Aliunin Ivan – Selected Design Works

The design system for mobile apps (name of the system and company not disclosed) was created to make the process of building apps simpler, faster, and more structured — and to set the stage for future growth. The company kept raising the bar for the mobile team, and it was clear that more and more products would need to be launched going forward.

Back then, every app was designed as a one-off project with no shared system. This led to all kinds of problems: repeated mistakes, messy mockups and repos, issues with scaling, delays when adding new features, and misalignment between design and development.

We needed a system — something that would help us build apps quicker and update them without stress or loss in quality.

Most of the company’s products followed typical patterns — but with a strong focus on visual style. The design system had to do both: make it easy to scale standard solutions and support visual variety and artistic expression.

We knew that for designers to really adopt the system, it couldn’t just speed things up — it had to leave space for creativity. So we focused on cutting down product and tech-related routine and letting designers spend more time on the visual side. Stylistically, the interfaces felt more like game UI: with decorative elements, overlays, patterns, expressive typography, and animations. That meant the system had to be flexible and highly customizable — not something that would box anyone in.

All of this came down to one simple business goal: building visually rich, detail-heavy products — fast.

Together with the mobile dev and design systems teams, we decided not to start from scratch. Instead, we built on the existing web design system. That way, every update to the shared component library worked for both web and mobile — helping us create a more connected ecosystem.

The system was based on existing web components. We reused atomic and molecular elements, tokens, color and type scales, and content templates — then extended all of that with mobile-specific UI elements.

We kept the file structure organized:

• Main Library — base components, styles, and web layout templates.

• Web Pages — full pages in all breakpoints.

• Web Use Cases — flow prototypes for user scenarios.

• App Library — mobile components, extra tokens, screens, and use case flows.

All libraries were connected. By default, the system library was applied — but to switch the visuals to match a product, we just swapped in a project-specific library, and everything updated automatically.

While building out the system, I also analyzed the company’s current mobile products, reviewed competitors, and explored mobile UI patterns. Based on that, I created test layouts that went through several review stages: first with product managers and analysts, then syncs with developers for feasibility, then internal design system reviews — and finally, integration into the library.

One key focus was making the system easy to get started with. We have created component, let’s just call it Magic Screen here. It was a universal screen that included everything: modals, popups, fullscreen views, landscape mode, and more. Designers could quickly switch layouts, swap elements, or change behavior using presets. This made creating new screens and flows much faster.

To connect visuals with logic, we added interactive prototypes for both user flows and use cases. That helped speed up design discussions — both inside the team and with stakeholders — by showing how things would actually look and work.

As the system evolved, a basic numeric tokens system for spacing and sizing was implemented. This gave us better control over layout and made it easier to sync with the codebase. Our goal was to keep everything in-system and avoid custom one-off elements wherever possible.

We also knew there was a risk of making the system too complex. Based on our experience with the web system, we put extra effort into keeping it intuitive and easy to navigate. A design system should be a helper — not a hurdle.

To make onboarding easier, we embedded descriptions directly into the layouts. We also ran live working sessions with the design team where we went through the structure and key principles of the system step by step.

Building the design system helped the business hit a key goal — launching visually rich digital products faster. Delivery time went down, consistency went up, and communication between everyone involved got smoother. The team got a tool that let them focus on decisions and visual detail, not technical routine.

For me personally, it was a project that seriously leveled up my systems thinking. I got a deeper understanding of adjacent areas — dev, product management, architecture. Most importantly, I learned to see the product as a whole: not just a set of screens, but as a living, scalable system.

The update was important in two areas: achieving business goals and improving the internal design team’s workflow. The brand was going through a major transformation — changing its philosophy, positioning, style, and internal processes.

From a business perspective, the retail brand expanded its product range and target audience. Originally focused on gadgets and electronics, it grew into a wide selection of products — home appliances, furniture, sports gear, car accessories, and more. The company set an ambitious goal — to compete for market leadership. This required a complete rethink of the visual identity. While the original brand idea was strong, the technical execution didn’t match the new scale or tasks.

Internal processes and the design team were also affected. As the business grew, the volume of marketing materials increased. The team produced more than 20 ad campaigns per month — covering display ads, social media, video, outdoor formats, and print. The old visual system made it difficult to manage this volume. Materials lacked consistency, and designers spent a lot of time clarifying and reworking layouts. There was a growing need for more autonomy, shared understanding, and faster production. As a result, the team decided to completely redesign the brand's visual system — keeping the core ideas, but rethinking the implementation.

At the time, the main problems with the visual identity could be summarized as:

• Weak expression of business goals and messages

• No consistent system for using brand elements

• A tone of voice that didn’t match the company’s philosophy

The development of the new brand identity was taken on as an internal project by the design team, which was deeply involved in company processes and had a strong understanding of the market. We chose to avoid long debates about "approaches" or "trends" and instead focused on achieving clear, practical goals from the start.

During the research phase, we reviewed the current state of the brand and its competitors, defined the vision for future communication, and set criteria for evaluating our solutions.

A key tool at this stage was hands-on testing of design hypotheses. For each idea, we created test scenarios and mockups of marketing materials, placing them in real-life contexts — outdoor advertising mockups, browser banners, social media posts, and more. We then compared these directly with similar materials from competitors. This allowed us to objectively evaluate clarity, visual impact, and overall perception in realistic conditions.

One of the goals was to make sure the brand still feels familiar to customers and reduce the risk of negative audience reaction, since the visual update followed shortly after a major rebranding.

The new visual language was based on principles of lightness, simplicity, and minimalism, with a focus on the essentials. Our goal was to reduce visual noise, add clarity and expression to communications, and maintain brand recognition. At the same time, we aimed to avoid overly commercial or aggressive visuals — instead, we wanted the identity to feel clean and pleasant to the eye.

Another key task was to build a strict and detailed system of usage rules, giving the team a unified foundation and ensuring consistent quality across all materials. We summarized the results of this phase into three main goals:

• Bring more variety into the visual style, while keeping it clear, bold, and expressive.

• Develop a detailed and systematic methodology for using all visual elements.

• Update the identity to support faster, simpler, and more flexible design workflows.

The core team stayed small throughout the project. I acted as the project and design team lead, with a senior designer and an art director also on board. Other designers joined in later during the implementation phase.

The development process was based on iterative work and productive creative conflicts. Each stage involved open discussions within the team and with key stakeholders. We also ran randomized internal testing sessions. This helped avoid subjective decisions, quickly adjust directions, and align visual solutions with business goals.

This process led to a clear visual system based on the following key solutions:

At the time, the brand used a limited and rather rigid color palette. We revised and expanded it, assigning distinct color accents to different product categories. This new approach added vibrancy and freshness to the visual language.

We thoroughly systematized the typographic structure. The type set was extended to cover all usage scenarios. Hierarchies, sizing, and usage rules were clearly defined.

The core visual element of the identity turned out to be the most challenging in practice. Its original usage required a lot of manual work to achieve balanced compositions. We redefined its role and placement, finding a solution that preserved expressiveness while being easier to work with.

Layouts became cleaner and more structured. Every element had its place and function. All visual components were aligned to a “golden standard” layout system, which made it easy for the team, and new designers, to understand, adopt, and consistently produce high-quality materials.

We also designed the system to be flexible and scalable. Since the brand used in different channels and sitations, we ensured that the identity can be used more freely and creatively depending on the context.

It is good to see that the decisions we made at the start were fully implemented and met all the goals. These solutions turned out to be simple and elegant.

• Visual communication became clearer and easier for the audience to understand. The brand got the emotional response it wanted.

• The brand’s identity and recognition remained strong.

• The brand began to stand out from competitors as much as the company expected.

• Materials and production became more consistent. The new style is flexible, easy to use, and adapts well to different situations.

• Thanks to the new system, the production of visual materials became much faster. Before, design work was trying to keep up with marketing needs, but after the update, the flow of design materials was ahead of the placement logistics.

Originally made for advertising communication, the style quickly spread to other areas: store design, physical items, print materials, and the website. This showed the approach is universal and works well across different channels of audience interaction.

The project not only solved current tasks but also created a strong base for the brand’s visual growth — expressive, consistent, and scalable for both present and future needs.

PowerUp was a full-cycle project built by our in-house team. On paper, the task sounded simple: launch a bright and high-quality online casino website within a short timeline. But for me, it was more than just another production task. I wanted to go beyond “design is done” and build an atmosphere — something would draw users in from the very first screen and help PowerUp stand out in a saturated market.

The client suggested using arcade aesthetics from the ‘80s and ‘90s as the visual foundation — combined with retro-futurism, neon graphics, and VHS-era references. The direction was close to my personal taste, and working with it felt engaging and creatively inspiring.

I joined the project from day one and stayed through to handoff. As a senior designer, I handled most of the work on building the visual direction, defining the stylistic tone, and designing the core pages.

This project didn’t require deep CJMs or complex architecture from the team designers. The core functionality was already in place. But it offered something else — a chance to express ourselves through style, atmosphere, and attention to detail. The requirement was: “make it stylish, striking, and fast.” But in practice, that meant stylistic accuracy and consistency, development-friendly decisions, and staying brutally self-disciplined with time.

I was involved across the full visual design cycle:

• Building the visual concept

• Creating a local design system and UI kit

• Designing responsive layouts for key pages

• Preparing graphics and animations

• Handing off and supporting the implementation

• Designing microinteractions and gamified UI elements

The visual style was inspired by late 20th-century culture — arcade halls, VHS aesthetics, neo-noir, and retrofuturism. From the start, the goal wasn’t just to design a “theme for a website” — it was to capture a mood, a feeling, an atmosphere. At the same time, it was important not to get stuck in an old-school look. The UI had to feel fresh and modern.

We aligned on the moodboard pretty quickly. It set the visual foundation — color palette, typography, stylistic patterns, character ideas. Along the way, we experimented a lot with artistic effects: screen noise and glow, glitch textures, neon color shifts, recognizable shapes, and pop culture references.

Based on the moodboard, we created a prototype of the homepage concept. It set the visual rhythm for the entire project. From there, we developed a UI kit and a local design system.

While designing the pages, I constantly aimed for balance — creating expressive visuals that were also realistic to build, with a strong rhythm, clear element behavior, and attention to detail. At the same time, the pace was fast, so I often had to find compromises between the desire to improve and the need for speed — deciding what to simplify, what to emphasize, and what to leave out.

PowerUp became a standout project for the team. Despite the standard task format, the final result exceeded expectations. Based on stakeholder feedback, the visual execution was far beyond what’s usually expected from this kind of product.

For me personally, it was an important step. PowerUp was my first project after a long break from hands-on design. Before that, I was mainly focused on leadership and strategy. This project  pulled me back into the design process. I had to quickly get back into the rhythm and refresh my skills. And with that came the joy of designing again.

Of course, some things could’ve been improved with a calmer pace. But even in these conditions, we managed to create exactly the kind of atmosphere we aimed for.

Vinyl Casino is a vibrant online casino inspired by the culture of the 60s and 70s — the spirit of hippies, music festivals, and vintage vinyl aesthetics. As a senior designer, my role was to create the visual concept and deliver a final prototype of the main page, which later became the foundation for the entire project.

From the very beginning, we wanted to create a design that broke away from the aggressive look typical of the casino industry. Instead, our aim was to capture the spirit of freedom, light, music, and joy. We set out to avoid the heavy, overstimulating visual language of gambling platforms and design something that felt fun and warm.

The project also became a kind of experiment. Another team was developing a design system in parallel, and this project was chosen as a testing ground for it. That added extra constraints. Despite the rich decorative style, every solution had to be responsive and developer-friendly.

By the time we started, the moodboard was already in place. It included type references, a draft color palette, textures, and examples of character and illustration styles. We used this as a foundation, but it took time to find the right expression. Together with the art lead, we explored many stylistic directions before arriving at the final approach.

At some point, while trying to break through a creative dead end, I decided to experiment with generative AI, which was still a new and emerging tool at the time. The outputs were chaotic, but from that chaos I managed to extract useful shapes and rhythms that helped us find the right direction. Some of these ideas were later translated into actual UI elements.

The final style featured:

• Muted yet rich colors

• A distinctive display typeface with curved shapes

• Plenty of outlined decorative elements

• A tightly structured, detail-rich layout

• A cartoonish, slightly naive mood that stood apart from typical gambling visuals

My work on the project included the concept layout, homepage, key pop-ups, navigation, and a basic UI kit. Together with another designer, we built a component library and styling notes before I handed the project over.

Working on Vinyl Casino gave me a chance to dive into a rich and expressive visual style, and to adapt it to a structured design system. It was especially rewarding to build clear logic and structure within such a visually rich and detailed style.

Sportuna is an online casino project with priority on sports betting. I worked on it together with another designer as part of the development team. When we joined, the functional structure was in place, but the visual layer had to be built from scratch. The client gave minimal input, which left us space to choose the style and try different directions.

We followed the company’s usual flow:

• Moodboard and concept
• Local design system
• Key pages
• Graphic content and animations
• Design handoff

Each stage included intensive iterations, reviews with leads and the team, and regular presentations of intermediate versions.

As a starting point, I proposed a clear contrast:

• Brutal, grunge-inspired environment: dark theme, asphalt textures, torn paper, worn surfaces, noise.

• Minimalistic and tight UI: monochrome base with an accent color, compact layout, minimal spacing, clean elements.

This duality helped convey the style of the sports environment that is dynamic, but brutal and precise.

The site came out dense and rhythmic. There’s little whitespace, yet it doesn’t feel overloaded.

The project itself wasn’t unusual, but it’s a good example of how, even within a familiar structure and genre, you can land an expressive visual approach and still stand out among lookalike solutions. Once again, we were building “just another casino,” but the result turned into a website with a strong identity.

The current version is far from the original launch. Unfortunately, it lost much of the visual style and individuality and became much simpler.