Digital Design for Hydro
Leading visual design for Hydro's digital transformation, creating a scalable design system that reflects sustainability leadership and supports growing business complexity.
Client: Halogen AS + Hydro
My role: Senior Lead Designer
Team: UX Designers, Content Team, Dev Team
Timeline: 2019 – 2021
Services: Digital Design, Design Systems, Art Direction
Modernizing a Global Industrial Leader
Hydro needed to modernize its digital presence to reflect strategic transformation, sustainability leadership, and growing business complexity. As the business expanded, the website grew from 3 to 5 navigation levels, creating deep complexity that required a structured system.
As Senior Lead Visual Designer, I led the renewal of Hydro's website from 2017, launching in 2019 with continued design development through 2021. My role centered on translating Hydro's brand platform into a cohesive digital identity, creating clarity from complexity through systematic design thinking.
The Design Challenge
Hydro's digital presence needed to serve multiple demanding stakeholders from investors and sustainability teams to HR recruitment and external PR advisors while maintaining clarity for global users navigating increasingly complex business areas.
As senior lead visual designer, I needed to create a flexible design system that could accommodate diverse content types (History of Hydro, How It's Made, Brazil operations, ESG reporting) while ensuring visual consistency and scalability. The navigation architecture alone presented significant complexity as the business expanded.
My Design Approach
I applied a Double Diamond process, balancing discovery and alignment with focused execution. My approach centered on designing for clarity, not ego, maintaining collaborative relationships while leading visual direction and systematic implementation.
I Led
Visual direction and digital art direction
Design system and component library
UI systemization and consistency
Template design and layout systems
Collaborated With
UX team for IA and user flows
Content team for storytelling
Dev team for implementation
Brand and stakeholder groups
Engagement and Buy-In Strategy
Visual Communication First: I visualized everything early, sharing low-fidelity prototypes to gather feedback without over-investing. Used visual principles to explain design decisions around accessibility, grid systems, and hierarchy.
Brand to Digital Translation: A critical part of my role was translating Hydro's brand identity into a cohesive digital expression. This required deep understanding of the brand platform and careful interpretation of how brand principles—typography, color, tone, visual language, would work in interactive, responsive digital environments while maintaining brand integrity.
Structured Collaboration: Led weekly sprint check-ins with design and dev teams for continuous alignment. Regular touchpoints with stakeholders across market, digital operations, sustainability, and IT helped navigate diverse needs and constraints.
Technical Translation: Worked closely with developers to translate the design system into scalable components, ensuring accessibility, performance, and visual fidelity. Created comprehensive Figma libraries and implementation guidelines.
Outcomes & Impact
Despite significant technical challenges including a cyber attack, the project successfully delivered a modern digital presence aligned with Hydro's brand platform. The modular design system enabled scalable growth while improving navigation clarity for global users.
3 years
Continuous design development from initial launch through iterative improvements
5 levels
Navigation depth managed through structured IA and mega menu system
Multiple
Content types supported: History, How It's Made, ESG, Insights, Sub-brands
Global
Stakeholders served across markets, sustainability, IR, HR, and IT
