Overview
As the Financial Times expanded its product range, from core subscriptions to more specialised apps, it became clear there wasn't a consistent way of presenting products across marketing.
Each product had developed its own visual language, making it harder to create a cohesive brand experience across channels. To solve this, we created the FT Consumer Marketing Style Guide, a scalable system defining how products should be represented across digital and print.
The guide went far beyond logos and colour. It covered product imagery, device presentation, gradients, motion, messaging, layouts, and UX principles across product pages, campaigns, CRM, and promotional assets.
I led the UX messaging, content structure, and design language, ensuring the system was clear, scalable, and practical for teams across the business.
The Challenge
With more than seven products, multiple platforms, and a combination of internal teams and external agencies, the FT needed a consistent system that could unify product representation without removing what made each product unique.
There were inconsistencies everywhere. Products were presented differently across teams, device imagery lacked clear standards, brand elements such as FT Pink were used inconsistently, and there was no shared guidance for messaging, UX patterns, or visual hierarchy.
The challenge wasn't to create a rigid set of rules. It was to build a flexible system that designers, marketers, developers, and agencies could all use confidently, regardless of how familiar they were with the brand.
My Role
As lead UX content strategist, I owned the content design of the style guide from end to end.
I defined the structure of the guide, wrote the UX and instructional content, developed the messaging framework across products, and translated brand principles into practical design guidance that teams could apply consistently.
I worked closely with brand, product, and creative teams to audit existing work, identify inconsistencies, and establish standards that could scale across every customer touchpoint.
A big part of my role was bridging brand and product, turning high-level design principles into practical guidance that balanced consistency with real user needs.
Research & Insights
I carried out a detailed audit across marketing channels, reviewing how product imagery and messaging appeared across email, social, app stores, display advertising, and campaign materials.
Alongside this, I considered platform requirements from channels such as Meta and Google, as well as existing brand documentation and UI guidance.
The audit highlighted several recurring themes. Standard Digital users primarily accessed the product on tablets, while marketing often showed mobile devices. Premium and Standard Digital lacked clear visual differentiation, and FT Edit needed a stronger identity for its younger, mobile-first audience.
Visual elements such as gradients, shadows, and motion were applied inconsistently, while designers consistently asked for a flexible system rather than restrictive templates.
From a messaging perspective, different audiences responded to different value propositions. Credibility, independence, confidence, and discovery resonated far more strongly than generic product messaging, while message fatigue and product confusion highlighted the need for clearer communication.
Design Approach
I designed a modular system that could scale across the FT's product ecosystem while maintaining a consistent design language.
Rather than prescribing templates, the goal was to provide a framework that offered clarity while giving teams the flexibility to adapt designs for different products and channels.
The system covered layout principles, product-specific messaging, device strategy, colour usage, gradients, typography, motion, CTAs, and visual details such as corner radius, shadows, and composition.
Each section included examples of both good and bad implementation, helping teams understand not just what to do, but why those decisions mattered.
The result was a design system that balanced consistency with flexibility and could evolve alongside the FT's growing product portfolio.
Outcome
The style guide is now used across Financial Times marketing and product communications as the primary reference for product representation.
It standardised how products are presented across multiple subscription offerings, reduced ambiguity for designers and marketers, improved efficiency through reusable guidance, strengthened brand consistency across campaigns, and made onboarding significantly easier for new team members and external partners.
More importantly, it created a shared language that helped teams make better design decisions without relying on constant reviews or approvals.
Impact as a Designer
This project demonstrates my ability to design systems that operate across brand, product, and marketing.
Rather than focusing on individual deliverables, I created a scalable framework that improved consistency, efficiency, and quality across the entire customer journey.
It reinforced the value of UX content and design systems, not just in shaping how products look, but in improving how they're understood, communicated, and experienced across every customer touchpoint.
