Multi-Brand Design System
ROle
With seven brands migrating to Shopify under an ambitious 10-month timeline, we needed a design system that could flex to unique brand voices while delivering consistent, accessible, and efficient experiences. I led the strategy and execution of a modular, multi-brand design system that enabled speed at scale—without compromising craft.
Kait O'Malley | Senior UX Designer
Martina Sivieri | UX Researcher
TEAM
Senior UX Manager,
VF Corporation
Objective
Insights
→ Reduced design/development inconsistencies by 75% through a shared component library.
→ Delivered full system rollout (including templates) in under 6 weeks per brand—across 7 distinct brand identities.
→ Improved onboarding and collaboration with brand-specific kits, while laying a foundation for global scalability.
How do you scale design across seven distinct brands—on a six-week timeline per brand—without sacrificing quality, speed, or identity?
At VF Corporation, I led the creation of a flexible, modular design system to support a company-wide Shopify migration. With an ambitious rollout schedule and a lean core team, I mobilized support across the organization—strategically borrowing designers from other squads and aligning them to our mission. It became a masterclass in communication, partnership, and creative problem-solving. The goal: deliver a fully themed system and five critical page designs for each brand in under six weeks. The result: a scalable, consistent, and brand-respecting experience that teams could build on with confidence.
THE CHALLENGE
Each brand had its own tone, visuals, and UX needs. But recreating components from scratch was unsustainable. We needed a system that could scale without duplicating effort or compromising quality.
The kicker? We had less than 6 weeks per brand to deliver both a fully themed design system and at least five core page templates—all while onboarding new teams, aligning with global stakeholders, and supporting live development.
The challenge was building a system that could:
• Scale across teams and platforms
• Adapt to brand-specific requirements
• Support rapid product delivery
• Reduce rework and dev bottlenecks
• Deliver polished UX on an extremely compressed timeline
Design System Infrastructure
We developed a shared Figma library with brand-specific kits and documentation, empowering teams to stay aligned while owning their voice.
CROSS-FUNCTIONAL ALIGNMENT
I partnered with brand stakeholders and engineering leaders to align on goals, timelines, and governance. We prioritized a phased rollout so teams could ship quickly and iterate thoughtfully.
AtomIC SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
We used atomic design principles to create reusable building blocks—from brand-agnostic atoms to fully branded organisms.
Atoms: Core styles like typography, grids, and color tokens
Molecules: Filter controls, swatches, buttons, and more
Organisms: Full UX modules like filter panels and product tiles
WHY IT MATTERED
This wasn’t just a design system—it was a transformation of how teams worked. We proved that you can deliver both brand individuality and enterprise efficiency when you start with systems thinking and bring everyone along for the journey.
