Every brand and market interpreted the identity differently, design was rebought repeatedly, and assets were recreated rather than reused. Without a living design system and a shared asset library, the group paid many times for the same look and still looked inconsistent to the guest.
VA built a living design system as a content supply chain — a structured design and production panel with defined global-standard and local-adaptation roles, fees rewarding reuse, and governed shared-asset-library workflows — so consistency and saving arrive together.
Head of Brand, Head of Creative Production, Head of Marketing Operations
The strategic problem
Every brand and market interpreted the identity differently, design was rebought repeatedly, and assets were recreated rather than reused. Without a living design system and a shared asset library, the group paid many times for the same look and still looked inconsistent to the guest.
Diagnose & Design
VA ran a marketing & production ecosystem audit across brands and markets, mapping design and production workflows, studio and agency spend, and the extent of asset duplication; spend mapping & cost baseline analysis quantified the cost of rebuilding what already existed elsewhere in the group. A gap & maturity assessment set the benchmark for a create-once, reuse-everywhere content supply chain, and governance design (RACI, KPI framework, scorecards) defined the accountability model for a living design system, with AURA/FRC (Fulltime Ratecard Calculator) applied to the studio and agency commercial review.
Ecosystem & Remuneration
VA designed the partner ecosystem around the living design system as a content supply chain — roster rationalisation & consolidation reduced the design and production panel to a structured set of partners with defined roles across global brand standards and local adaptation. Remuneration model design introduced fee structures aligned to the create-once logic, rewarding reuse and penalising redundant production; fee benchmarking & validation confirmed that consolidated rates reflected market norms. Scoping & SOW design formalised the shared asset-library governance and reuse workflow so that no market could commission a new asset without checking the central library first.
Rollout & relationship management
Contracting & onboarding formalised the design system roster with agreements covering template licensing, reuse obligations and brand compliance standards; handover, rollout & commitment tracking governed adoption across brands and markets, ensuring each brand team activated the new system to the agreed timeline rather than reverting to local studios. AURA/Planner back-planned the rollout to two dates — system launch and full-brand adoption — and relationship management maintained alignment between the brand, creative and procurement communities throughout.
Execution Oversight
VA applied production cost validation & budget control to design and production spend by brand, tracking unit costs against the create-once baseline and flagging any departure from the reuse workflow. Briefing & estimate review governed design briefs at intake to prevent scope creep that would have triggered bespoke production outside the system. Sustainable production & ESG/DE&I checks ensured that the design system and asset production met the group’s environmental and inclusion commitments across all touchpoints.
Performance Measurement
KPIs and scorecards from governance design — asset reuse rate, cost per design unit, brand consistency score — tracked via partner performance evaluation on a 90/180/360 appraisal cadence; cost saving and cost avoidance reported separately. Outcomes: 29% reduction in design and production cost, 15% cost avoidance from reused rather than recreated assets, 50% asset reuse across brands (today closure reports; full performance measurement on the roadmap).
Why VA
A design system only pays if it is governed and used. VA builds it as a content supply chain with the operating model around it, so consistency and saving arrive at the same time.
Common questions
What is a living design system with a unified asset operating model?
A governed design system run as a content supply chain — global brand standards, disciplined local adaptation and a shared asset library that must be checked before any new asset is commissioned — so the same look is not rebought and recreated repeatedly.
Why does a design system only pay off when governed?
Without governance and a reuse workflow, teams recreate assets and the system decays; fees that reward reuse and penalise redundant production, plus library governance, are what convert the system into cost saving and consistency.
How is reuse actually enforced across brands and markets?
No market can commission a new asset without checking the central library first, and asset-reuse rate, cost per design unit and brand-consistency score are tracked on a 90/180/360 cadence — so reuse becomes the default.