Your design system needs a visual 'North Star'
At Soda studio we have extensive experience scaling design systems for global organisations such as Heineken, Geopost, Liberty Global and Maersk.
Our belief is simple: your visual design isn’t an afterthought - it’s integral to the quality of your design system. Embedding brand expression into the system is the only way to create stand-out experiences that scale and truly set you apart from the competition.
Yet too often, design systems are built mainly for structure and efficiency. They deliver consistency, but at the cost of distinctiveness. That’s the challenge we address in this article.
Scale distinctiveness in your system
These days, most large scale organisations have invested in design systems. That’s good: these systems create speed, consistency and a clean handshake between design and engineering. But standardisation can slide into sameness. Teams that consist largely of UX specialists ship UI that feels like everyone else’s. And over time the brand’s distinct character gets ironed out.
Our 'fix' has always been to treat visual design as a first-class citizen of the design system. Keep the efficiency you’ve created, while restoring the distinctiveness, unique brand character and delight that turn platforms into destinations your customers recognise and return to.
Design systems excel at creating a certain hierarchy, structure and reusability. However, when teams lean only on these building blocks, a particular kind of expressive layer (composition, motion, imagery, typography in context) gets left to chance. Interfaces feel standardised and interchangeable - and perhaps even a little dull. In global portfolios this is risky: if your product looks interchangeable, your brand becomes interchangeable.
A design system doesn’t have to stifle creativity. It can scale it - if expression lives inside the system, not outside it.
01
Put someone on the hook for distinctiveness
Give the system a visual design owner alongside UX and engineering, with a mandate to protect and evolve brand expression in product.
02
Extend tokens to cover expression
Not just spacing and type, but motion, colour roles and combinations, elevation, radii and imagery rules - so “how it feels” is as codified as “how it works.”
03
Ship signature templates, not just components
Provide a small set of coded, brand-led templates for moments that matter (onboarding, landing, conversion, recovery) so teams compose confidently without one-offs.
04
Provide a lightweight art-direction playbook
Clear guidance and a curated asset library that enable expression without drift.
05
Create a safe lane for experimentation
A contribution path to trial visual ideas, measure them and promote the winners into the system.
A few common objections
Won’t this fragment the system?
No. Expression lives inside the system through tokens, templates and playbooks - not outside it. That means governance stays central, while teams gain clear, reusable ways to be distinctive without inventing their own rules.
More templates - will this reduce our flexibility?
On the contrary, it increases flexibility. By defining expressive tokens and templates, you give teams safe building blocks to create variation without breaking consistency. Instead of endless one-offs, you get faster experimentation with less risk.
I already have a design system. Do I need to start over?
Not at all. This is an evolution, not a replacement. We build on what you already have - extending your token set, adding expressive templates and enriching governance. The result is more distinctive output, without discarding your existing investment.
Our pragmatic 90-day plan
Can we do this without slowing everything down? Certainly. By targeting the essentials, sticking to the process and proving value quickly.
Weeks 0 - 2 // Audit & alignment
What we do:
Rapid review of current system and key journeys; identify where identity is lost; agree on success metrics.
What we deliver:
Audit deck with before/after opportunities and a metric baseline.
Weeks 2 - 4 // Principles & tokens
What we do:
Write visual principles with concrete concepts and examples; extend the token architecture with expressive layers; align build and process with technology teams.
What we deliver:
Principles and concepts in Figma, token PR.
Weeks 4 - 8 // Templates & playbook
What we do:
Design brand-led templates; publish a concise art-direction playbook and asset kit.
What we deliver:
Templates in Figma, playbook v1.
Weeks 8 - 12 // Pilot & measure
What we do:
Roll out to one market, segment or product and prepare the first “expressive release.”
What we deliver:
Pilot results, training, handover and maintenance documentation.
How we can help
At Soda studio we design and evolve design systems for global organisations such as Heineken, Geopost and Liberty Global.
We operate inside real constraints - multi-market portfolios, complex tech stacks, regulated environments - and align brand, product and engineering so distinctiveness scales with quality.
What can we bring?
An expressive token set in code, brand-led templates ready to ship, a lightweight art-direction and visual design playbook and results within 90 days that show impact on adoption and time-to-ship.
The result:
Platforms that are fast to build, easy to maintain and impossible to mistake for someone else’s.
