Design Systems - 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: https://youtu.be/ZI1UsJhmZzw Multi-brand design system deep dive: https://youtu.be/A8cmvTt4bWM 📕 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