Pertemps Professional Recruitment
Unifying a Multi-Brand Digital Ecosystem for Pertemps Professional Recruitment
The organisation needed consistency across all six websites while retaining the unique personality of each brand.
Without a shared framework, maintaining multiple websites would have become increasingly difficult and expensive.
I created a design framework for:
- Shared typography rules
- Shared spacing system
- Shared navigation patterns
- Shared UI components
- Shared application journey patterns
- Shared templates
while allowing:
- Different colours
- Different imagery
- Different messaging
- Different audience targeting
for each brand.
I would describe it as a design framework and component library rather than a large-scale enterprise design system. However, it served many of the same purposes by providing reusable components, shared patterns and governance across multiple digital products.
The project resulted in a unified ecosystem of six recruitment websites that felt consistent and connected whilst still allowing each brand to maintain its own identity and appeal to different audiences.
By introducing a shared design framework and reusable components, we significantly reduced duplication across the websites and created a much more efficient approach to future development and content management.
The new application journey was simpler and more consistent across all brands, which contributed to a significant increase in applications and CV submissions. Internal marketing teams also benefited from having a consistent structure and set of templates, making it easier to manage content and launch campaigns across multiple websites without needing to reinvent solutions each time.
One of the key lessons I took from this project was that a design system isn't really about creating components - it's about creating consistency and reducing cognitive load for both users and teams.
The challenge wasn't designing six websites; it was finding the right balance between standardisation and flexibility. Users benefit from familiar patterns and interactions, while businesses still need enough flexibility to meet the needs of different audiences.
Since then, I've always tried to think beyond individual screens and features and instead focus on creating scalable design patterns that can evolve over time. I believe that's particularly important in larger organisations, where consistency, accessibility and maintainability are just as important as the visual design itself.
