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hatcourt
Design9 June 20264 min read

Design Systems That Survive Contact With Engineering

A design system is not a Figma library. It is an agreement about tokens, names and who owns a component.

Tokens first, components second

Colour, spacing, radius and type scale are the contract. Components are just conventional arrangements of that contract.

Name things semantically

"Surface" and "accent" survive a rebrand. "Navy" and "gold" do not.

One owner per component

Shared ownership means no ownership. Someone has to say no to the eleventh button variant.

Let's build something useful.

Tell us what you're trying to build and we'll help you figure out the best way forward.