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Pharma · 2023

Core Design System

Built GSK's first company-wide design system after their 2022 rebrand. Adopted by the five key product teams.

Context

GSK's 2022 rebrand by Wolff Olins created a bold visual identity. It worked for consumer marketing. It didn't work for GSK's digital products: the primary orange failed WCAG AA in some contexts, the consumer-marketing tone didn't suit specialist tools for healthcare professionals, and no shared design system existed.

GSK's 2022 rebrand by Wolff Olins.
GSK employees on the Living Gradient — Wolff Olins.
GSK's new brand in action at their London HQ.

What I built

GSK's first company-wide design system:

  • 500+ tokens, accessibility resolved at the token layer so teams get compliant colours automatically
  • A density mode for specialist tools that need more information in less space
  • iOS and Android extensions. WCAG 2.1 AA throughout

Adoption through a cross-team working group I ran in weekly workshops. The five key product teams, the groups that create most of GSK's digital products, adopted the system. In production on gsk.com and Brandhub (GSK's digital asset management platform, also mine).

Getting Started section of the design system.
An example card component in light mode.
Semantic tokens abstract primitive values allowing easy switching between colour modes.
GSK Brandhub, built using the core design system.

The arc

The design system was the culmination of Interbrand's GSK account, not its foundation. I started with AUREA (an antimicrobial-resistance data tool for healthcare professionals), then GSK Medical, then GSK Direct (B2B vaccine ordering). Each engagement was won by the previous one's success.

Impact

Five products shipped. The system is company-wide.

5/5 Product groups adopted Working group members drove adoption within teams.
500+ Primitive & semantic tokens Across colour and density modes with a deliberately lean component layer on top.
WCAG AA Compliant Colour accessibility solved at the token layer.

Receiving so much positive feedback already, people are really impressed with how good this all is.

Anna Morrison
Anna Morrison Senior Brand Manager, GSK