1. Do you like staring at a blank canvas every time you start a project in Figma?
I’m guessing you’re not a big fan, but it’s a practice that you’ve possibly followed on occasion?
Wouldn’t it be better if you could kick-start your design projects faster?
Cue the intro music!
I’m guessing you’re not a big fan, but it’s a practice that you’ve possibly followed on occasion?
Wouldn’t it be better if you could kick-start your design projects faster?
Cue the intro music!
2. I like to think of a Design Starter Kit as a Component Library and Style Guide all rolled into one. Something which enables you to have core UI elements pre-built, allowing your creativity room to breathe, and enabling you to focus on the nuances of a design project.
3. Let me show you how I put together my own Starter Kit and in the process help you better understand what goes into creating a versatile and powerful Kit that you can call upon time, and time again.
4. When you start creating your own Starter Kit inside of Figma, you want to start with your Colour Palette first, and when doing so, aim to keep your Base Colours to a minimum where possible (ie; the usual suspects – Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary).... 
5. ...Of course, it makes sense for the purposes of flexibility, and variety to then expand on those Base Colours by offering varying degrees of Tints (Lighter variants), and Shades (Darker variants).
6. Give yourself plenty of Typography options to cover both Desktop and Mobile usage.
When building out your own Kit I recommend, if possible, to try and stick to a 2 Font Family rule if possible otherwise your Text Style panel can become a little too bloated...
When building out your own Kit I recommend, if possible, to try and stick to a 2 Font Family rule if possible otherwise your Text Style panel can become a little too bloated...
7. ...For my own Kit, I chose Inter and Oxygen as the Base Font Families due to the fact that they complement each other really well, and they’re not too decorative as initial Base options.
8. The process of changing to a different Font Family (once all of your Styles are in place) is not currently the most streamlined process in Figma. It’s all very manual I’m afraid...
...But don’t despair, there’s an awesome plugin that I highly recommend called Batch Styler from the mucho talented @six7 . With this super-handy plugin you can change multiple styles at once, and say “Adios” to all that manual silliness.
figma.com/community/plug…
figma.com/community/plug…
9. And finally, don't forget those much needed Elevations and Shadows.
One last addition to the core styles of any good Starter Kit, alongside your Colour Palette, and Typography Styles are Elevations and Shadows...
One last addition to the core styles of any good Starter Kit, alongside your Colour Palette, and Typography Styles are Elevations and Shadows...
...I suggest creating Shadows suitable for both Light, and Dark designs, as well as possibly Shadows (and their accompanying Elevations, ie; 20%, 40%, 60% etc…) for both your Primary, and Secondary Base Colours, allowing yourself a little more versatility from the start.
You can check out the Full (and rather lengthy) Article here - marcandrew.me/how-to-build-a… 👍
