Virgin Media
Typographic Design · Brand System Design · UX
The Challenge
Virgin Media’s digital ecosystem spanned desktop, tablet, and mobile, but lacked a unified typographic system that could scale across use cases, teams, and platforms. Inconsistencies slowed delivery, created friction between design and development, and made governance difficult at scale. The brief was not to “design type”, but to build a system that could support everything from high-impact campaign pages to legal fine print, while securing senior stakeholder approval and long-term adoption.
My Role
I was responsible for designing a scalable typographic framework as part of a wider company-wide design system, working within an agile, cross-functional team alongside UX agency Nomensa.
My focus sat at the intersection of:
- Brand consistency
- Usability
- System scalability
- Designer–developer alignment
The Approach
Insight & Discovery
- Participated in discovery workshops to understand user needs, business constraints, and technical realities
- Mapped typographic use cases across the full digital ecosystem
- Developed user stories to ground decisions in real-world scenarios rather than aesthetics alone
System Design
- Designed a responsive typographic framework that functioned across all breakpoints and content types
- Defined clear rules, hierarchies, and edge cases to remove ambiguity for designers and developers
- Ensured the system supported brand expression without sacrificing accessibility or performance
Collaboration & Governance
- Worked closely with developers to ensure definitions were technically robust and implementable
- Balanced creative intent with operational clarity, aligning stakeholders across design, UX, and engineering
- Contributed to the creation of the Online Media Guide, turning the system into a shared source of truth
Outcome
- Successful rollout of a company-wide Online Media Guide used across Virgin Media’s digital platforms
- A living typographic system that improved consistency, speed, and confidence across teams
- Post-launch iteration driven by real-world insights, ensuring the system evolved with user needs rather than becoming static
Why this matters
This system reduced design-to-development friction by establishing shared standards between teams, enabling Virgin Media to ship digital products faster while maintaining brand consistency. By creating a self-service framework, the company reduced dependency on the design team for basic typographic decisions, freeing designers to focus on higher-value strategic work. The living system continues to evolve with user feedback, ensuring it remains relevant.
The Challenge
Virgin Media’s digital ecosystem spanned desktop, tablet, and mobile, but lacked a unified typographic system that could scale across use cases, teams, and platforms. Inconsistencies slowed delivery, created friction between design and development, and made governance difficult at scale. The brief was not to “design type”, but to build a system that could support everything from high-impact campaign pages to legal fine print, while securing senior stakeholder approval and long-term adoption.
My Role
I was responsible for designing a scalable typographic framework as part of a wider company-wide design system, working within an agile, cross-functional team alongside UX agency Nomensa.
My focus sat at the intersection of:
- Brand consistency
- Usability
- System scalability
- Designer–developer alignment
The Approach
Insight & Discovery
- Participated in discovery workshops to understand user needs, business constraints, and technical realities
- Mapped typographic use cases across the full digital ecosystem
- Developed user stories to ground decisions in real-world scenarios rather than aesthetics alone
System Design
- Designed a responsive typographic framework that functioned across all breakpoints and content types
- Defined clear rules, hierarchies, and edge cases to remove ambiguity for designers and developers
- Ensured the system supported brand expression without sacrificing accessibility or performance
Collaboration & Governance
- Worked closely with developers to ensure definitions were technically robust and implementable
- Balanced creative intent with operational clarity, aligning stakeholders across design, UX, and engineering
- Contributed to the creation of the Online Media Guide, turning the system into a shared source of truth
The Outcome
- Successful rollout of a company-wide Online Media Guide used across Virgin Media’s digital platforms
- A living typographic system that improved consistency, speed, and confidence across teams
- Post-launch iteration driven by real-world insights, ensuring the system evolved with user needs rather than becoming static
Why This Matters
This project was less about typography and more about designing infrastructure. It demonstrates how I approach brand systems as living frameworks that enable clarity, collaboration, and long-term adoption, not just visual consistency.
Online Media Guide
