The atomic foundation of your brand
The atomic foundation of your brand
Why design systems need to be an intergal part of your brand's marketing mix.
Think of your brand like the structure of an atom. Like atoms, your brand voice is essential, as is your visual identity, but a sound design system goes a step further, pulling it all together into higher forms of organizations, like molecules, providing a solid foundation for all facets of your digital brand expression. We've put together this guide to help you understand what design systems are and how to use them to breathe new life and scalability into your brand. Read on if you're ready to learn more about design systems and how they can benefit your business.
Built on the atomic structure
Pioneered by Google's Material Design and coined in Brad Frost's book Atomic Design, a design system is essentially a methodology used to ensure consistent design across different platforms, technologies, and ultimately products. It includes visual and usability guidelines with the overarching goal of delivering a unified user experience that is cohesive, recognizable, maintainable, and accessible. Design systems also aim to improve communication between designers and developers and operational efficiencies, enabling teams to save time for making new products or updating existing ones. They are typically composed of visual assets (or atoms) like colors, typography, iconography, and imagery that can be combined in various ways, such as how navigation works on a website, like molecules. Ultimately, a design system offers a brand's design to be deployed at a larger scale than could ever be achieved by more traditional siloed approaches.
More than a sum of its parts
By combining digital assets, code components, and rule-based designs, systems enable designers, developers, and product managers to create digital experiences faster and more cost-effectively. For example, they allow teams to share key design elements in a centralized library, like colors, typography settings, and layout grids, resulting in a consistency that creates a cohesive brand identity that customers will recognize and trust.
Getting started
Creating your system starts with getting familiar with your company's existing design elements. Ensure you understand any guidelines already in place, as they will influence your decisions. Then assess how these fit in with your brand's products, services, and goals. Consider which elements should remain and where tweaks are needed to build a compelling visual language. Once established, document your findings so that everyone involved has a shared understanding of the new system. Doing this groundwork is the best way to ensure a well-crafted product consistent across multiple platforms.
Maintain and grow
Without continual maintenance and updating, a design system cannot continue to provide value. Regular maintenance means numerous people can use the standards and resources in the system, making authorization decisions quicker. Additionally, maintaining a design system helps teams stay aligned with the most current technology changes or trends — timely updates will ensure the experience remains competitive in the market. Finally, an updated design system guards against fragmentation which often leads to creativity without any limitations or constraints; by scrubbing out redundancy and outdated values, staying up-to-date allows for this delicate balance between creativity and continuity.
Essential for every company
Design systems have revolutionized how companies create and produce digital experiences and are beneficial for companies of all sizes. Having a system in place will save you time and money while ensuring that your brand is consistent across all platforms. While creating a design system from scratch may seem daunting, many helpful resources are available online. And once you have created your system, be sure to maintain and update it regularly.
Further Reading:
Selling Design Systems in Your Org