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Welcome to Chassis Assets

A multi-brand, multi-product asset management system for distributing fonts, images, icons, and other design files across web, iOS, and Android platforms.

On this page
Quick Start Get started with Chassis Assets by cloning the repository and adding design assets for your project.
Design Guidelines Best practices and guidelines for designers exporting and managing assets in the Chassis Assets system.

This documentation is a work in progress. Some information may be incomplete, outdated, or differ from the current product behavior.

What is Chassis Assets?

Chassis Assets is a comprehensive design asset management and distribution system that bridges design workflows with production applications. It provides a scalable, multi-brand, multi-platform approach to managing design assets —including fonts, images, and icons— from source files in design tools to optimized outputs in production code.

Built to work seamlessly with the Chassis Design System ecosystem, Chassis Assets helps design systems maintain consistency across multiple brands, applications, and platforms while keeping asset management simple and efficient.

Multi-Brand Support

Create and manage assets for multiple brand identities from a single source repository. Each brand can have its own fonts, logos, icons, and imagery while sharing common asset architecture.

  • Independent brand definitions with override capabilities
  • Automatic propagation of brand-specific assets
  • Default fallback assets for shared resources

Multi-Product Support

Organize assets by application or product within each brand. This provides clear separation of assets used in different contexts while maintaining a unified source of truth.

  • Define multiple applications or products per brand
  • Organize assets by application for better clarity
  • Flexible build options for selective distribution

Multi-Platform Distribution

Generate platform-specific asset outputs for web, iOS, and Android from a single source. Each platform receives optimized asset formats that follow native conventions and naming requirements.

  • Web: Lowercase filenames with hyphens and web-compatible file formats
  • iOS: Lowercase filenames with underscores and iOS-compatible file formats
  • Android: Lowercase filenames with underscores, Android-compatible file formats, density-based folders, and ic_ prefix for icons

Scalable Architecture

The brand-app-platform architecture delivers maximum flexibility with minimal duplication. Add new brands, apps, or platforms without exponential file growth.

  • Separation of concerns between brands and applications
  • Clear asset hierarchy with defaults and overrides
  • Asset-specific distribution per platform
  • Selective build options for efficient CI/CD pipelines

How It Works

Chassis Assets follows a streamlined workflow that separates asset sourcing from platform-specific distribution.

Asset Organization

Assets are organized in the source directory with a clear hierarchy:

  1. Define Defaults: Place shared assets in source/default/[app]/
  2. Brand Overrides: Create brand-specific versions in source/[brand]/[app]/
  3. Asset Types: Organize by type (fonts, images, icons) within each app folder
  4. Version Control: Track all assets in Git for collaboration

The system automatically uses brand-specific assets when available and falls back to defaults when they don't exist. This reduces duplication while maintaining brand flexibility.

Distribution Generation

The build system transforms source assets into platform-specific outputs:

  1. Read Configuration: Load brand, app, and platform definitions from package.json
  2. Copy Assets: Merge default and brand-specific assets (platform compatible formats only)
  3. Apply Transforms: Convert filenames and structures for platform requirements
  4. Generate Output: Create organized distributions in the dist/ directory

The build process runs as a command-line script and generates production-ready asset files that developers can reference directly in their applications.

Asset Types

While Chassis Assets supports any file type, it provides specific distribution rules and best practices for common categories to ensure optimal performance and compatibility across platforms.

  • Fonts: Typography files (TTF, OTF, WOFF, WOFF2) for brand text styles
  • Images: Visual content including photos, illustrations, and graphics
  • Icons: UI iconography for navigation, actions, and status indicators

See the Asset Types section for detailed guides.

Who Uses Chassis Assets?

Chassis Assets streamlines collaboration between designers, developers, and design system maintainers. Each role benefits from specific features:

Designers

Start with the Asset Guidelines to understand asset organization, export requirements, and naming conventions.

  • Export assets to standardized source locations
  • Maintain brand-specific variations alongside defaults
  • Update assets without touching code or build scripts
  • Preview assets across brands and applications

Developers

Start with the Build System documentation to manage the asset distribution pipeline.

  • Build platform-specific asset distributions with a single command
  • Import optimized assets for specific platforms
  • Reference assets using consistent naming patterns
  • Implement platform-native asset loading
  • Build applications with brand-switching support

Get details on integrating assets into specific platforms:

Design System Maintainers

  • Manage asset definitions in Git
  • Review and approve asset changes via pull requests
  • Run builds to generate platform-specific distributions
  • Document asset usage guidelines and conventions