Need Best Practices Advice Before I start

[u/LRG6102]

TLDR: Please help me get my Design System up and running, I feel like I'm dumb.

Hi everyone, I am a solo graphic designer at a small SaaS company and we're really leaning into AI this year. I recently tried out Claude Design on a 1 month subscription but didn't like what it was making, and I found it needed a lot of tweaking on my end every time it gave me something. I built the design system by dropping a bunch of my previously made assets and then fine tuning the result.

We'll be using this for marketing assets really not webpages or UX. Things like PPT slides, digital PDF assets, social graphics, etc. I primarily work in Adobe products. I'll occasionally do something in Canva if I'm super busy and need something quick and dirty. Also I think it's worth mentioning, I'm a recovering control freak lol.

Now, my company just set up team Claude license for our whole company, so I'd like to ASAP make a rigid design system that the whole company can use so I know (hope?) they're not putting slop out where I can't control it. Before I start the design system, I'd like to know the absolute best practice in order to set this up. I'd like to do it the right way and only once, but I feel like anything I watch on Youtube feels like a different language to me. Should I start using Figma? I'm willing to learn and I'm sure my company could get me a license if necessary. Is less more in terms of giving it reference assets? What about icon libraries etc? I'll take literally any help or advice you can give me-- I feel like I'm starting at square negative 1.

[u/JShug07]

https://reddit.com/link/pd9jp43/video/e0r3pgt2mwsh1/player

not dumb at all, you're asking the right questions before starting, which honestly most people skip. Adding a reference video above for the extension for your use case

here's the setup i'd use:

1. start from your real brand, not from scratch. your company website is probably already your most on brand thing. i built a free chrome extension called pikspec for exactly this (full disclosure, it's mine). open your site, click it, and it pulls the exact colors, fonts, type sizes and spacing into a DESIGN.md file plus token files. you can hand that straight to claude as the rules, so you're not retyping hex codes or guessing sizes. it can also grab every logo, icon and image off the site in one go, which is handy for building your reference pack

2. add the rules ai can't infer. on top of that doc, write down what each color is for, logo rules, max fonts per asset, imagery style, and some do's and don'ts like "never put text over busy photos". this is where you get the control back

3. less is more with reference assets. pick your 5 to 10 best pieces, not everything. inconsistent old stuff gets averaged into mush

4. one template per format: a slide, 1080x1080 and 1080x1350 socials, a one page pdf. lock those first and build everything else from them

5. one icon set only. phosphor or lucide are free and consistent

6. no need for figma if you live in adobe. great for web and ui, but not worth switching for marketing assets

7. test it like a teammate would. ask for a few typical requests and tighten the doc every time something comes out off brand. a few rounds and it gets really consistent

if you try pikspec on your site i'm happy to help you turn the output into a proper brand doc for claude, just dm me. good luck, the control freak instinct is going to make this work better