#design-system
6 min read
Should AI be the tool or make the tool?
A question I keep asking, and a principle I've been applying longer than AI has existed.
Machine-readable token architecture & an AI sync pipeline
A three-tier token model with naming built for machine readability, and a Figma → StyleDictionary → code pipeline built with Claude to keep design, code, and documentation in sync.
4 min read
Communicating design systems with Lego
A hands-on workshop that makes "just use what's in the box" click.
One token architecture across 60+ brands
A white-label SaaS platform where every client needs its own identity inside one shared product. I inherited a system covering ~20% of the suite at 20 brands, and scaled it to full coverage at 60+ — faster to ship, not slower.
4 min read
Naming things is hard
The hunt for the perfect design-token naming convention.
3 min read
Defining your design-system buckets
Components and patterns: the simplest split I found that actually helped adoption stick.
1 min read
Generating token docs for free
A Style Dictionary proof of concept that documents design tokens as part of the same build that ships them.
Unifying 150+ products across five tech stacks
A board mandate to unify a product suite grown mostly through acquisition. No single component library could span .NET, AngularJS, Angular, React and Bootstrap — so the system's authority had to live in the spec, not the code.
4 min read
updated Jul 27, 2026
Wrangling 300+ themes for an LMS
Automating theme deployment and maintenance across a fleet of Moodle instances at Learning Pool.
