Selected Brand Systems Projects
Brand Building at Redgate
When I joined Redgate the brand was established but fragmented. Sub-brands sat separately, guidelines weren’t consistently followed, and the tools for the wider team to work within the brand were underdeveloped. A significant part of my time was spent addressing that, consolidating sub-brands into a single cohesive set of brand guidelines, building and maintaining Canva and Brandfolder asset libraries, and designing templates that allowed other team members to produce on-brand work without requiring heavy design input each time.
That meant designing templates flexible enough for non-designers to use confidently, while keeping output consistent with brand guidelines. Brand custodianship extended to reviewing work, fielding requests, and keeping standards in place as the team and company expanded.
Simple Talk
The Simple Talk redesign required more than a UX overhaul, it needed its own design language. Simple Talk had to feel editorially independent while remaining clearly part of the Redgate family, which meant developing a design language subset and Figma mode that drew on the core Redgate brand DNA while giving the platform its own identity.
The result was a coherent visual system covering typography, colour application, iconography, component behaviour, and content templates, built to be maintained by editors, content teams, and merch printers, rather than designers.
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Honeycomb UX Framework
Collaboration on Redgate’s UX framework project, built to unify the design and development pipeline across their entire web presence. The brief was to replace a fragmented, inconsistently documented system with a single scalable framework — one that could serve multiple sub-brands and form the foundation for every future web project the company would undertake.
The work combined a thorough audit of the existing estate, a considered Figma system built on Untitled UI and extensively personalised to Redgate’s brand, and a Storybook pipeline creating a 1:1 likeness between design and production. Variable architecture covered three sub-brands, multiple colour modes, light and dark variants, and full WCAG 2.1 compliance throughout.
Rural Coffee Project
Brand identity, website, and print for a rural coffee community. A smaller-scale project but the same thinking applies, a brand system that the client can actually use and maintain, covering identity, print templates, and a website that fits the brand from day one. Good systems work regardless of the size of the organisation behind them.
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In-house Brand and Digital Designer, Redgate Software
For a fuller picture of my time at Redgate, covering brand systems, UX platforms, campaigns, employer branding, environmental design, and the UX design system, the in-house designer page brings it all together. The role required experimentation with brand fundamentals, as well as guideline setting and brand custodianship.
Feedback from clients & colleagues
Tom Russell, Redgate Software
“Daniel was a valued Digital Designer in our brand team for almost three years. During that time he led significant UX projects, including a complete overhaul of one of our flagship websites, with millions of viewers each year, contributed to our design systems used in our products and marketing material, and delivered across a wide range of disciplines including print, campaigns, and environmental design, spearheading the design for our new office. He brought both creative and strategic thinking to the role, and consistently delivered work the team was proud of.”
Laura Penny, 618 Insight
“We engaged following a recommendation of a friendly, collaborative, and professional approach. Dan got the brief spot on for brand identity, brand guidelines, and logo creation and worked with us in a staged process which made it easy for everyone to agree on a preferred design. The website design process was creative and collaborative. Thanks again and hope to continue working with you!”
Let’s get started
I work comfortably across permanent hybrid roles, contract engagements, and retained freelance collaborations.
I’m used to shaping briefs, working closely with developers and marketing teams, and taking ownership of platforms beyond launch. If you’re refining something already in motion, or building something new, I’m happy to start with a conversation.
