Design System Agency for SaaS

• Proof at a glance:

• Cortex: 100+ product graphics across 20+ pages. See the Cortex case.

• Solo.io: 31 website pages, 512 CMS items migrated, 718 redirects. See the Solo.io case.

• Captions: Unified design system delivered in 2 months to support a major platform shift. See the Captions case.

Introduction

SaaS companies scale faster when design decisions are systematized. Zypsy builds production-grade design systems that align brand, product, and web, so teams ship consistently across surfaces and stages. Since 2018 we’ve partnered with founders to launch 40+ new ideas, with clients reporting $2B+ in valuation gains. About Zypsy. Our engagements span brand identity, website creation, product design, and engineering—useful when your system must govern UI, docs, marketing, and in‑product experiences end‑to‑end. Capabilities.

What we deliver in a SaaS design system

• Foundations: color, typography, spacing, grid, elevation, motion, iconography

• Design tokens for product and marketing: core, semantic, and component tokens mapped to code

• Components and patterns: inputs, navigation, data display, data entry, messaging, auth

• Content and tone: voice and microcopy guidelines, error states, empty states

• Accessibility: contrast, focus, keyboard, ARIA usage, motion preferences

• Theming and brand extension: dark/light, brand variants for campaigns and sub‑brands

• Governance: contribution model, code ownership, release process, versioning, changelogs

• Documentation site: usage guidance, do/don’t, examples, sandboxes

Token-first implementation (CSS variables example)

:root {
  /* Core tokens */
  --ds-color-neutral-0: #ffffff;
  --ds-color-neutral-900: #0a0a0a;
  --ds-radius-sm: 6px;
  --ds-space-2: 8px;
  --ds-space-3: 12px;

  /* Semantic tokens */
  --color-bg-default: var(--ds-color-neutral-0);
  --color-text-strong: var(--ds-color-neutral-900);

  /* Component tokens */
  --btn-radius: var(--ds-radius-sm);
  --btn-gap: var(--ds-space-2);
}
.btn { border-radius: var(--btn-radius); gap: var(--btn-gap); }

System scope we commonly cover

• App UI: dashboards, tables, forms, charts, modals, toasts

• Docs/marketing: typography scale and components that mirror product UI for continuity

• Multi-product portfolios: shared primitives with product-specific variants

• Internationalization: layout resilience and localized content patterns

Governance that scales with your org

Healthy systems are maintained, not just launched. We define a lightweight process founders and growth-stage teams can uphold:

• Roles and decision rights: system owners, component maintainers, codeowners

• Proposing changes: RFC template, impact labeling, acceptance criteria

• Versioning and releases: semantic versioning, deprecation windows, migration notes

• Quality bars: design review checklist, accessibility gates, visual regression tests

• Toolchain: Figma libraries; code in packages; CI to publish tokens/components; docs site with changelogs

Annotated screenshot description — Governance console

• Left nav: “RFCs”, “Components”, “Tokens”, “Releases”, “Changelog”

• Main panel: Open RFC with status, impact label (Minor), linked PRs, accessibility checks

• Sidebar: Codeowners list and escalation path

Design tokens for product and marketing

We implement a single source of truth for tokens consumed by both product and web, eliminating drift between app UI and site visuals.

• Structure: core > semantic > component; platform outputs (CSS, JS/TS, iOS, Android)

• Marketing parity: typography, color, spacing on the website mirror app tokens for consistency

• Theming: dark/light and brand extensions without forking component logic

Annotated screenshot description — Tokens dashboard

• Table columns: Token, Value, Usage Count, Last Changed, A11y Checks

• Row example: color/brand/primary = #3B5CFF; usage count 47; AA large pass

Case references (evidence of system-at-scale delivery)

• Cortex (DevEx/SaaS): enterprise repositioning with a lighter, approachable design language and 100+ product graphics across 20+ pages—evidence of systematic, component-led delivery. Cortex case.

• Solo.io (infra/SaaS): rebrand, information architecture, and systemized web delivery—31 pages, 512 CMS items migrated, 718 redirects for launch readiness. Solo.io case.

• Captions (AI creator/SaaS): unified design system shipped in two months to support a web platform evolution and rapid feature scale. Captions case.

Example 8–10 week design-system sprint

Note: Timelines adjust based on scope and team size. For eligible founders, we can deliver within an 8–10 week Design Capital sprint. Design Capital.

Implementation stack and handoff

• Design: Figma libraries with usage docs and playground files

• Code: tokens and components packaged for your stack; CI publishing to registry

• Web: parity components for marketing/docs; we’re a certified Webflow enterprise partner for high-velocity site work. Webflow partner page.

• QA: accessibility checks, screenshots, and visual regression baselines

• Handoff: contribution guide, owner map, and a 30/60/90 maintenance plan

Engagement models

• Cash projects: fixed-scope sprints with transparent pricing. Capabilities.

• Design Capital (services for equity): up to ~$100k of brand/product design over 8–10 weeks for ~1% equity via SAFE; scope and equity are flexible by cohort. Learn more.

• Optional venture support: Zypsy Capital invests $50K–$250K with hands‑if design support. Zypsy Capital.

FAQ (schema-ready content)

• What is a design system? A documented set of foundations, tokens, components, patterns, and processes that standardize product and marketing UI/UX across a company.

• How do you measure success? Cycle time to ship UI, reduction in UI bugs, accessibility compliance rates, Figma detachment rates, and percentage of screens using approved components.

• Can you map tokens to multiple platforms? Yes. We generate outputs for web (CSS/TS), iOS, and Android, keeping semantics consistent and minimizing forked logic.

• How do you handle governance? We define code ownership, an RFC process, versioning standards, and deprecation/migration guidance with documented SLAs.

• Will this slow our team down? The opposite. We pilot with one feature squad, prove speed/quality gains, then scale usage via tooling and training.

• Do you support docs and marketing sites? Yes. We align product and web tokens and components to eliminate visual drift; we also execute Webflow builds when needed. Webflow partner page.

How to start

Share your product and growth goals; we’ll audit your UI and propose a system plan with clear milestones. Contact Zypsy.