Service — Design systems built to ship features, not to win Dribbble.

Most things called “design systems” are actually component libraries with no underlying rules. A real system has four layers, each load-bearing:

• Tokens. Colour, type, spacing, radius, shadow, motion, defined once, used everywhere. Tokens enable theming, dark mode, and density variants without rewriting components.
• Primitives. Button, input, select, checkbox, radio, toggle, badge, avatar, the composable units. Each with proper variants for state (default, hover, focus, disabled, loading) and intent (primary, secondary, destructive).
• Patterns. Form, table, modal, drawer, toast, command menu, empty state, page header, the multi-primitive compositions that solve specific problems. Patterns are where most systems quietly collapse, because they require judgment about when to use which.
• Rules. The principles and guardrails for when to extend the system, when to break it, when to add a new primitive vs. compose an existing one. Without rules, the system fragments within a quarter of being handed off.

Three signs you're ready:

• Your product has more than 30 screens, and new features are starting to feel inconsistent with old ones.
• Your engineering team is shipping new components on every feature instead of reusing existing ones, usually because the existing ones don't quite fit.
• You're adding a second surface (admin, mobile, partner portal) and the lack of shared foundation is starting to show.

If you have fewer than 20 screens and a single platform, you probably don't need a design system yet, you need a tight component library and a clear set of conventions. We'll tell you that on the discovery call.

• Figma design system file with tokens, primitives, patterns, and full variant coverage.
• Token definitions exportable to JSON or CSS variables, ready for your engineering team to wire into the stack.
• Component documentation , when to use each primitive, when to compose, when to extend, when to add new.
• Pattern library , form, table, modal, empty state, page header, navigation, command menu, with usage rules.
• Design principles document , three to five rules of thumb that govern the whole system.
• Maintenance plan , ownership, change process, deprecation rules.

The token system is the foundation everything else rests on. Done right, it enables dark mode, density variants, and theming without rewriting components. Done wrong, it locks the system into one visual style forever.

Raw tokens (primitives) are the values themselves, specific hex colours, exact pixel sizes, named font weights. They exist but are rarely used directly.

Semantic tokens describe the role, color-surface-primary, color-text-muted, space-component-padding. They reference raw tokens but are what components actually consume.

Component tokens are the most specific layer, button-primary-background, input-border-color. They reference semantic tokens, and they're what makes component-level theming possible without rewriting primitives.

Dark mode, density variants, and product theming all become possible (and cheap) when the token system has the right layering. They become impossible (and expensive) when it doesn't. Week 1 of a design system engagement is mostly about getting this structure right.

Most design systems fail at the pattern layer. Components ship; patterns get re-invented per feature. What we document, in Figma where the engineering team actually looks:

• Form patterns. Field layouts, label positions, error messaging rules, validation timing, submit-button behaviour, multi-step form architecture.
• Table patterns. Sorting, filtering, grouping, pagination, bulk actions, column controls, saved views, empty/loading/error states.
• Modal and drawer patterns. When to use which, dismissal behaviour, nested modal rules (we generally don't), focus management.
• Toast and notification patterns. Timing, stacking, dismissal, severity hierarchy, action affordances.
• Empty-state patterns. When the user has no data, no permission, no results. The first-day-of-a-new-customer state as a designed product surface.
• Page header and navigation patterns. Breadcrumbs, page titles, action button placement, tab patterns, sub-navigation rules.

Each pattern includes when to use it, when not to, and what to compose it from. So three months later, a new engineer can answer their own question without Slacking the designer.

Most design systems shouldn't be built from scratch. We make a framework call in Week 1 based on your stack and ambition:

• shadcn/ui + Radix. Our most-recommended starting point for new systems. Copy-paste components, you own the code, Radix handles accessibility, easy to extend. Right for most modern React stacks.
• Radix Primitives directly. For teams that want lower-level control. We design components on top; engineering wires them to Radix primitives.
• Material 3. Right for Android-first or cross-platform products, particularly if you have an Android-native team already. Heavy to extend off-pattern.
• Custom from scratch. Right when the design ambition genuinely doesn't fit any existing system, or when the product needs unusual primitives. Expensive to maintain.

The honest framing: most products are best served by extending shadcn or Radix. Custom is the right answer only when extending creates more work than building.

Design system engagements typically sit in Standard or Pro because of the breadth of coverage required:

• Standard, $15K–$30K. Single-platform design system. Tokens, primitives, primary patterns. For teams shipping mostly web or mostly mobile.
• Pro, $30K–$50K+. Cross-platform design system covering web + mobile + admin. Multi-role components. Compliance-specific patterns for regulated verticals.

Design systems rarely fit Lite tier because coverage breadth matters more than depth, a partial system fragments faster than no system. Above $50K is a custom retainer. See pricing.