Automation · Design System – 2025
AUTOMATION
KFC runs four major campaigns a month. Manual rollout wasn't going to cut it.
Automation · Design System – 2025
KFC runs four major campaigns a month. Manual rollout wasn't going to cut it.
KFC presented a real automation challenge: hundreds of recurring formats, a heavily manual workflow, and genuine hesitation from the design team about what "automation" would mean for their role.
The brief wasn't just to make production faster but to make it smarter, without removing the designers from the equation.
My approach focused on giving designers more agency.
Using Figma components, smart layouts and linked brand libraries, designers could build a master layout once and have it adapt intelligently across formats. I designed and built the system end-to-end, and onboarded the team, teaching Figma throughout. Once masters were locked, the bulk of rollout was already done.
01Designers began within a centralised brand library, importing master imagery and campaign lockups into a system of "Master 7" layouts. Acting as the foundation of the rollout process, these templates ensured consistency across specifications and allowed design decisions to scale efficiently across multiple outputs.
02The process was designed to be highly repeatable and template-driven, creating a scalable framework that could be applied across multiple campaigns. The system had already been implemented across seven campaign variants, each structured and prepared for automation.
03Designers transitioned into a dedicated campaign rollout template connected directly to the brand library. Campaign assets could be imported into a pre-built framework, replacing placeholders while preserving the structure and logic of the system. Once master layouts were established, the automation process could begin.
04Behind the scenes, the template system was already doing the heavy lifting. Linked components connected directly to master layouts – any change at the top cascaded across every rollout asset in real time. By the time designers completed their refinements, the majority of the rollout work had already been generated.
Give designers more
agency, not less.
By the end of onboarding, the team had delivered more than 48 major campaigns through the new system without disruption.
Automation stopped being a threat and started being the foundation.
Currently available for freelance.
Sydney based | remote & on-site.
tomarias.com