Build the conditions
for good design
to compound.

Ernesto Lago helps ambitious product teams turn design systems into a lasting advantage.

Best suited forPermanent leadership · Contract engagements · Focused consultancy

DESIGN SYSTEMS / AI ENABLEMENTScroll to explore ↓

The practice 01

Design systems are not libraries. They are organisations learning to move together.

I partner with product organisations at moments of growth, complexity, or change—building the foundations and the working habits that bring coherence to what comes next.

Selected work 02

Systems are only useful when they improve the work around them.

Spark New Zealand · Telecommunications

Spark’s NUI

Built and scaled Spark’s NUI Design System—the shared foundation for its web, app, and portal products. Components, tokens, and patterns helped teams design across a large, evolving ecosystem.

Focus: 45 components · 25 patterns · 12 templates
Role: Lead designer with product, design, and engineering squads
Evidence: ~75% team adoption · 35% faster screen design (directional)

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ASB · Banking

ASB’s Foundry

Co-led the core design team’s work on Foundry, ASB’s global design system. Reusable components, tokens, and accessible states gave banking teams a clearer basis for product decisions and handoff.

Focus: Components · tokens · variants · accessibility
Role: Co-lead, core design team
Evidence: 50 system updates · ~2 days faster handoff (estimate)

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ASB mobile payment consent screens in light and dark mode

POWERED.BY.LIVE · Streaming

White Label Design System

Led a responsive white-label system from scratch, giving six or more client deployments distinct identities on one shared live-streaming platform across desktop and mobile.

Focus: Multi-brand theming · responsive templates · live-content patterns
Role: Lead designer, working directly with engineering
Evidence: 6+ client deployments · 3 experience models · desktop + mobile

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What I help with 03

Hands-on where it matters. Strategic where it counts.

System strategy

A clear operating model, governance, and roadmap that make the system useful beyond its launch.

Product foundations

Tokens, components, patterns, and documentation shaped around real product decisions.

Design leadership

Direction for teams navigating scale, change, and the space between craft and business outcomes.

Machine-readable systems

Structure Figma components, semantic variables, documentation, and code mappings so AI agents can work with clearer context through MCP-enabled workflows.

What changes 04THE SYSTEM IS THE MEANS.
THE TEAM IS THE MULTIPLIER.