Product Design Director | LIONS Intelligence
A two-year transformation of LIONS Intelligence, unifying subscriptions solutions under a singe design system without losing the distinct identity of each brand.
BACKGROUND.
LIONS had been quietly building one of marketing's most valuable digital portfolios with WARC, Contagious, Effie, and The Work, each a specialist destination in their own right.
Brought together under the newly formed Intelligence division, the challenge was to make them feel like a suite without making them feel the same.
What followed was LIONS’ biggest digital transformation to date: a two-year programme spanning product, data science, engineering, commercial, legal and marketing. Hundreds of people, thousands of hours, one shared vision.
LINKS.
Breathing new life, and alignment into the suite of LIONS subscription products and services.
CHALLENGE.
The real complexity wasn't the scale, it was the tension between standardisation and identity. Each brand had loyal audiences with distinct expectations and separate teams. Pulling them onto shared infrastructure risked flattening what made them valuable. The goal was to build a system flexible enough to let brands stay themselves, while unified enough to make cross-selling feel natural.
ROLE.
Supporting LIONS CDO on vision and direction, I later built and led a dedicated cross-brand design team.
Over 18 months we defined our principles and process, established a shared design system, redesigned four subscription sites, launched two AI tools, and built a masterbrand site, creating alignment across architecture and experience without sacrificing brand character.
WARC, Contagious, The Work, and Effie each offer subscriber only access to digital content and services.
Creating alignment across the site architecture enabling better x-brand experience and familiarity.
Breathing new life, and alignment into the suite of LIONS subscription products and services.
LIONS global account and product level views.
AWARD-WINNING CREATIVE CAMPAIGNS.
Get up close with the campaigns and case studies that won across LIONS awards. Find out the idea behind the work, the people that made it, and explore the creative assets in detail.
INTERACTIVE MEDIA + DATA.
Interactive dashboards allow you to visualise, compare and export four decades of international spend, cost and consumption trends, and to access rolling forecasts across 100 markets.
INSIGHT & TREND ARTICLES
Analysis of the insights, strategies and results, interviews with the people behind the work and
In-depth profiles on the most creative brands.
Rich media viewer for viewing creative campaign assets.
LIONS Intelligence @ Cannes Lions Festival 2026.
RESULTS.
The transformation established a shared design foundation across the entire Intelligence portfolio. We’ve reduced engineering overhead, enabled faster product iteration, and made cross-brand experiences feel genuinely connected for the first time.
CREDITS.
Design: Neal Matthews, Kat Mawhinney-Kam, Pelin Cobanoglu, Craig Elve
Development: Jacek Dabkiewicz, Sean Paterson, Jacob Healey, Chris Ward, Marc Trepanier
Product: Kerry Tse
LIONS Design System
Multi-brand Design System V1.0 - 3.0
LIONS Events & Awards
Cannes Lions redesign & regional awards relaunch
LIONS AI Projects
Coming soon…