Overview

In 2021, I helped Aurora Solar transform a brand redesign into a scalable ready to implement design system. The result was Borealis, a design system that unified Aurora’s disjointed product and brought the rebrand to life.

Challenges

I was brought into the Aurora Solar project via Pixelfat Design. Aurora Solar had nearly a decade of design debt including fragmented UI, duplicated components, and outdated code. Different product sections used different systems, making updates unreliable and the overall experience disjointed.

Hello Monday had just internally completed Aurora Solar’s identity redesign. Their work was beautiful, but it was not product ready. Aurora Solar wanted to launch the rebrand through a design system and the timeline to launch was very tight. They needed a scalable, responsive design system that could support product teams and existing users without breaking legacy code.

The challenge: how do you implement a sleek new system into a legacy product in time for a brand launch?

Building the system

We started by establishing design foundations including color, typography, spacing, and elevation. Then, we expanded into core components like buttons, tables, modals, and navigation. All components were responsive and supported light/dark mode.

From there, we created a strategy using style-agnostic components with two theme layers: V1 for the legacy UI and V2 for the new Borealis rebrand.

This approach made it possible to adopt the new system incrementally while keeping legacy code intact. We enabled a seamless “flip of a switch” from the legacy style theme to the new to the rebranded theme when launch day arrived.

We validated every component with engineering, cross-checked against live product use, and documented everything thoroughly. We also built a custom documentation site to serve as a central resource for designers and developers.

Using the system:

Global navigation updates

Previously, Aurora’s navigation was stitched together over time across different platforms, leading to a confusing and inconsistent experience. It lacked structure, and users often struggled to move fluidly between core areas of the product.

To address this, I collaborated closely with the core product pod to create a systematic, unified navigation experience. While the broader product was still running on V1 styles, we used the new Borealis components to prototype high-fidelity, responsive navigation patterns.

We conducted user testing, gathered feedback, and rapidly iterated. The new design system allowed us to build and adjust quickly, making it easy to validate ideas, stress test the system, and improve the experience with each round.

Eventually, we landed on a flexible, responsive, pattern-based navigation model using the new system. It was a huge win for the company. It brought consistency, clarity, and cohesion to the product. It was one of the first tangible signs of what Borealis Design System Components could enable.

A full enterprise redesign

The Borealis Design System became the vessel for Aurora’s successful brand relaunch—putting their product design on the map and turning a bold vision into a scalable reality.

After nearly a year of behind-the-scenes design system and product work, the rebrand went live with a single theme switch. It transformed the entire product UI in just one day. To customers, it looked seamless. Internally, it was the result of deep planning, system architecture, and close cross-functional collaboration.

I created an end-to-end prototype featuring global navigation and DS-compliant key screens to showcase Borealis in action and guide future product vision. The system didn’t just modernize Aurora’s product—it transformed how the company designed and built software moving forward.

Designers moved faster with reusable, responsive components and shorter turnaround times. Engineers had clearer, more consistent handoffs thanks to robust documentation and a shared system foundation.