VF CORPORATION
CANVAS DESIGN SYSTEM
Overview
I led the development and adoption of Canvas, a scalable multi-brand design system that unified design and engineering across global brands at VF Corporation. The system extended beyond components into full-page templates and user flows, enabling consistent, accessible, and high-quality experiences across desktop and mobile.
Role: Lead Product Designer / UX Researcher
Company: VF Corporation
Timeline: Ongoing / Multi-quarter initiative
IMPACT
Increased checkout conversion rates by 2.8% across Vans, Timberland, and The North Face
Reduced accessibility fines, saving $5.2M annually
Accelerated design and development velocity across teams
Established a scalable foundation for cross-brand experiences and future growth
PROBLEM
VF’s multi-brand ecosystem lacked a unified “house of brands” design system, resulting in fragmented component libraries and inconsistent user flows. This created inefficiencies across teams and limited the ability to scale cohesive experiences across brands.
Key issues:
Duplicated design and engineering efforts
No shared framework for scaling experiences across brands
Accessibility compliance fines across all digital experiences
Difficulty maintaining brand identity within a shared system
CANVAS CHECKOUT TEMPLATE
THE NORTH FACE checkout
INSIGHTS
A unified system needed to balance consistency with the flexibility required to preserve each brand’s identity, enabling modular adoption across diverse experiences.
Shared structure over rigid standardization: Established reusable patterns, templates, and flows that scale across brands without limiting flexibility
Flexible brand expression: Enabled brand-specific styling through tokens, theming, and content variations on a shared foundation
Single source of truth for engineering: Centralized components and guidelines to reduce implementation gaps and improve efficiency
Scaling beyond components: Extended the system to templates and flows to ensure consistency across end-to-end experiences
DESIGN DECISIONS
I led the creation of a multi-brand design system that could scale across brands while remaining flexible and easy to adopt.
System Architecture
Built a modular system using atomic principles (tokens, components, templates)
Extended beyond components into full-page templates and end-to-end user flows
Cross-Brand Flexibility
Standardized structural patterns while enabling brand-level customization
Designed reusable solutions that scale across the full digital experience
Accessibility & Quality
Embedded accessibility standards directly into components and patterns
Ensured consistency across breakpoints and devices
Adoption & Governance
Defined system standards and evolution guidelines
Led workshops, documentation, and cross-functional adoption across teams
CANVAS DOCUMENTATION
The Design System documentation acted as a single source of truth for Canvas, aligning designers, developers, and product teams around shared components, tokens, and guidelines. It improved consistency across brands, reduced rework, and sped up design and development. The documentation also made onboarding easier for new designers and helped engineering teams consistently implement standardized components and tokens, supporting long-term scalability and maintainability.
Tokenized Theming
I built a token-driven system using Figma Variables to enable instant brand switching without redesigning layouts. Semantic tokens (color, type, spacing) were mapped to brand-specific variable sets, allowing a single template to adapt across multiple brands.
In close collaboration with engineers, I aligned these tokens with the codebase by mirroring naming conventions and implementing them as shared design tokens (CSS variables/JSON). This created a direct, scalable connection between design and development.
Result: Designers could switch themes instantly, engineers worked from a single source of truth, and teams shipped faster with fewer inconsistencies.
FINAL EXPERIENCE AT SCALE
Canvas transformed how teams designed and built across brands, shifting from fragmented workflows to a shared, system-driven approach.
Teams moved faster with fewer dependencies and less rework
Designers focused on solving problems instead of rebuilding UI
Engineers implemented new features with greater confidence and consistency
Canvas delivered a scalable foundation that unified experiences across Vans, The North Face, Timberland, Dickies, and Smartwool
CANVAS
TIMBERLAND
VANS
THE NORTH FACE
Presentation
