One of the hardest parts about design systems work is that you have to treat it all like designing a blog – the work requires tiny, incremental improvements that build up over time instead of giant reinventions of the wheel that never ship. Saying “we need a good design system” – with the implication that we can...

I absolutely adore this post by Matthew Ström about what design systems really are and why they’re so difficult to make. Matthew writes: With beautiful design systems like Polaris, Lightning, and Carbon for inspiration, it’s tempting to open up a Sketch file and start your own. A fresh start: all the freedom in the...

Over on Typographica, the type designer Agyei Archer has written a wonderful piece about fascism and type design: The quiet act of knowingly using a typeface designed by a supporter of fascism, and then vigorously defending that position, speaks to determined, privileged ignorance, and poses additional challenges to...

I love this sentiment from Violet Peña on getting her own blog off the ground: [...] here I am, ten months later, with a still-flawed but productive site, a site which lets me express myself, spread knowledge, and hone my writing skills. It's not perfect. But, perfections included, it's exactly right for me. Violet...

Tim Carmody happens to be one of my favorite writers and he’s just set up a newsletter over at Substack where he’s going to be writing the Amazon Chronicles each week. This beat will cover everything about Amazon – from their ambitions and other-wordly weirdness to all the ways in which a single company can impact...

I love this post by Cap Watkins on the traits and values of the boring designer: The boring designer realizes that the glory isn’t in putting their personal stamp on everything they touch. In fact, most of the time, it’s about leaving no trace of themselves. The boring designer loves consistency. The boring designer...

At Gusto we have a little web app called The Guide which contains some of our documentation for our React components, illustrations, and CSS helpers. And in its introduction I set out to inform the team of our goals in a more collaborative spirit: This is where all of the documentation for Gusto’s design system is...

The second episode of Heavyweight by Gimlet called Gregor is lovely and you should listen to it immediately: 20 years ago, Gregor lent some CDs to a musician friend. The CDs helped make him a famous rockstar. Now, Gregor would like some recognition. But mostly, he wants his CDs back. The other day I saw that Gimlet...

“I have a partner and I live with him,” O said abruptly on our third date as we were in bed together. She was embarrassed to say it, her eyes impossibly and tragically gray-blue (those eyes being the kind of stupid color that launches a thousand ships and breaks a million hearts, etc. etc.) Once the words were out...

There’s a guy that’s famous for sliding into conversations between type folks when they’re having a discussion on Twitter. He’ll always break up the party with a “well actually” no matter what the topic happens to be or who it is that happens to be speaking. Even if this chap is interrupting and correcting the...

Frequently my work in the field of design systems isn’t about pushing an interface to the best visual fidelity or using the coolest and most crazy CSS tricks. It’s also not about building the most beautiful interface with the most delightful interactions in the world. Instead – and this is something I fear a lot of...

History will look down upon the Republican Party for placing America in a vice, but it will blame the centrists for holding us there. In fact, there are few words in the English language that I despise more than the word ‘centrist’. ‘Content’ perhaps. Or ‘nevertheless’ just for the way it feels. ‘Moist’ maybe, at a...