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1 May 2026

# Building a durable design system

Lessons from maintaining one design system across many sites.

-   [Design](/resources/blog/categories/design)
-   [Open source](/resources/blog/categories/open-source)

![Cover illustration for Building a durable design system](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/f9tyxuia/production/ab3f86956459f479f00f5eb09213a8f3db192148-1600x900.svg)

A design system earns its keep the second time you use it.

## Tokens, then components

Start with tokens for colour, type and spacing, then build components that consume them.

Document the intent, not just the API.

### Takeaways

-   Tokens before components
-   Document intent
-   Version deliberately

> Reuse is the whole point.