collected writings

Essays on design systems, design tokens, and the semantic decisions underneath them.

The Default Is Not a Design Decision

How the design industry built the infrastructure of sameness, and called it best practice

  • Convergence
  • Design Systems
  • Figma
  • Dribbble
  • Material Design
  • AI Tools
  • Claude Design

The Language We Never Agreed On

Ten years of design tokens, several competing formats, and the shared language that never arrived

  • Design Tokens
  • W3C DTCG
  • Style Dictionary
  • Figma Variables
  • Tailwind
  • CSS Variables
  • Tokens Studio

Motion Deserves Better Than a Prop

What we lost when animation became a component and time stopped mattering

  • Motion Tokens
  • Duration
  • Easing
  • Choreography
  • Material Design
  • IBM Carbon
  • Cubic Bezier
drafting

Where the Design System Thinks

On semantics, intent, and the layer that actually holds the decisions

  • Semantics
  • Intent
  • Theming
drafting

Accessibility Was Never a Feature

On contrast, focus, and the requirements a design system inherits

  • Accessibility
  • Contrast
  • Focus States