Getting started for designers

How to get going with designing for your project using our design system.


Our design foundations

The Sainsbury’s design system is a multi-brand design system. We want each brand to remain unique, but also to share things where consistent standards and approaches will create better experiences for users. This idea applies to everything that we do.

Colour

Brands have individual colours, but share a monochrome and semantic palette.

Typography

The typography system provides a flexible approach that can be applied to individual brand fonts.

Layout

Read about spacing, grids, gutters and margins and how they vary across breakpoints.

Design tokens

Learn how to use design tokens to build and maintain consistent user interfaces.
See all foundations

Figma design libraries

We maintain our UI design libraries in Figma. When you use our UI design libraries, you’ll automatically receive any updates made to our libraries so your designs will always stay up-to-date with the latest releases.

Branded UI design libraries

Our branded UI design libraries contain the core components and styles for Sainsbury’s, Argos, Nectar, Habitat and Tu experiences, across web platforms.

If you’re a Sainsbury’s colleague

In your Figma file, visit ‘libraries’ and ensure the branded Figma libraries are enabled.

If you’re a third party or agency

If you’re designing from outside Sainsbury’s organisation, you’ll need to duplicate the branded UI design library from our community page.

Once you have access to the libraries, you can use the assets panel to search for components, icons and logos for your brand. You will also be able able to access colours, text styles in the Styles section.

Be sure to accept any updates that pop up in the bottom right corner to make sure you have the latest,, most up to date version of the library.

Our branded UI design libraries contain:

Colour styles

Global monochrome and semantic palettes as well as brand colours.

Text styles

Brand and global typefaces at different display sizes.

Grid styles

Grids for mobile, tablet and desktop, kiosk, in-store screens, with Android and iOS variants available.

Components

A core set of components for each brand within the assets tab.

Icons

Each brand’s icon suite within the assets tab.

Guidelines for designers

How to use components

Find guidance on how to use components.

Designing for accessibility

Read accessiblity guidance for digital.

Designing digital content

Tone of voice, style guides and best practices for content.

Get in touch

Our design team are on hand to answers questions or help with your project.