How to create and manage a design system using components and styles

Design & Visuals

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This guide explains how to plan, build, and maintain a scalable design system by combining a token-driven design language with a reusable component library.

Who is this for?

Design leads, front-end engineers, product teams seeking scalable UI consistency.

Before you start

Familiarity with design principles, basic front-end knowledge, access to design and code repositories.

General Process (How it works)

Identify product areas, audiences, and success metrics for the design system.
Document color, typography, spacing, motion, and accessibility tokens to ensure consistency.
Audit existing UI to list reusable components and patterns.
Establish naming conventions, contribution rules, and deprecation processes.
Create a living style guide with component docs, code samples, and accessibility notes.
Set up pipelines to propagate token and component changes to code and docs.

Jump to tool:

Webflow

Canva

🏆 Recommended for this task

🏆 Recommended

Webflow

Best for: Helps cross-functional teams coordinate content creation and project work. Ideal for teams needing a centralized workspace for writing, media, and design tasks.

Paid Required$14 / month

How to in Webflow

Define Design Tokens: Open the Design Tokens panel. Create tokens for core colors (color-primary, color-background), typography (font-size-base, font-weight-regular), and spacing (space-sm, space-lg). Use a consistent naming convention across colors, typography, and spacing.
Create Theme Tokens: Add tokens for light and dark themes. Define semantic tokens like color-background and color-text for each theme. Group them under theme names (theme-light, theme-dark) and test in both modes.
Establish Style Selectors: In the Styles area, create global classes (e.g., btn-primary, card-content) and set default tag styles for common elements (h1, p, a). Ensure selectors reference tokens for colors and spacing.
Build Reusable Components: Create components such as Nav, Hero, Card, Button, and Footer. For each, set default properties and connect to tokens and selectors so updates propagate automatically.
Define Component Properties: For each component, add properties (props) like variant, size, and alignment. Document how changing a property affects multiple instances.
Assemble Page Templates: Combine components and tokens into reusable page templates (e.g., Home, Blog, Contact). Ensure templates rely on tokens so site-wide changes propagate.
Set Up Shared Libraries: Publish components, tokens, and templates to the Shared Library. Add this library to all sites in the Workspace for quick access.
Document Naming Conventions: Name patterns: Classes (btn-primary, card-content), Variables (color-primary, spacing-lg), Components (Nav-Topbar, Hero-Default). Use this everywhere.
Implement Theming and Responsiveness: Link tokens to breakpoints and responsive styles. Define how tokens adjust at tablet and mobile sizes; test across screen sizes.
Publish a Style Guide: Create a dedicated style guide page or design-system site. Explain tokens, selectors, components, patterns, and usage guidelines.
Governance and Ownership: Assign owners for tokens and components. Establish review cadences and a change-log to track updates.
Ongoing Maintenance and Audits: Schedule regular audits to ensure consistency. Reconcile drift by updating tokens, selectors, and components across templates.

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Alternatives

Canva

Best for: Designers, marketers, and teams who need an integrated platform for creating visuals, videos, and brand assets.

Free Plan Available$120 / year

How to in Canva

Define Tokens: Identify and record your color palette, typography, spacing scale, and iconography to anchor all designs.
Create Brand Kit Entries: Open Brand Kit from the left sidebar; add your primary/secondary colors, brand fonts, and logos.
Add Brand Colors: In Brand Kit, add and name colors (e.g., Primary, Secondary, Neutral).
Set Brand Fonts: In Brand Kit, assign a Heading font and a Body font; ensure consistent usage.
Create Global Styles: Open Styles and establish a style set that binds your color palette and typography.
Build Reusable Templates: Create master templates for common components (buttons, cards, headers) and save as Brand Templates.
Assemble a Library: Organize templates and assets into a Design System Library or Brand Templates collection for easy reuse.
Establish Grid & Spacing: Use grids and the Align/Distribute tools to enforce consistent spacing across designs.
Document Guidelines: Create a Design System Guide (Canva page or external doc) detailing tokens and usage rules.
Set Governance: Invite teammates; configure permissions; enable Brand Controls to enforce rules.
Publish and Share: Distribute the system via Brand Templates; train users on applying tokens and components.
Maintain and Iterate: Schedule quarterly reviews; update tokens and templates as needs evolve.
Test Across Designs: Apply the system to representative projects to verify consistency.
Audit & Feedback: Collect feedback and refine components and tokens accordingly.

Tool details

Quick Comparison

Tool	Free Plan?	Min Price
Webflow	No	$14 / month
Canva	Yes	$120 / year

Which tool should you choose?

Webflow

Webflow provides a visual design system with Tokens, Components, and Shared Libraries, enabling fast, consistent updates across sites. It supports live updates, reusable symbols, and theme management, making it ideal for building scalable design systems that multiple teams can adopt without reinventing layouts.

Canva

Canva provides Brand Kit, Styles, and Brand Templates to build a scalable design system. Its visual tokens, templates, and collaborative workflow enable rapid governance and consistent output across teams, making it an ideal choice for a Canva-based design system.