Redesigning Twitter's internal platform, Birdhouse, during its boldest brand era.
When Twitter underwent a sweeping visual identity refresh, the internal tools that kept the company running were left behind. I partnered with the Design Lead to translate a raw, art-first brand system into a cohesive, scalable internal product experience.
Client Project
Visual Design
Visual Designer
Brand Application · Internal Product
Jun 2021
A brand in motion, a product left standing still
Twitter's visual rebrand was bold by design - intentionally raw, expressive, and anti-polish. But Birdhouse, the internal site used daily by thousands of employees, was still living in the old world. The gap created friction and eroded trust in the new brand direction.
The Trigger
Twitter launched a major creative identity refresh that prioritized emotion over convention. The new system was art-first: tears as reveals, bold layering, vibrant color, and intentionally imperfect energy. Internal products needed to reflect this, or risk undermining brand cohesion from the inside.
The Constraint
Birdhouse isn't a consumer product - it's a utility. The challenge was to honor the new brand's expressive spirit without sacrificing the clarity and usability that internal tools demand. Art-first principles needed to meet functional reality.
The Opportunity
By treating Birdhouse as both a product and a brand statement, we could prove Twitter's new visual language was flexible enough to work across contexts - and give employees a daily touchpoint that made the rebrand feel real, not just external-facing.
The Customer Journey
Working closely with the Design Lead, I owned visual execution - translating brand principles into scalable UI components, designing page layouts, and building a system ready for handoff and extension by other teams.
Design Narrative
Understanding the creative system first
Before touching a single component, I needed to deeply understand what made the new brand different - not as a style guide to copy, but as a design philosophy to interpret. The new identity wasn't prescriptive; it was principled.
Tears as Reveals
A visual device for surfacing information, creating focus, and adding movement to static layouts.
Layers & Texture
Reflecting the overlapping nature of conversation - information that coexists, interrupts, and builds.
Vibrant Color
Humor, intensity, authenticity. Color carries emotional register, not just visual hierarchy.
Twitter Blue
The throughline that grounds the system - familiar, trusted, always present as an anchor.
The system was intentionally imperfect - raw, bold, and dynamic. Our job wasn't to clean it up; it was to make it work.
Discovery
Immersion Before Execution
I started by auditing the existing Birdhouse experience against the new brand guidelines - mapping where the gaps were most felt. I wasn't looking for what to redesign; I was looking for where the brand break caused real confusion or disengagement.
Interpretation
From Art Direction to UI Logic
Brand systems built for expression resist direct translation to product UI. My process involved identifying which brand expressions were emotion-driven versus structure-driven — and finding where each could live without fighting usability.
Brand Refresh
