Athrena Design System

Mission

Athrena (Arena + Athlete + Athena) came out of a pretty simple realization: as YinzCam grew, our internal tools didn’t always grow with it. For 10+ years, most of the design focus was on fan-facing apps, while the backend leaned heavily on default Django components. That worked… until it didn’t. As more products and teams came online, inconsistencies started to add friction and slow everyone down. Athrena was my way of bringing intention back into the system, creating a shared foundation that designers and engineers could rely on and build from together.

"When we build interfaces, we’re really building relationships between parts.”
– Brad Frost

Work Flow

I was given full creative ownership to rethink how design showed up across the entire platform. I didn’t see the design system as just a visual cleanup, but as a way to help the whole team move faster and work better together. Using Untitled UI as a starting point, I began editing and evolving the system in place, redesigning 7,700+ components and variables, standardizing patterns, and gradually rolling Athrena out across 10+ products. I act as the gatekeeper for the system, reviewing new component proposals and deciding when it makes sense to extend or intentionally break a pattern, always with the goal of making the system stronger rather than more fragmented.

Impact

Athrena made a noticeable difference in how the team works day to day. Designers move at least twice as fast, handoffs are smoother, and engineers benefit from predictable, reusable patterns they can trust. What started as a visual overhaul turned into a foundational system that supports scale, collaboration, and long-term product quality across YinzCam’s internal tools.