Design System · Leslie’s
Modular Email Design System
I designed a modular email system that supported more than 1,000 assets—giving a lean team speed and consistency without making every campaign look the same.
One reusable system supported promotional, rewards, and lifecycle communications.
Modular content blocks replaced repeated layout work and empty-canvas starts.
I defined the hierarchy, components, templates, usage rules, and visual quality bar.
The program was scaling. The production model was not.
Leslie’s email program covered promotions, rewards, service reminders, and re-engagement, but every send was still rebuilt by hand. The result was repeated layout work, uneven consistency, and less time to improve the message. The team did not need another fixed template. It needed a flexible way to create many kinds of emails.
Standardize the decisions that repeat. Protect the choices that matter.
I separated what changed from campaign to campaign from what should remain consistent. Repeated decisions—hierarchy, offer framing, product rows, and calls to action—became reusable building blocks. Each send could still respond to its audience and message without starting from an empty canvas.
The system needed guardrails—not sameness.
Headers, heroes, offer blocks, product rows, and footers became reusable pieces with clear rules. The structure protected hierarchy and brand recognition, while flexible combinations gave each campaign room to feel specific and relevant.
A perfect mockup means nothing if the inbox breaks it.
My first modules reflected how email should look, not how it actually renders. They broke across Outlook, Gmail, and dark mode—the places the work had to perform. I rebuilt the kit around dependable, table-based structures and traded some visual ambition for components that could survive real email clients. The quality bar shifted from “Does the mockup look good?” to “Does the send hold together everywhere?”
The team spent less time reconstructing layouts and more time shaping the message. One flexible system supported more than 1,000 assets while keeping every send recognizably Leslie’s.
