Zalando needed a visual identity that was bold, expressive, and unmistakably theirs. Customers told us the site felt like any other. I led the creation of The Label, a new design language that brought Zalando's inclusive, bold, and playful personality to life across product and brand.
For years, Zalando's design system had kept things aligned, but while the interfaces were tidy, they didn't stand out. Customer research was direct: the site felt similar to competitors. Emotionally, the experience felt muted. Zalando needed more than structure. It needed character.
The brief was a flexible, coherent brand system that was distinctive enough to be memorable, scalable enough for a constantly growing product ecosystem, simple enough for teams across the organisation to apply with confidence, and enduring enough to outlast trends.
I led The Label from concept to rollout, not just as a creative project, but as an orgaI led The Label from concept to rollout, not just as a creative project, but as an organisational challenge. Getting a new visual language to stick across a company the size of Zalando required as much relationship building and strategic alignment as it did design craft. I worked across functions: product, brand, engineering, marketing, and the creative photo studio, building shared ownership of the new direction rather than handing down a system.
A key structural decision was the pairing model: embedding a design systems designer alongside feature designers across product verticals, ensuring the new language was applied consistently while remaining sensitive to the needs of each area. As a leader, I focused on shaping a process that invited collaboration, scaled knowledge, and pushed for expressive design rooted in clarity.
The Label was not just adopted. It formed the foundation for subsequent visual themes across Zalando's platform.
Leading this project reminded me that the best systems do more than align – they inspire. Design systems can be pragmatic and poetic at once. And if we invite people in early and often, they don’t just use the system. They make it theirs.
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