Journal

Design tokens: how to stop arguing about colours

A practical look at how one table of variables saves weeks of interface maintenance.

January 22, 20267 min readdesignfrontend

Design tokens are not a trend but a way to keep interface decisions in one place. Colour, spacing, radius and shadow live as variables instead of being repeated across forty files.

The payoff becomes obvious the moment you add a dark theme. With tokens it is a single layer of values; without them it is weeks of hunting hardcoded colours by hand.

Modern CSS makes this nearly free: custom properties, color-mix() and oklch() let you derive an entire palette from two or three base values and guarantee contrast along the way.

Let us talk

Tell us what needs building

We reply within one working day, ask the questions that matter and send back a budget range with timelines. Free, no strings attached.

What do you need
Budget
When do you need it

We reply within one working day