What Is the Design Studio?
The Design studio is a simple, browser-based editor for visual assets your portal serves — logos, email headers, KB banners, invoice / e-sign PDF covers, and the customer-facing support portal hero. It is not a full DTP tool (no Photoshop-class image editing); think "branded template" rather than "freeform canvas".
Where to find it: Sidebar → Design studio or /studio. Requires the studio feature.
Concepts
- Design — a single canvas of a given type (logo, email header, KB banner, PDF cover, support hero).
- Type — drives the canvas size and the available field set. You cannot change a design's type after creation.
- Version — every save snapshots the canvas. The history is browsable; the active version is the one the portal renders.
- Share link — read-only public URL to a single design version, used for design review with external stakeholders.
- Public — a flag on the design that exposes its current version on the public viewer (the share link works regardless).
Creating a Design
- Go to Design studio → + New design.
- Choose a type (logo, email header, KB banner, PDF cover, support hero).
- Give it a name (internal).
- The editor opens with the type's default canvas.
The editor has three panels:
- Tools (left) — fill colour, text colour, font, size, shape primitives, image upload.
- Canvas (centre) — the live preview, drag-and-drop editable.
- Properties (right) — fills, colours, font, size, alignment; the active selection's properties.
A small auto-save indicator in the top-right shows whether the canvas is in sync with the saved version.
Versioning
Every save creates a new version. From the design detail page you can:
- Preview any version.
- Restore — make any past version the active one.
- + Version — save the current canvas as a new version (same as auto-save).
Versions are immutable. You can browse, restore, and share them, but never edit an old version in place — the canvas always edits the latest working copy.
Share Links
Open the design detail page and click Share to generate a read-only public link to the current version. Anyone with the link can view the design in the public viewer (/studio/share/<token>), no login required.
Useful for:
- Design review with an external agency or customer.
- Embedding a preview in an email or chat.
- Archiving the "current look" at a point in time.
The share link can be regenerated (invalidates the old URL) or revoked (immediately disables access).
Public Designs
A design can be marked public — the current version is then served at the share link without requiring the token (the link is effectively the URL). Used sparingly for landing-page assets.
Branding Pipeline
Designs flow into the portal's render pipeline automatically:
- Logo — sidebar header, email templates, login page.
- Email header — top of every transactional email.
- KB banner — top of the public KB at
kb.kwgroup.uk(or your custom domain). - PDF cover — first page of generated invoices and e-signed documents.
- Support hero — top of the public support portal at
support.kwgroup.uk.
The portal picks up changes on the next render — no restart required. Some surfaces (login page, PDF exports) cache for up to 5 minutes.
Common Workflows
Roll out a new logo
- Edit the logo design.
- Save (auto-creates a version).
- Open the old version, click Restore if you need to roll back.
- The new logo appears in the sidebar within ~5 minutes.
Hand a design to an external agency
- Click Share → Create link.
- Send the URL to the agency.
- The agency views the design at the share link; their browser is read-only.
- They send back a new design idea (or a screenshot); you reproduce it in the editor.
See Also
- Branding & White-labelling — for org-level brand settings (primary colour, support email, custom domains)