Product

Building a design system that lasts

Nina Alvarez·Mar 14·6 min read

A design system isn't a component library — it's a shared language. Here's how we think about keeping ours coherent as the team grows.

Start with tokens

Every durable system begins with primitives: color, spacing, and type scales that everything else references.

Consistency is a feature, not a constraint.

Name things by intent, not appearance.
Document the "why", not just the "what".

The prompt

Create a readable article layout with Tailwind CSS: a centered max-w-2xl column with a category label, a large title, a byline row (avatar, name, date, read time), a cover image, and a body using the typography plugin classes (prose) with headings, paragraphs, a blockquote, and a list. Keep line length comfortable.

Paste it into Claude, Cursor, v0 or any AI coding tool. Prefer the finished markup? .

Building a design system that lasts

Start with tokens

The prompt

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