Within the company I work we mostly relied on our visual identity guidelines to design for print, video or animation. Those guidelines were written very high-level to provide some freedom for each designer. That turned out to give more questions than answers.
The guidelines were written clear enough but left a lot of room for interpretation. Most questions I received concerned the usage of photos, transitions, animation within video but also the simple use of color.
After some short research we found out people were looking for specific assets instead. Assets they could use immediately and implement in their own tooling. Those assets were already partially available but where to get them was unclear and kind of a hassle.
Therefor I decided to combine all of them in one tool, in which we choose Adobe XD for the time being as it looks like the most versatile tool that can export (and copy/paste) in between Adobe’s suite (which our designers use most).
Although the tool itself only contains a collection of assets, it does give a clear design direction for our company when combined with our original (and also updated) visual guidelines. A direction that gives freedom to compile new designs for each user but also restricts just enough to keep our brand identity consistent and recognizable.
Both guidelines and asset library form Vanderlande’s design system. And although it’s only in its infant weeks it will be evolving next year when it gets connected to other available systems being created in other departments and company offices.