Garth BraithwaiteMay 29, 2025
I was featured on the latest episode of the Design Systems Podcast, discussing Spectrum, Adobe's Design System.
I've distilled down my thoughts from it into 5 points (a thread) https://www.designsystemspodcast.com/episodes/episode/7ce29f18/133-garth-braithwaite-on-design-tokens-governance-and-scaling-spectrum-at-adobe
Show threadGarth BraithwaiteMay 29, 2025
1/5: Design Systems are Infrastructure
“It’s like asking every business to build roads. Everyone wants the benefit, but no one wants to pay for it.”
Show threadGarth BraithwaiteMay 29, 2025
2/5 Avoid becoming the Design System police
“You can’t be everything for everyone. Instead of mandates, provide value.”
Show threadGarth BraithwaiteMay 29, 2025
3/5 The Tokens Must Flow
“I want to improve the system, but I can’t endanger the pipeline.”
Show threadGarth Braithwaite
4/5 Being public improves quality
"I found that when we went public with the Spectrum website, our standard of quality increased. The things that were sufficient for documentation like this for internal only suddenly wasn't good enough for external."
May 29, 2025 at 5:18pmWeb
Show threadGarth BraithwaiteMay 29, 2025
5/5 Start where you can
“Start with a spreadsheet of colors and work your way up. It’s better to do the wrong thing than to do nothing.”