A great design system balances rigor (consistency, standards) with flexibility (creativity, evolution). It’s not just a visual toolkit—it’s a shared language between everyone building the brand.
Developing a robust design system is critical for any growing enterprise aiming to maintain brand consistency. Besides streamlining workflows and governing standards, it is the only way to efficiently unify a design language. A design system can reside within design tools like Figma or XD, but it doesn’t have to. Maintaining a design system independently from specific interface tools promotes broader team adoption. Digital Assets Management (DAM) systems can house all digital libraries and help with tagging, organization and even AI-driven sorting. Even better, dedicated design microsites can serve a a single source for your entire design language system. At ArtVersion, we often recommend a centralized location from which elements can gradually be integrated into various tools. Teams across marketing, sales, and business development frequently need access for tasks like creating pitch decks and proposals, and limiting access exclusively to design tools can hinder widespread adoption.
When working on products with both physical properties and digital interfaces simultaneously, cohesive design significantly enhances ergonomics, uniformity and usability by guiding on user familiarity. Centralization for tools CAD software tools and UI/UX design software is necessary. For example, when we collaborated on Caterpillar’s UI design, we closely collaborated with their industrial design team responsible for the overall look and feel of their machines. It was crucial for us to create an interface that seamlessly carried forward their physical design ethos and brand dress code into the digital environment. Not only visually but functionally-wise as well.
As companies grow and scale their digital products, complexities inevitably arise, potentially diluting visual consistency and weakening the effectiveness of user interfaces. A design system is not a static entity but rather a living, evolving resource that should be updated as new elements and design treatments emerge. It acts as a bridge between various departments, ensuring unified communication and collaboration.
At ArtVersion, we frequently work with both Figma and Adobe XD when building client design systems, while also specializing in decoupled deployments that remain independent of any specific software platform.
Design Systems Software
Smaller design systems typically live within tools like Figma or Adobe XD, where components, styles, and patterns are created and reused across screens. These systems often serve a single product or a tight-knit team, making the design tool itself the central hub for consistency. While convenient, this setup can become limiting as teams grow or projects scale—especially when documentation, developer integration, and cross-platform consistency are required. For a design system to mature, it eventually needs to expand beyond the design tool and evolve into a shared, organization-wide framework.
Figma Design System
Figma:
A design system within Figma is a centralized collection of reusable components, styles, and guidelines that help teams build consistent user interfaces efficiently. In Figma, a design system is typically created and managed through the following elements:
1. Components
Reusable UI elements like buttons, form fields, navigation bars, etc., that can be used across files and projects. When you update the main component, all its instances update automatically.
2. Styles
Shared design properties including:
Colors (primary, secondary, background, etc.) Text styles (headings, body text, captions) Effects (shadows, blurs) Grids and spacing systems
These allow for consistency and easy updates.
3. Variables
Figma now allows for variables such as spacing units, font sizes, and color modes (light/dark). This adds flexibility and helps scale the system across themes and layouts.
4. Design Tokens
Structured data values (often managed through variables) that represent the visual language of a brand or product (e.g., primary-color, base-radius, etc.)
5. Documentation
A design system in Figma often includes pages or frames that document usage guidelines, naming conventions, accessibility standards, and UX best practices.
6. Libraries
Design systems can be published as team libraries in Figma. These libraries can be shared across teams and projects to maintain consistency and scalability.
7. Prototyping + Interactions
Figma allows interactive components (like hover, click states), which can be part of the design system to simulate real behavior during prototyping.
Why it matters: A Figma-based design system ensures alignment between design and development, speeds up workflow, reduces redundancy, and maintains visual and functional consistency across digital products.
Adobe XD Design System
Adobe XD:
In XD, a design system serves a similar purpose as in Figma—ensuring consistency, efficiency, and scalability across design work—but the structure and tools differ slightly. Here’s how a design system works within Adobe XD:
1. Components (Previously Symbols)
Reusable UI elements (e.g., buttons, cards, modals). Once a component is created, changes to the main version (master) update all instances across your designs.
Components can include different states (hover, active, disabled), useful for prototyping interactive behavior.
2. Assets Panel
This panel acts as your design system hub and includes:
Colors: Saved color swatches for branding or themes. Character Styles: Predefined text styles (fonts, sizes, weights). Components: Reusable elements stored here for easy drag-and-drop use.
These are not yet tokenized like in Figma, but still provide centralized control.
3. Linked Assets / Cloud Libraries
You can share your design system across projects and teams using Adobe Creative Cloud Libraries.
When a design system is saved to a cloud library, other designers can access and use components, colors, and styles—ensuring alignment.
4. States for Components
XD lets you define multiple states (e.g., hover, pressed, disabled) within a single component. This is especially useful for prototyping button behaviors or toggles.
5. Plugins and Extensions
While XD lacks native support for variables or design tokens, plugins like Design Tokens, Stark, or Rename It help bridge the gap for documentation, accessibility checks, and better organization.
6. Prototyping + Interactions
Adobe XD integrates prototyping features directly with components, so interactions can be embedded in the system. For example, a button component might already include hover and tap transitions.
7. Documentation
Unlike Figma, XD doesn’t have built-in support for rich documentation inside design files. Many teams create separate artboards or PDF guides for system documentation, or use external tools like Zeroheight.
Summary: A design system in Adobe XD relies heavily on the Assets panel, components with states, and linked libraries. While not as feature-rich or open-ended as Figma in terms of tokens or variables, XD still supports a solid system for maintaining design consistency—especially when used in combination with Creative Cloud and plugins.
Design Systems Beyond the Figma and XD
While tools like Figma and Adobe XD are essential for managing and implementing design systems, the real value of a system lies beyond the software. A true design system development requires planing. It not just a set of files or components—it’s a strategic framework that brings consistency, clarity, and efficiency to the entire brand IP and development process. It’s a living documentation of a brand’s visual language, behavioral patterns, and accessibility standards. To be effective, a design system must be thoughtfully planned, collaboratively maintained, and built to scale across teams and platforms.
Here are the core best practices for building and sustaining a design system at the organizational level.
1. Start with a Strong Foundation
Define Purpose & Principles: Why does your design system exist? What values drive your product’s user experience?
Establish a Naming Convention: Consistent, intuitive naming for all styles, components, and tokens helps collaboration and handoff.
2. Build for Reusability and Modularity
Atomic Design: Start with small, reusable elements (buttons, inputs) and scale into larger components (cards, forms, modals).
Component Hierarchy: Organize components in a logical structure—base components, compound components, templates.
3. Document Everything
Usage Guidelines: Explain when and how to use components, layouts, and styles. Include do’s and don’ts.
Accessibility Standards: Include contrast ratios, focus states, keyboard nav, and ARIA guidelines.
Design Tokens: Document variables for color, spacing, typography, etc., across platforms.
4. Ensure Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration
Design + Development: Align visual components with code. Developers should help define coded counterparts of design elements.
Product Involvement: Bring product managers and UX writers into the process early for alignment.
5. Create a Governance Model
Centralized vs. Decentralized: Decide whether a core team controls updates or if contributions come from multiple teams.
Versioning: Track changes and updates with version control to prevent breakages and keep teams aligned.
Contribution Model: Let others propose changes with a structured review and acceptance process.
6. Design for Scalability and Theming
Support Multiple Brands or Products: Allow for customization via theming or brand layers.
Responsive Rules: Include guidance for mobile, tablet, and desktop views.
7. Treat It as a Product
Ongoing Maintenance: Regular audits, feedback loops, and roadmap updates.
Community Engagement: Host internal training, documentation updates, and encourage feedback.
8. Use Real Content and Context
Avoid lorem ipsum or gray boxes. Test with actual content to validate hierarchy, readability, and emotion.
9. Keep It Lightweight at First
Start small and expand. Trying to build a full design system overnight can lead to complexity and abandonment. The best time to start organizing it as a sub-task of web redesign as through contextual exercises a lot of elements will re-surface.
10. Measure and Evolve
Track Adoption: Monitor usage in real-world projects.
Get Feedback: Create channels for designers and developers to request changes or raise issues.
Improve Continuously: Refactor based on new needs, user data, or tech shifts.
Establishing Foundations and Standardization
Addressing this challenge proactively is key to maintaining an optimal user experience and visual integrity. The first step toward creating a scalable design system is establishing clearly defined design principles and objectives. These foundational guidelines act as a compass, ensuring alignment across teams, products, and platforms. Principles such as clarity, simplicity, accessibility, and adaptability provide a baseline that helps design decisions remain cohesive and purposeful.
Next, conducting a thorough audit of current digital assets is essential. This inventory will highlight existing inconsistencies, reveal redundancies, and identify opportunities for standardization. By understanding where the gaps and overlaps exist, the company can strategically plan the introduction of unified elements that enhance coherence across digital experiences.
When launching a new product for TransUnion, our team worked with their established systems and identified opportunities to extend their existing design language specifically tailored for a new market segment. All new design elements we developed for this product launch were then uploaded to their digital asset management library at their DAM, ensuring accessibility across departments.
A critical component in a scalable system is the definition of standardized design attributes, often known as design tokens. These tokens serve as universal constants—such as colors, spacing, typography, and visual effects—that ensure consistency across different interfaces and digital products. Centralizing these attributes allows updates and refinements to propagate efficiently across all digital touchpoints, significantly streamlining ongoing maintenance.
Last month we briefly collaborated with the Workday team and learned they spent years developing and organizing their design system known as Canvas. Canvas is an impressive governing library of extensive elements distributed widely for use among their customers as an open-source library. This structure enables micro-personalization and adjustments to align with adopting brands. For example, icons are designed to accommodate various color palettes without compromising their meaning. Enterprises that want to utilize their primary brand color can effortlessly change all icon elements accordingly, whether they prefer red, blue, green, or another hue. Widely adopted within enterprise management solutions, this system highlights the importance of meticulous planning and adaptability. When building your company’s design language, consider the potential for it to be adopted by your customers, partners, resellers, or distributors. Designing with this foresight ensures your design language supports versatile and extensive usage.
Governance, Collaboration, and Iteration
Developing modular components is also essential. Components are reusable UI elements built from foundational design attributes, ranging from simple buttons and input fields to complex navigation bars and product displays. Modularizing these elements facilitates quicker design and development workflows, reduces redundancy, and ensures a coherent experience for users navigating different parts of the digital ecosystem.
Comprehensive documentation supports scalability and consistency. Detailed documentation ensures all team members, regardless of their roles, understand the intended usage and guidelines of each component. Well-maintained documentation clarifies design decisions, standardizes processes, and aids onboarding new team members, thus accelerating workflows and reducing confusion.
Establishing clear governance and collaborative oversight further enhances the efficacy of a design system. Regular engagement from cross-functional teams—including designers, developers, product managers, and business leaders—is crucial. Scheduled governance meetings and proactive feedback mechanisms help maintain the design system’s relevance, foster shared ownership, and support continuous improvement.
When we built the Internet Hall of Fame website for the Internet Society, we collaborated extensively with their internal designers and developers. This project was notable for having one of the most organized digital libraries I have personally encountered. Integrating new design elements and expanding their design language specifically for this site was straightforward and highly efficient.
Training and adoption strategies are equally important. Effective onboarding training ensures team members fully comprehend and consistently apply the system’s elements. By fostering internal advocacy and highlighting positive outcomes, teams become motivated to adhere to and champion the established design guidelines.
Finally, an iterative approach by versioning is vital. Versions, offer simple ongoing measurement of adoption and effectiveness, and room for documenting user feedback loops that can provide essential insights into the system’s impact and areas needing improvement. Continuous refinement based on actual user interactions and team experiences helps keep the design system robust, relevant, and resilient as the organizations continues to evolve.
Getting Started: Building Your Design System from the Ground Up
If your organization doesn’t yet have a design system in place, it’s crucial to start somewhere—even if initially within a design tool like Figma. However, ultimately aiming for a decentralized system accessible to multiple departments is highly beneficial. Begin with a thorough analysis and audit of your existing designs, covering everything from forms and typefaces to buttons, icons, and design patterns. Collect, organize, tag, and store these assets on a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system for easy and centralized access.
Here is a step-by-step approach:
1. Audit existing design assets comprehensively.
Begin by collecting all existing digital and physical design elements your organization currently uses. This ensures that no essential assets are overlooked and provides a clear starting point.
2. Categorize and tag all collected elements clearly.
Systematically organize assets into meaningful categories, such as buttons, forms, icons, and typography. Clear tagging helps streamline future retrieval and use.
3. Store assets centrally on a DAM for easy access by various departments.
Utilize a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system to centralize storage, ensuring easy access for all teams, including marketing, sales, and development.
4. Establish a feedback loop with teams actively using the designs.
Regularly gather feedback from departments that actively use the assets. This practical input is invaluable for identifying design strengths and areas needing improvement.
5. Regularly collaborate across departments to gather insights and identify pain points or inefficiencies.
Maintain consistent communication across all relevant teams. Regular collaboration meetings and check-ins will highlight issues early, allowing for proactive adjustments.
6. Continuously refine and expand your design system based on real-world usage and departmental feedback.
Leverage gathered feedback and insights to make ongoing refinements, ensuring your design system evolves effectively alongside your organization’s needs.
Technicalities
When managing technical aspects of design assets, consider the following points:
Illustrations: Ensure illustrations are saved in universal vector formats like SVG for digital accessibility. EPS or AI files may not provide the necessary digital versatility.
Raster Images: Provide multiple file formats and sizes for raster images, such as patterns or backgrounds, to accommodate various digital requirements.
Animations: For assets that can be translated into code, such as motion SVGs, document both the HTML implementation and include a downloadable flat file.
Color Standards: Offer standardized color references in multiple formats—RGB, CMYK, Hex values, and Pantone—to cover all potential use cases.
Typography: Provide font files in multiple formats, including OTF, along with detailed explanations of when to use specific font families and styles.
Patterns, Margins, and White Space: Clearly document usage guidelines to ensure consistency across digital products.
Video and Motion Graphics: Develop detailed style guides and properly tag these assets for easy searchability and clarity in usage.
Icon Sets: Ensure icon sets are comprehensive and complete, covering a broad spectrum of use cases and requirements.
Implementing these strategies will create a scalable, consistent design system, that will constitute your brand design language. Organization, accuracy and standardization will enable your team to maintain high-quality user experiences even as their digital presence expands.
Legalities
An often-overlooked aspect is the legal origin and licensing of design elements. Organizations must own their design language. Licensed icon sets or stock illustrations typically restrict widespread distribution beyond product that is downloaded for. Document the origin and licensing conditions of each asset clearly, if it’s royalty-free or royalty-managed. If created internally, record this information along with the creation date. If developed externally, confirm and document that there are no restrictive licensing constraints.
Decentralized Governance for a Design System
As you can see design language systems are complexed and if they are living in one library or in the single software can be very limiting for implementations beyond that system. Platform-agnostic approach and decentralization will provide much more flexible setup for a long run.
Decentralized governance for a design system is not only possible—it’s increasingly practical and even ideal for many growing enterprises. Here’s how and why it works:
Why Decentralized Governance Works
- Scalability: As organizations expand, a single team may not have the bandwidth to manage evolving needs across products, regions, and departments.
- Specialization: Different teams often have unique needs and insights. Letting those closest to the use cases contribute ensures relevance.
- Faster Iteration: Local teams can iterate and adapt components faster without waiting for approval from a central authority.
- Ownership and Adoption: Teams are more likely to adopt and respect a system they helped shape.
How to Structure Decentralized Governance
- Establish a Core Team: This group defines overarching principles, maintains global assets, and ensures brand consistency. This can be internal team or your design agency with at least one member of your team.
- Create Local Custodians: Departmental or regional representatives manage their area’s design needs and propose updates or additions.
- Use Contribution Protocols: Similar to open-source models—anyone can suggest a change, but it must be reviewed and approved by a system maintainer.
- Shared Source of Truth: Maintain a centralized, accessible documentation hub (DAM, internal wiki, or web portal) that updates in real time.
- Regular Syncs and Reviews: Schedule periodic meetings to align teams, review new patterns, and sunset outdated assets.
- Feedback Loops: Encourage structured feedback from users across the organization and incorporate learnings.
When reorganizing design systems or when creating a new one make sure that its location or backend platform will help you avoid and prevent design drift by upholding core standards and requiring documentation for all deviations. Organized system that allows you to use tagging and asset management tools to identify existing patterns before creating new ones, this will prevent duplication or variants that are already established. Centralize the final publishing layer to ensure all additions meet accessibility, performance, and branding standards. Always think about accessibility and alt text, it’s important not only for people with disabilities but also those with impermanent. Meta will help with machine learning and for AI systems to read data and organize elements.
Conclusion
In short, all of this will empowers collaboration, encourages innovation, enabling design systems to scale naturally with your organization—as long as it’s supported by a strong core framework and culture of documentation and accountability. If your team needs help with any of it, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. ArtVersion has been advocating for, building, and refining scalable design systems for over two decades—bridging teams, elevating experiences, and ensuring that every design decision serves a unified brand purpose.
ArtVersion is often the first call for Fortune 500 companies and large enterprises when they need to tackle complex design system challenges. Why? Because we've been solving these problems since before "design systems" even had a name. Over our 26 years, we've helped global brands untangle legacy design debt, unify fragmented visual languages across acquisitions, and build systems that scale across hundreds of products and thousands of users. When a major healthcare conglomerate needed to harmonize design languages across 47 acquired companies, or when a Fortune 100 manufacturer required a unified interface system for industrial equipment spanning three continents, they turned to us. We help architect the governance structures, collaboration workflows, and technical frameworks that make them sustainable at enterprise scale. Our team has seen firsthand how a well-executed design system can save millions in development costs while dramatically improving brand consistency and user experience across massive organizations.