Design Tokens in Multi-Brand Systems

In today’s fast-evolving digital landscape, organizations often manage multiple brands under a single umbrella. Whether it’s a suite of product lines, corporate rebrands, or white-label solutions, maintaining design consistency across different brand identities presents complex challenges. Design tokens provide a scalable solution to these challenges by serving as the atomic design elements that bridge the gap between design and development. When implemented correctly, design tokens ensure visual consistency, streamline collaboration, and accelerate the product development process in multi-brand ecosystems.

What Are Design Tokens?

Design tokens are the smallest unit of a design system—machine-readable values that define properties like color, typography, spacing, animations, and more. Stored in a platform-agnostic format like JSON, these tokens become a single source of truth for UI styling, enabling their use across web, mobile, and other platforms without duplicating definitions or styles.

For example, rather than specifying a color in CSS as:

.button {
  background-color: #0055ff;
}

A design token approach might define the same property like this:

{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "primary": "#0055ff"
    }
  }
}

This value is then interpreted and transformed into code formats suitable for CSS, Android, iOS, and other platforms.

The Role of Design Tokens in Multi-Brand Systems

When managing multiple brands, each with distinct characteristics such as color palettes, typography, and spacing conventions, it becomes critical to define a system that can adapt dynamically. Design tokens allow this flexibility while ensuring a unified backend.

Design tokens can be organized hierarchically into distinct layers:

• Core Tokens: These define universal values such as default spacing units or base typography used across all brands.
• Brand Tokens: These override core tokens with values specific to a brand’s visual identity – for example, unique brand colors or custom font families.
• Component Tokens: These apply tokens to actual UI components (like buttons or cards) and can be overridden at the brand level.

By separating the token layers, teams can build scalable multi-brand systems that are both flexible and consistent.

Key Benefits of Using Design Tokens for Multi-Brand Systems

• Scalability: Tokens provide a modular structure, making it easier to add or modify brand styles without affecting the base system.
• Consistency: Centralizing design values ensures uniformity across brands and platforms.
• Efficiency: Development is streamlined by enabling easier updates and fewer redundant styling declarations.
• Cross-Platform Compatibility: Design tokens can be transformed for use in different frontend technologies and native platforms.

Managing Themes with Token Sets

One of the most effective strategies to manage multi-brand design systems is by using token sets. Instead of storing all tokens in one place, values are grouped into sets aligned with core and brand-specific needs.

For example:

• Set 1: Core (typography, spacing, semantic colors)
• Set 2: Brand A (primary, secondary colors, brand font)
• Set 3: Brand B (distinct colors, bold typography)

Depending on the application or website being built, the correct token sets are merged and compiled into platform-compatible files for deployment. This approach enables:

• Dynamic brand switching
• Feature-flagged design updates
• Streamlined A/B testing

Tools Supporting Design Tokens

Modern tooling now facilitates easier creation and maintenance of design tokens across brands. Some popular tools include:

• Style Dictionary: An open-source framework for transforming and formatting design tokens across different platforms.
• Figma Tokens: A plugin that syncs Figma designs with defined token values.
• Specify: Allows teams to automatically sync token changes from design tools to codebases.

These tools help integrate design systems into Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, ensuring that visual changes propagate across all surfaces at scale.

Challenges and Considerations

While design tokens offer numerous benefits, they also come with challenges that must be addressed during implementation:

• Governance: Without proper management and versioning, token sprawl can reduce the benefits of modular systems.
• Tooling Gaps: Not all platforms or teams are equipped to handle design tokens natively, which may cause synchronization issues.
• Onboarding: Developers and designers must be educated on how to use tokens effectively to prevent misuse or duplication.

Establishing a strong governance model and documentation processes is key to maintaining quality across multi-brand environments.

Future of Design Tokens

The future of multi-brand design systems is being shaped by standardization efforts such as Design Tokens Community Group (DTCG), which aims to define a common standard for token syntax and transformation. This will increase interoperability across tools and systems, making cross-brand theming more accessible and robust.

As design and development processes become more integrated, design tokens will play a central role in bridging the gap between brand creativity and technical execution.

Conclusion

Design tokens represent a modern, efficient way to manage styles across multiple brands, enabling both creativity and consistency. By abstracting brand values into reusable tokens, organizations can scale their design systems across platforms and products with ease.

For organizations managing a portfolio of brands, investing in a token-based design infrastructure is no longer optional—it’s a strategic imperative to deliver consistent, high-quality digital experiences.

FAQs

What is a design token?

A design token is a machine-readable value that defines common design properties like color, typography, spacing, and more, ensuring consistency and scalability across digital platforms.

How do tokens help in multi-brand systems?

Design tokens allow different brands to have distinct visual styles while using a common foundation, improving efficiency and maintaining consistency.

Are design tokens only useful for large organizations?

No, even small teams can benefit from design tokens by improving collaboration between design and development and preparing their systems for future scaling.

Can design tokens be used across multiple platforms?

Yes. Tokens are designed to be platform-agnostic and can be converted for use in web, iOS, Android, and other platforms with appropriate tooling.

What tools can I use to manage design tokens?

Popular tools include Style Dictionary, Figma Tokens plugin, and Specify, all of which help integrate tokens into the design and development workflow.