The design system of the Christmas Factory

Foreword

This article was published initially in French on the website 24 jours de Web (24 days of Web), on December 13th 2025.

The Elves Oli Daynight and Any Goodcookie have been called into Santa’s office. Oli Daynight is the elf responsible for the design of the platform and Any Goodcookie is the accessibility expert, hired recently following Candy Canes’ recommendation.

The Elves enter Santa’s office. Everything is huge in Santa’s office, but they themselves are very tiny… of course they are, since they are Elves! Oli and Any therefore have to literally climb to be able to sit on the armchairs Santa is showing them. Oli grumbles, mumbling that those chairs are not very accessible to Elves.

“As you already know, we have worked on our corporate identity, ensuring it is both inclusive and accessible. We received a lot of mail from kids and their parents from all over the world, thanking us for the work we have done. We also had a lot of very good feedback from the Elves and from our toy suppliers. However, many mention that our platform is not accessible. What do you think? Where should we start with this?”

Santa sets both his elbows on his giant desk and settles his round face in his hands, arching an eyebrow.

Illustration by Eléa Moreau

Both Elves explain to Santa that the platform of the Christmas Factory is very dense, with numerous functionalities: some destined to their toy suppliers, others to the Elves of the Factory.

Oli Daynight explains that a good starting point would be to work on the components of the design system because they represent a good part of the elements used in the platform.

“What’s a design system?”, asks Santa, a little vexed, as usually, he’s the one who knows everything.

“In layman's terms, a design system is a set of components that are found repetitively across a website or an application. It allows to unify the design of those recurring components, and even to provide a coded version that designers and developers will be able to integrate to the pages.” explains Oli.

Any Goodcookie intervenes, explaining that it’s unfortunately not magical and that, although it is a good way to start, it won’t make the whole platform fully accessible instantly. To reach this goal, it will be necessary to also review the different pages, the rest of the components, and the interactions between each of them as well as between the pages. If the means allow it, then this work could be done in parallel. Else, it will need to be done afterwards.

Planning & Inventory

Oli and Any review what is necessary to put in place for this huge project.

Training the teams

Any insists on the fact that, before anything, it is important to set up a series of training sessions for the teams of Elves responsible for the design and development of the platform. The elf organises training sessions with Candy Canes for each job type (e.g.: elves that are designers, developers, project managers…).

Audit or immediate revamp?

Oli asks Any to audit the different components to evaluate the extent of the work to be done. After giving it some thought, Any doesn’t find it very efficient. Indeed, the components will need to be entirely reworked following the changes linked to the new corporate identity. In addition, considering the little time granted to them, it seems more pertinent to ensure the accessibility of the components directly from the beginning of their revamp.
Oli is not very convinced as it implies that there won’t be any traces left of the initial components, and with that, no way to know their initial accessibility level.

“True. But, if you think about it, you didn’t need to measure the height of the chair in Santa’s office before sitting on it, did you? You knew at a glance that it was high. Yet you climbed it anyway and comfortably sat on it, didn’t you? Well, it’s the same here. The step is high, but if we climb it directly, we will reach our goal more quickly. Then, we will be able to evaluate our level of accessibility and already know that we reached a relatively comfortable level.” explains Any Goodcookie with a wink.

Illustration by Eléa Moreau

With those arguments, the elf manages not only to convince her coworker, but also Santa: for him, the faster, the better! (And the cheaper, too, because an audit would cost him a lot in cookies and sweets…!)

Compliance or accessibility?

Any asks Oli and Santa if they would prefer:

• To comply strictly with accessibility guidelines, thus ensuring access without any major blocking issues to their users as well as compliance with multiple accessibility and inclusion laws across the world?
• Or to comply with accessibility guidelines, but also work further towards more accessibility and usability for proper comfort for all users?

Although all of them would rather go for the second option, the little time left before Christmas does not allow for this. Therefore, Oli suggests that they work to ensure compliance, all the while trying, through little touches here and there, notably on the design, to ensure better accessibility and usability, as long as it doesn’t require much additional work.

Once this decision is established, Any suggests to use the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as main guidelines. Indeed, as the Christmas Factory works with toy suppliers across the world, it needs to follow a standard that is legally recognised across the world. Moreover, these guidelines were recently recognised as an ISO standard (ISO/IEC 40500).

In action

Integrating accessibility in the processes

Any explains to Oli and Santa that, to ensure the components are as accessible as possible, it is important for her to be involved at each and every step: from conception to development, as well as during the testing phase.

Gradually, Any becomes the designers’ and developers’ favorite elf. She’s always there to help them by sprinkling little bits of knowledge here, watching out for them with benevolence there, or even making new ideas spring to life and swirl in their minds…

Sprinkling little bits of knowledge

For each component, Any writes documentation including basic recommendations for designers and developers.

This documentation is available to all teams, not just for the design system team. Thus, other teams will be able to start making all custom components accessible based on the recommendations provided in this documentation.

Watching out with benevolence

To better support the elves, Any defines a set of control checkpoints at two levels.

As soon as designers and developers start to have something concrete to show, Any checks it out.

Often, this allows her:

• to immediately help correct the biggest accessibility issues;
• to immediately spot frustration points disabled users may encounter — for example, when facing a component that is too complex;
• or, to spot functional or technical accessibility issues.

She also checks their work right before the final validation of each step, in order to ensure nothing was forgotten.

Test Phases

Any and Oli would have loved to have organised user testing sessions with various disabled users of the Factory’s platform as well as disabled elves and Toy suppliers.

“We don’t have enough time with Christmas approaching fast! We will be able to do it after Christmas, as an improvement phase.” says Santa. “The toys I create are never perfect at first! I observe kids playing with them over the first year to improve them the next year. Let’s do the same in this case.” he adds with a wink.

Any explains that the test phase is important when it comes to accessibility. All the more since the Christmas Factory does not have a QA team, which implies designers and developers often use the “peer review” technique, asking the other members of their teams to test out their work.

Any has the idea to create shared testing sessions that she calls “In their slippers” where designers and developers meet to test their peer’s work and test its accessibility.

To that end, Any proposes a few magical test ideas:

• A red and green powder that simulates some types of color blindness and visual impairments;
• A rainbow-colored powder to make the code-based accessibility errors stand out;
• A magical keyboard that prevents the mouse from functioning;
• A golden powder that makes your computer speak…

Any also provides them with a checklist of various things they should check during the sessions.

Illustration by Eléa Moreau

Conclusion

We’re now in November, and Christmas is right around the corner. Santa summons Oli Daynight and Any Goodcookie again so they may explain where the project is at.

The elves revel: almost all the components of the design system have been revised and are now mostly accessible.

Even if the platform isn’t fully accessible yet, good efforts have been made and the design system’s components provide a solid foundation for the accessibility of the platform. Processes defined by Any have paid off, and the “In their slippers” sessions have also brought an unforeseen perk: it has allowed the teams to learn more and further their knowledge of accessibility!

Indeed, the hands-on approach, as well as Any’s daily advice, have allowed the teams to find new solutions, test further, and to learn much more than they had during their initial training.

Throughout the year, some of the other design and development teams’ elves have followed suit and have contacted Any to ask her help to improve some of the pages they manage in the platform.

Santa is extremely happy to see that Christmas magic is operating at all levels thanks to the drive and enthusiasm of elves for accessibility!

However, he remains well aware there is still work remaining and steps to follow for the platform of the Christmas Factory to be fully accessible. He has assured Any Goodcookie that next year, everyone in the factory will buckle up for the remaining work — he has already informed Lena Candelight, the elf responsible for the whole platform (Oli’s manager) about it. But he has also assured Any that he would love to organise those user tests Any had talked about. Any is glad and she already knows she will recommend Molly Chamalow for the job!

Author’s notes:

• Many many thanks to my little elf Eléa for the illustrations!🥰
• Many thanks as well to Corey Psoinos for proof reading this article!🧐

What if Santa changed his corporate identity?

Foreword

This article was published initially in French on the website 24 jours de Web (24 days of Web), on December 12th 2024.

A bit of Context

Santa likes traditions just as much as modernity.

During the industrialisation era, he quickly realised the harmful effects it had on the ice floe that surrounds him every day! Since then, he always did his best to be careful of the environment with the production of the Christmas factory. 

But Santa is not just mindful of ecology! 
He’s also always been mindful of others: humans, elves, animals… 
Notably, he's always been careful that no kids, whatever their differences, would be put aside in the delivery of the presents.  

He also always adapted the workplace for his elves so they could make the most beautiful presents in the world, even when they have a disability! Yes, even elves may sometimes have disabilities! Don't you know Zach, the spy elf, who has ADHD (Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder)? Or Malina, the elf who builds the fastest race cars and who is deaf? Or, yet again, Teddy, who takes care of the reindeers and who has a vision impairment?...

Illustration par Lawrence Poulet.

Enlarge image of the elves

Santa understood well enough that, nowadays, if you want to have a brand that kids as well as adults appreciate, you have to be mindful of sustainability but also inclusion. Which is perfect since it corresponds to the values of the Christmas Factory! 

Therefore, he decided to change the Christmas factory's corporate identity, so he could align it with today's trends as well as values. He wants to show the world that, in the North Pole, those are things we care for (and that it's not just greenwashing nor handiwashing !).
For this, he hired Candy Canes, an elf highly known in the whole world for creating modern and accessible corporate identities. 

Gap analysis 

The current corporate identity

Candy Canes first analysed what were the gaps in the current corporate identity of the Christmas Factory as well as the new requirements:

Colours

Santa no longer wants to be associated with a certain soda brand, which, in addition, gives him strong heartburns and makes him see red every time! 
And anyways, he wants to change his colours a bit ! 

Also, Candy Canes noticed that some of these colour combos do not respect the contrast ratios mentioned in the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) : 

• Red and Gold : Depending on the colour codes used, they are sometimes not contrasted enough,
• White and Gold : … let’s not even mention it, it’s a disaster!!!

Logo

Simple: there’s none ! Toy shops and suppliers use whatever they get their hands on! Here is Santa's face, there, a candy cane, here again, a Christmas tree…

Typeface

At the beginnings of the personal computer era, following his printer’s advice, Santa chose the Times New Roman font. 

But this font was never his favorite. 

He much prefers using cursive and italic fonts that mimic his own handwriting and bring out the Christmas spirit… unfortunately, those fonts are often hard to read for some kids, for example for those who just started to learn how to read, or for people with dyslexia or with vision impairments. 

Illustrations and photography

Mrs. Noëlle Klaus, Santa’s wife, who is at the head of the mail reception department, receives more and more complaints about the lack of inclusion of the Christmas illustrations and pictures: in some images, you will see Santa in different settings, in others, kids playing with toys, or in others again, elves at work… but never showing people with a disability.

Tone of voice and communication style

Santa was always very expressive and eloquent, often starting long monologues whenever he wrote to kids or shops and suppliers, or whenever he addressed a speech to the employees of the Christmas Factory.  

Here again, Mrs. Klaus received an alarming report from Zac, the spy elf, on the number of kids who do not understand the letters Santa addressed to them.  
In addition, suppliers, elves, Mrs. Klaus, and even the animals of the ice floe dream that his speeches would be a bit more straight to the point.

Like Julie the elf, who is in charge of tasks management:

“Time means presents! With the amount of work we have to do in less than 364 days a year, we don’t have the time for those ornamentations!”

Communication tools

Then, Candy Canes tried to understand what were the internal and external communications used by Santa and the Christmas Factory. Here are a few examples:

Letters 

Each year, Santa sends to a certain number of children, mostly the nicest of them, a letter in response to theirs. 

The Christmas Factory’s website

For a few years already, thanks to his website, Santa allowed children to know more about his history and about the making of their favorite toys, to follow his travels around the world on Christmas night, and even to send him messages!

The catalog of toys

It is essentially destined for suppliers and shops, available in print and PDF versions. For a few years already, this catalog is also available on the web.

Digital presentations

During the whole year, Santa travels the world to meet suppliers and shops and presents them with the latest products and inventions that will be available for the next Christmas. In addition, he uses more and more of those types of presentations to communicate internally with the elves of the Christmas Factory.

Social Networks

This year, Santa decided to open up to social networks in order to better communicate with the rest of the world. He even hired Cynthia, an elf for whom Instagram no longer has secrets, to animate his social networks!

Instant Messaging

Pneumatic messages are old news! Now, from the workshop to the sleigh hangar, through the reindeers barn and the mail management office, the whole Christmas Factory communicates through online instant messaging!

The new corporate identity of the Christmas Factory

The elements of the new corporate identity 

Once with all this information at hand, Candy Canes rolled up her sleeves, got to work and here is what she proposed to Santa.

Colours

Illustration par Lawrence Poulet.

Enlarge image of Santa in front of a miror

Candy Canes proposed to Santa to go back to his roots with green as the new main colour. Not just any green. Pine tree green and all its range of pine tree green shades: from the dark green of the old pine trees to the light green of the young sprouts.

So Santa does not need to change his whole wardrobe, he will be able to associate it with his eternal deep red as a secondary colour. Various shades of this red are also proposed, verging on a dark brown, mimicking the colour of tree logs and chocolate. 

However, it is important to keep in mind that dark red shades should not be matched, on paper and digital support, with dark green shades as those are not contrasted enough. They may, however, be separated by a golden colour border, which remains present as a tertiary colour, allowing to bring a light and shiny touch to the palette. 

Enlarge image of the new main colour palette

Black and White will be the colours used mostly for texts. 

Candy Canes explained to Santa:

“What is key, is to always know how to associate the colours so that you keep the best possible contrast.”

With this explanation, she provided a colour contrast matrix which indicates, for each colour combo, the validity of the contrast. 
She specified: 

“Share it with all of your elves so that, whatever documents they produce, they can make sure to apply good colour combos.”

Enlarge image of the Contrast Colour Matrix

Logo

For the logo, Candy Canes chose… Santa’s hat, of course, which colour will now be green, with three little red berries on the white fur. 

She keeps a bit of tradition and associates it with a modern and refined design.

The logo can be provided in the different shades of green depending on the background colour where it is displayed. 

Typeface

The choice of Typeface was quite a challenge for Candy Canes. 
Indeed, usually, finding a font that is legible is already a difficult thing. So, when keeping the Christmas spirit is a key criteria, it strongly raises the level of difficulty! 

Candy Canes finally decided on two fonts: 

• For body of text and long contents: Candy Canes breaks away from tradition to ensure an almost perfect legibility for kids: it'll be the Atkinson Hyperlegible font, created by the Braille Institute. Atkinson Hyperlegible is a font studied specifically to improve legibility of people with vision impairments or dys- disorders (dyslexia, dysorthographia, dysgraphia, adhd,…).
  Moreover, the rounded shape of this typeface allows to keep the softness of childhood, while remaining modern, professional and legible. 
• For titles, catch phrases and short quotes from Santa, Candy Canes decided to use the Mystery Quest font created by Sideshow, to keep the Christmas spirit while maintaining a minimum of legibility. 

Illustrations and Photography

Candy Canes commissioned Loann, the renowned elf who inspired the greatest photographers, to take pictures of his pairs busy working, but also pictures of kids around the world admiring the shining and animated shop windows, writing their letters to Santa, opening their presents, …, all of them with or without disabilities.

Elea, the Elf illustrator and a great friend of Candy Canes, proposed a few inspirations of potential christmas illustrations, showing adults, children and elves, that followed the same diversity and inclusion criteria. 

Tone of voice and communication style

For every type of communication, it is important that the messages and information provided go straight to the point and are structured and organised. 

For everyone to be able to understand the communications coming from the Christmas Factory, Candy Canes explained it is essential to keep the vocabulary and expressions at a level at which even an 8 years old child can understand. 

To ensure that Santa adapts his speeches and letters to children worldwide, Candy Canes booked for him an Easy-to-Read training with the elf Carina. 
She will teach him to combine a warm, friendly and benevolent tone with a simple  inclusive and accessible grammar. 

For letters, catalogues, communications on instant messaging  and social networks, the tone can be jolly and fun. 

However, for communications with suppliers and shops, it will need to be a more professional tone. This tone can still maintain the well known unchanging positivity of Santa. 

Implementation of the new identity

Candy Canes created new templates for the different documents and presentations that all the employees of the Christmas Factory will be able to use. These templates contain various examples of how colours should be used to always ensure good contrasts: 

For text documents templates  like Santa’s letters, contracts etc., the new logo of the Christmas Factory with a text alternative, but also ordered heading styles are predefined for the different headings levels… ;

For presentation documents, a theme was created, including slides formatting, text zones and shaped components using predefined contrasted colours ;

For PDF files, examples of catalog and other documents were provided for Lawrence and Maeva, the elves of the Christmas Factory’s design studio, to use for inspiration. 

Candy Canes also worked on a set of guidelines, for each element of the corporate identity, which will be distributed to the whole of the Factory, with, depending on the job occupation, specific accessibility and inclusion recommendations. 

Finally, following Mrs. Klaus request, several training sessions were organised, where Candy Canes will present to each team how to use the elements of the corporate identity appropriately, including accessibility and inclusivity, depending on their job occupation.

Conclusion

Candy Canes concluded her presentation of the new corporate identity by indicating that an organisation’s corporate identity lives and evolves with it: 

“The new corporate identity of the Christmas Factory will always be destined to be used in a variety of ways depending on the medium. It will also be evolving following the trends throughout the years.  
In addition, you may potentially use new communication medium that were not studied during this process, or that do not exist yet.
In any case, it will be key that you always keep in mind accessibility and inclusion when you make it evolve.”

Now that the new corporate identity of the Christmas Factory is finalised, Santa wishes to get its website redone. 

Here again, he decided to be supported by a company specialised in accessibility and ecoconception. Some well known companies have already answered the RFP: Lovely Access, Tetramagical, Noëlmensa, Deck the Alls, The Poinsettia Group inc., AbilityNight ...