Style Guide vs Design System: What's the Difference?
A style guide documents visual brand standards (colors, typography, logo usage), while a design system includes those standards plus reusable components, design tokens, code implementations, and governance processes.
What Style Guides Cover
Style guides focus on brand identity: logo variations and clear space, color palette with hex values, typography choices, imagery guidelines, tone of voice. They're documentation-focused, telling designers and marketers what the brand looks like without providing implementation tools. Style guides predate digital product design.
What Design Systems Add
Design systems extend style guides with implementation: reusable components (not just specs, but actual Figma components and code), design tokens (not just color values, but named variables in design tools and code), interaction patterns, accessibility standards, and governance processes. Design systems are living products, not just documents.
When Each Applies
Style guides are sufficient for brand and marketing needs—print materials, presentations, one-off campaigns. Design systems are necessary when building digital products at scale—consistent UIs across features, multiple teams working in parallel, need for efficiency through reuse. Many organizations need both, with the design system referencing style guide foundations.
Evolution Path
Organizations often start with style guides and evolve toward design systems as digital product needs grow. The style guide's color palette becomes design tokens. Brand typography choices become type scale components. This evolution is natural—design systems are how style guides scale to digital product development.
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