Design System & Figma Variable Set Up - Full Tutorial
If you’re building an enterprise‑grade design system or trying to keep a fast-growing product consistent, this video walks through a complete Figma Variables setup—collections, modes, naming, tokens, and the workflows that keep teams sane at scale.
What you’ll learn:
➡️ How to structure color, type, spacing, and mapped tokens with Figma Variables
➡️ Mapping variables to components, themes, and states without chaos
➡️ Governance tips for large teams
➡️ Accessibility + compliance considerations (WCAG, dark mode, contrast)
➡️ Real-world pitfalls I see inside banks, fintech, and SaaS orgs and how to avoid them
🔗 Links!!
📣 Purchase our academy: https://uicollective.co/academy
↪️ Need a design system? (also included in the academy): https://collectivekit.co/
📣 Work with me: https://kirkmcneill.co/
Dive deeper into Jumper & Spacing Variables: • Create RESPONSIVE Figma Designs!
Multi-brand design system deep dive: • Multi-Brand Design System Setup | Official...
📕 Chapters
0:00 An Introduction
2:08 Approaches to Figma Variable & Design Token Architecture
4:10 Brand Collection
8:31 Building Color Scales
22:10 Edge Cases
24:08 Font Variables
29:34 Scale Introduction
31:45 Building a Scale
41:03 Alias Collection
41:38 Why use an Alias Collection?
42:29 What else goes into an Alias Collection
43:33 Building an Alias Collection
49:27 Border Width Variables
51:37 Border Radius Variables
53:16 Font Variables inside Alias Collections
54:30 Adding Another Brand
56:44 Mapped Collection Introduction
57:14 Text Variables
1:02:33 Status Text Variables
1:08:33 Icon Variables
1:11:30 Surface Variables
1:15:48 Subtle Variables Introduction
1:17:28 Surface Status Variables
1:19:09 General Surface Variables
1:20:57 Border Variables
1:26:36 General Border Variables
1:27:38 Creating Dark Mode Variables
1:32:52 Multi-Brand Approaches to Design Tokens
1:36:56 Responsive Collection Introduction
1:38:59 Setting Up Responsive Collection
1:43:45 Building a Type Scale for Desktop
1:46:03 Adding Type Scale to Responsive Collection
1:49:05 Line Height & Paragraph Spacing Variables
1:54:34 Mobile Type Scale Build
1:58:02 Identifying Spacing Variables
2:00:10 Jumper & Spacing Variable Build
2:03:21 Outro
#DesignSystem #FigmaVariables #UXDesign #ProductDesign #DesignOps
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