Pfizer

Zenith: A Global Design System for 150+ Brands

A global design system for the world's largest pharma brand.

My Role

As Group Creative Director, I led the creation of Zenith, Pfizer's first global design system, overseeing a team responsible for system architecture, componentization, and documentation. I worked closely with Pfizer's VP of User Experience to align design, UX, and engineering, and delivered 90+ responsive components and 25+ templates, fully documented and developer-ready, in six months.

Background

Pfizer had already tried to build a design system for 7 of their brands internally, and it failed: no mobile-first thinking, no buy-in from internal teams. At the same time, Pfizer had just completed a full corporate rebrand across all 150+ brands in its portfolio, developed by Pentagram. A request to "refresh" the old system quickly became a full rebuild.

The Challenge

Unify vastly different brand needs, integrate a new global design language, and scale across markets and teams, without favoring any single brand's identity.

The Approach

To support 150+ brands without bias, the team built the system using a white-label approach: every component was designed under a fictional brand, then mapped to a dynamic variable system so Pfizer's internal teams could apply brand-specific themes with ease, think light mode versus dark mode, but for 150+ brands. Zenith was built mobile-first, accessibility-compliant (WCAG 2.1 AA), and structured to balance consistency with the flexibility individual brands still needed.

The Impact

90+

esponsive, modular components delivered

25+

templates, fully documented and developer-ready

6 Months

to deliver the full system

150+ Brands

unified under one system, replacing a failed internal attempt