CLLCTIVLY | Crowd-funding platform
A digital ecosystem for CLLCTIVLY, a crowd-funding platform connecting people, organizations, and capital across Greater Baltimore’s Black social economy.
- Contribution
- UI completion, brand refresh, design system, stakeholder collaboration, developer handoff / QA, admin product design
- Team
- CLLCTIVLY stakeholders + design and development teams
- Entry point
- Joined after initial discovery, research, and base wireframes
- Date
- September 2024 - Present
- Status
- Public platform live · Admin platform currently in implementation
- Live Site
- https://cllctivly.org/
Project Over View
CLLCTIVLY is a community platform that brings together people, Black-led organizations, donors, events, stories, and giving initiatives in one connected ecosystem.
Context & Challenge
An ambitious platform already in motion.
I joined the project midway, after the initial research, product direction, and core wireframes had already been established. My role grew from completing the approved interface into leading the platform’s visual refresh, building a scalable design system, collaborating through development and launch, and extending the product into its current admin experience.
At the same time, the platform was continuing to evolve:
New screens and requirements were emerging through stakeholder conversations
CLLCTIVLY introduced an updated brand identity during the build
The refreshed visual language had to work across an increasingly complex set of journeys
Development needed reusable patterns rather than one-off screen solutions
Initiatives and operational requirements continued to expand the product
The design challenge
How do you evolve an already-in-progress product into one coherent system while the brand, requirements, and platform itself continue to grow?
What I understood
One platform served very different intentions
A community member might discover people or events. An organization needed visibility and access to funding. A donor needed confidence and a clear path to give.
The brand refresh could not be treated as a reskin
The new visual direction affected typography, colour, hierarchy, imagery, components, and the overall personality of the experience.
Scale required a system
As the number of screens, initiatives, states, and user types grew, designing page by page would create inconsistency and slow implementation.
MY APPROACH
From screens to a scalable product system.
1Complete
Translate approved wireframes into final responsive UI and close gaps across key journeys.
2Refresh
Apply CLLCTIVLY’s updated brand across the entire product while maintaining usability and structural consistency.
3Systemize
Build a reusable component and visual system that could support existing screens, future initiatives, and faster development.
4Extend
Carry the same product logic into an admin platform designed around the CLLCTIVLY team’s operational workflows.
Complete the core experience
Using the approved wireframes as the product foundation, I completed the interface across the platform and worked through changing requirements with the client and stakeholder teams.
The goal was not to redesign the underlying product logic, but to turn that logic into a complete, usable, and visually coherent experience.
A brand refresh across the product
When CLLCTIVLY introduced an updated brand direction, the entire platform needed to evolve with it.
Rather than updating isolated colours or typography, I translated the refreshed identity into:
Building the Design Sytem
To make the refresh scalable, I built a reusable design system around the platform’s most common behaviours.
Why it mattered?
For Design
Created one source of truth across a large and evolving interface.
For development
Reduced repeated implementation decisions and made component reuse easier.
A system from Clutter to Clarity. The design system went from a one page for styles and components to a scaleable design system
DESIGNING WITH STAKEHOLDERS, NOT AROUND THEM
The project required continuous alignment between brand, product, client needs, and technical reality.
My role included translating feedback into product decisions, resolving gaps between approved wireframes and real implementation needs, and keeping the refreshed experience consistent as requirements evolved.
DESIGN × DEVELOPMENT
The system was designed to make implementation easier, not simply to make the Figma file cleaner.
I worked closely with the development team throughout implementation to understand technical constraints, review build progress, and help the final experience stay aligned with the design system.
THE PLATFORM IN USE
The live platform now connects multiple sides of CLLCTIVLY’s ecosystem:
Discover
People, organizations, stories, and events.
Connect
Public profiles and a shared directory create visibility across the network.
Participate
Events and initiatives give the community ways to engage.
Give
Supporters can donate to organizations, campaigns, and CLLCTIVLY itself.
CLLCTIVGIVE: DESIGNING FOR A LIVE INITIATIVE
CLLCTIVGive is CLLCTIVLY’s annual 24-hour crowdfunding movement supporting Black-led organizations across Greater Baltimore.
The platform gives participating organizations a place to tell their story and mobilize supporters while giving donors a direct path to discover and fund organizations.
Published campaign impact
These figures are CLLCTIVLY’s reported campaign outcomes and reflect the collective work of the organization, participating groups, donors, partners, campaign team, and platform not design impact in isolation.
Live outcomes
A design system supporting a platform that continues to grow.
CLLCTIVLY’s current public site reports:
These are CLLCTIVLY-wide impact figures, not metrics caused solely by the redesigned platform.
Current progress of project
Extending the system into Admin
The next phase moves behind the public experience.
I am currently designing the admin platform that will allow the CLLCTIVLY team to manage the ecosystem more directly.
Live platform
UnPluggd
