English Heritage

A scalable design system to bring conservation to life and boost visitor engagement.

Service: Brand / Sector: Culture

Background

English Heritage invests millions of pounds annually into a vast array of crucial conservation projects. It is a vital part of their charitable mission and something they are immensely proud of. However, their existing design system was failing to do this vital work justice.

While the collateral successfully informed visitors, it failed to inspire them. The old system blended in rather than catching the eye, underselling the incredible mix of tradition, science, and skill that their expert conservators pour into every site. Furthermore, the existing setup was highly inflexible, struggling to accommodate the diverse range of content required to tell these stories properly.

The challenge

The brief was to completely overhaul the "Conservation in Action" design system to make it energetic, thought-provoking, and upbeat. The new system needed to shift the dial from purely informational to highly engaging, leaving visitors eager to take action and find out more.

Crucially, as a tool for a busy internal department, the solution had to be highly practical. The new framework needed to be completely flexible and easy for the in-house design team to deploy across a massive variety of complex, ongoing projects without creating bottlenecks.

Our approach

We tackled the complexity of the brief by building a highly modular, scalable design system. We stripped away the rigid constraints of the old format and introduced a vibrant, upbeat visual language that immediately commands attention.

To give the conservation campaigns a distinct, ownable voice, we created a custom headline font paired with a suite of bespoke, eye-catching patterns. We then packaged everything into a comprehensive set of guidelines and plug-and-play templates. This approach empowered the English Heritage in-house design team to roll out high-quality, engaging collateral quickly and efficiently, taking the friction out of their daily workflow.

The results

A robust, flexible design system adopted seamlessly by the internal design team.
Consistently appealing and inspiring creative that actively draws visitors in.
Noticeably greater audience engagement with conservation projects, both on-site and online.

We delivered

A modular and scalable design system built for long-term flexibility and ease of use.
A custom headline font and a bespoke pattern suite to elevate the visual identity.
Comprehensive brand guidelines and user-friendly templates for the internal team.
A strategic creative toolkit that successfully turns complex, technical information into engaging, accessible content.