— Alla Kholmatova, FutureLearn / Source (Blog)

Consider the context of every brand

Vox Media created a design system for 8 brands with 350+ websites. For this multi brand approach, they’ve had the hypothesis that they just need a set of flexible, brand-agnostic modules with a theming system. But: The designed sites felt too similar and they not reflect critical differences in content, tone and audience. They’ve learned:

• Modules need a clear purpose.
• You can’t start with individual components in isolation.
• Successful design patterns don’t exist in a vacuum.
• Successful design systems start with content and people.

Principles

Patterns

Don’t use fixed text sizes for the different brands. Use a type scale which can be adjusted individually.

Typography

— Yesenia Perez-Cruz, Vox Media / Source (YouTube)

Use color variables to map each element to a color.

Colors

— Yesenia Perez-Cruz, Vox Media / Source (YouTube)

Nest your sketch libraries

Read in the Sketch article how you can nest your sketch libraries for a multibrand appoach.

Resources

How others do it