Design System & Brand Identity for UN AI UniPod
David Ude
UN AI UniPod: building out the design system and brand identity for a UNDP innovation hub
UN AI UniPod is a UNDP innovation hub at the University of Lagos, one node in a national network of UniPods spanning sectors like mining, manufacturing, and agriculture. I'm leading the rebuild of its design system and brand guidelines, replacing a broken site and a fragmented, multi-designer identity with one system built to outlast the current team.
My Role
Product Designer 1 (lead), UX/UI Designer and Researcher
Timeline & Constraints
[6 weeks in thus far, ongoing, working with a Product Manager and two other designers.]
Table of contents
1. A broken site and fractured branding
2. One system for a connected network
3. Designing a system built to last
-Visual identity and direction
-Design system foundations
4. Getting the team building independently
5. Where this is headed
A broken site and fractured branding
UniPod's site had broken and stayed broken. Nobody had managed to put a presentable fix in its place. The brand itself was just as fragmented: multiple designers were each working in their own style and pushing it through the same pod accounts, so nothing cohered. I was brought in to fix the site. Going deeper into scope with the director, it became clear a patch wouldn't hold, we needed to rebuild from the ground up.
First sprint, testing out directions I had ideated
One part of a connected network
UniPod isn't a single entity, it's one node in a connected network of sister UniPods (mining, manufacturing, agriculture, and others. Six in total). The direction we landed on reflects that: a grid system signifying connectivity across the network, with tiles built on top standing in for the people the brand serves, builders, creators, innovators.
Designing a system built to last
-Visual identity and direction
We started with an audit of the existing site and interviews to understand how the brand was actually being perceived. Ran competitor research against research labs we respected, including Ars Electronica and Seedspace Lagos Built a first-draft sprint, then ran interviews comparing that sprint against the old version to pressure-test the direction before committing to it.
The grid, and tile brand direction being used across the UniPod's marketing.
The open tension we're still working through is identity: locking down the typography and the elements that carry the brand's personality, specifically the fonts, the illustrations, and which visual elements to incorporate, since those choices determine how much seriousness versus personality the brand ends up reading with.
-Design system foundations
The system covers logo suite, color palette, typography, iconography, illustration styling and patterns, voice and messaging, photography and illustration direction, templates, design tokens, component library, layout and grid guidelines, accessibility standards, content and UX writing guidelines, icon sets, and documentation for handoff.
Getting the team building independently
The next milestone is getting the component library fully dev-ready, so implementation stops routing through me and the team can build independently off the system itself.
Where this is headed
This is an ongoing project.
The site is live and shipping updates at aiunipod.unilag.edu.ng. Adoption has grown past the original version, though not yet at the internal targets the team set. Twelve partner requests have come in since the sprint started about a month and a half ago, an early signal the direction is working even before the system is finished. The guiding principle isn't speed, it's durability, building something with strong enough fundamentals to outlast the current team rather than something that needs redoing in a year.
"David is the most talented designer I have worked with, and he made our projects significantly standout. He taught all of us the importance of design driven development. Looking forward to our standardized end"
-Prof. Chika Yinka-Banjo, Director, United Nations AI UniPod
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Posted Sep 21, 2026
Leading building the design system, brand identity, and site for UN AI UniPod, a UNDP innovation hub. System and brand identity live; site work in progress.
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