# Before design systems had a name, 2007 – 2018

> Shops, Smart TVs, a lot of banners and one award. The design system mindset was always there, it just kept changing its name.

- Section: Cases
- Client: Neuland, .NFQ, Dr. Grandel
- Year: 2007 – 2018
- Role: Media designer, screen designer & frontend developer, senior UI/UX designer
- Team: Small teams, one foosball table
- Scope: Product Design, E-commerce, Frontend, Style Guides
- Outcome: Shop Usability Award 2018
- Web: https://matthiasfritsch.de/work/earlier-work/

Eleven years, three companies, zero design system job titles. Here’s the short version.

## Neuland, 2007 – 2012

This is where I did my apprenticeship as a media designer, and it will always have a place in my heart. A small company, very much like a family, and still I got to work on properly fancy projects early on: Smart TV prototypes, and complete content management systems and online shops that actually shipped. Designing something in the morning and building it in the afternoon was just normal.

Also: I met my wife there. Best project of the decade, by a distance.

*[No image yet. Imagine a Smart TV prototype, remote control not included. Smart TV prototyping, back when “smart” was a bold claim for a TV.]*

## .NFQ Digital Creatives, 2012 – 2014

Agency life. Campaigns, classic advertising, a lot of banners, a lot of HTML5, and web shops. Fast, loud, fun.

The only real trauma from that time: the company foosball table. Everyone loved it. I hated playing it, and I still do. I was also s\*\*\* at it, which may be related.

*[No image yet. Imagine a 300 × 250 banner, blinking with conviction. One of many, many banners. HTML5, because Flash was on its way out.]*

## Dr. Grandel, 2014 – 2018

A change of scene: no more agency, in-house at the manufacturer. A more relaxed pace, and more time to do things properly.

The biggest project was the redesign of the online shop. I did the concept, the design and the technical implementation, with a technical agency supporting the backend. In 2018 it won the Shop Usability Award. Doing all three parts myself was hard work, and the best training I could have asked for.

*[No image yet. Imagine the Shop Usability Award 2018, on a shelf, slightly dusty. Concept, design and frontend for the shop redesign, backend with a partner agency.]*

## What stuck

Looking back, I always worked with a design system mindset. Only the name kept changing: first style guide, then living style guide, then design system. But the questions were the same as today: not just how to make something perfect once, but how to keep it consistent for years.

And from the agency years, one more: how do you hand it over to a client so cleanly that they keep it consistent after you’re gone? That’s basically contribution and documentation, ten years early.

> Style guide, living style guide, design system. Same mindset, three names.

Anything I’d never do again? Play foosball. Everything else, no regrets. Great teams, great colleagues, and a lot of friendships that still hold today.