The task
Legacy began in 2016 on the initiative of Igor and Ekaterina Rybakov: it became Russia's first endowment-management solution built as a single platform. The project is a redesign — version 2.0 — for the Igor Rybakov Foundation.
An endowment is hard to explain in a sentence. A patron contributes capital, the capital is not spent but invested, and the fund lives on the income it produces. The difference from an ordinary donation is fundamental: the money does not run out. One of the design goals set out in the research put it directly — communication in natural language.
So the brief: explain a complex financial instrument in plain terms to philanthropists and to the fund's partners, and renew the platform's visual language.
The solution
We did not go straight to layouts. We laid the design process out in five steps: defining the design goals, competitor analysis, user research across B2B and B2C, sketches and concepts, UX/UI design. There were three concepts, and one of them was taken forward.
The visual language is built on the motif of inheritance. The first screen is a fragment of an old painting, and across it runs the line "Make your mark on history". That is the endowment translated into human terms: not a financial product but a mark that outlasts the person who leaves it.
The palette is #1C1C1C, white and a gold #D7BB8B. The typography pairs Cormorant as the accent face for headlines with Inter for text. The serif carries the register of inheritance, the sans handles the part where figures and terms begin.
What we did
Research. Design goals, competitor analysis and user research across two segments — B2B and B2C — before the first layout.
Three concepts. Three different approaches to the visual language and the structure.
"How Legacy works". The core of the site: a step-by-step scheme — patrons, the endowment capital, the managing company, the annual income. This is the screen that carries the mechanics the plain-language brief was about.
A section for patrons. A separate entrance for those contributing capital.
The mission statement. Carried on the site and on the printed pieces alike: Legacy partners with families and individual patrons to help manage contributions and promote philanthropic endeavours.
History and the journey so far. A timeline of the platform from 2016 to 2024.
"People are the foundation". A section on the fund's team and its partners.
Taxation. A screen of its own on the reliefs: income from an endowment is exempt from profit tax, and a patron can claim a social tax deduction. This is the part that cannot be simplified — so it sits apart, out of the way of the explanatory screens.
Every page of the service. The new visual language was drawn and adapted across all pages, not only the home page.
Branded pieces. Layouts for a tote bag and a roll-up carrying the Legacy mark — the offline part of the same system.
The result
The redesign explains how Legacy works in a handful of screens — from the patron to the managing company: the mechanics first, in plain language, with the tax detail held separately for anyone who gets that far.
The new visual language runs across every page of the service and through the layouts for the branded pieces, so the system holds together on screen and in print alike.
The full breakdown is published on Behance and Dprofile — links below.
