I build design systems teams can own.

I’m John Harrison. I run whatwhatdesign ltd, a one-person studio specialising in design systems. I’m based in Leighton Buzzard and work remotely or hybrid for London clients.

What I do

I audit, simplify and hand over design systems. Fifteen years in design, six of them working on systems, mostly in regulated industries where the system has to outlive whoever built it.

Tokens, component architecture, Figma-to-code pipelines, documentation, and making sure the team can own the system when I’m gone.

Working with you

I work as part of your team, whether that’s on contract or in-house. I work openly with designers and engineers, and leave your team able to run the system themselves.

Working with AI

I’ve been making systems that both people and AI assistants can understand. On a recent design system, I restructured the guidance into three layers: tokens, components and patterns. Engineers and AI assistants can then work from the same source instead of copying values that go stale.

AI speeds up the work, but the design direction and quality bar stay with me.

Side projects

A few things I make when it isn’t design systems.

• whatwhatprints: personalised children’s name prints, built from illustrated objects.
• Start a Story: a collaborative storytelling site, first run in 2005.
• Idle Idol: a site and book about Japan’s real-life mascots.

Availability

• Available for contracts from September 2026, via whatwhatdesign ltd.
• Pricing depends on the work. In-house salary discussed on enquiry.
• Remote, or hybrid in London.
• WCAG 2.2 AA is the default on everything I ship, including this site.

LinkedIn · CV