Consolidating tokens across brands helps reduce duplication while supporting variation where it matters. This activity identifies overlaps and differences between brand palettes, naming systems, and semantics. Use it when building a multi-brand or white-label system, or when two or more brands need to share a core foundation without losing their identity.
How to
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Run an audit Collect tokens from each brand across colour, spacing, typography, and motion through an Audit.
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Group by function Cluster tokens by purpose, such as backgrounds, text, or interactive states, to see where semantics can be consistent.
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Surface overlaps and gaps Highlight tokens that are identical across brands, similar but slightly different, or entirely unique.
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Define shared semantics Agree on a set of semantic tokens that can remain consistent across brands. Map brand-specific values to these semantics.
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Decide where to diverge Identify which tokens must stay unique to each brand. Keep these lean to avoid unnecessary duplication.
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Document the model Capture shared semantics and brand mappings in your Guidance Setup so teams know if and where the system diverges.