Tag: tools
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wcag and design systems: why accessibility belongs in the token layer
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in Accessibility, Color, css, Figma, Fonts, Iconography, Sites, Styleguides, Tokens, UI KIt, UI/UX, Web DesignWCAG compliance isn’t a checklist you run at the end — it’s a constraint you build into the system at the token level. A lot of designers treat accessibility as a QA pass: ship the design, then check the contrast ratios. That approach fails at scale because it moves the problem downstream where it’s expensive…
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vercel vs. godaddy: how we decide where to deploy each project
Not every project needs the same infrastructure — and using the wrong one costs you either speed or money. The M4D stack runs two different hosting setups for two different reasons. The projects site (static HTML, design system docs, blog) lives on GoDaddy — it’s a flat file site that deploys via FTP, loads fast,…
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color systems
A palette comprises a collection of colors, while a color system establishes rules for color usage across three tiers: primitives (raw values), semantics (assigned meanings), and components (which utilize these meanings). This structure allows for streamlined updates across surfaces, enabling automatic adjustments for themes and branding changes.
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type scale
A type scale is a sequence of font sizes built on a single ratio — so every size in your system is mathematically related to every other. Pick a base size (usually 16px) and a ratio (1.25 is modest, 1.5 is expressive) and multiply up and down from there. Token each step by role —…
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i built a design system business in 6 weeks using only claude code
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in AI, Automation, Color, Components, Educational, Illustrations, Images, Sites, Styleguides, Tokens, Typography, UI/UX, Web DesignSix weeks from first commit to a deployed product site, a content pipeline, a Gumroad membership, and a MailerLite funnel — one designer, one tool, no team. On April 25, 2026 I ran git init in a Google Drive folder. On June 5 I had a functioning design system business: a static site deployed to…
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3dicons
A free, open-source library offers over 1,500 hand-crafted 3D icons, available in various angles and color variants for mockups and UI. A Figma plugin simplifies icon integration, while a pro tier provides an online editor for customization. Developed by Vijay Verma, icons require no attribution.
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simple icons
3000+ SVG icons for popular brands. A CCO project maintained by the Simple Icons contributors. Simple Icons offers a huge repository of free, high-quality vector icons for almost every popular brand, library and app you can think of. https://simpleicons.org
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BRAND: Electronic Arts
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in Color, Fonts, Iconography, Illustrations, Images, Sites, Styleguides, Typography, UI KIt, UI/UX, Unique DesignsElectronic Arts 2025 BRAND REFRESH by Instrument DESIGN STUDIO Check out this article by Brand Archive that details the elements of the 2025 brand refresh from Electronic Arts and their partnership with Instrument design studio. https://brandarchive.xyz/identity/electronic-arts
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TINYWOW
a popular free, all-in-one online toolkit designed to simplify a wide range of digital tasks from editing PDFs and images to generating content with AI, it’s a web-based platform that requires no software installation or registration for basic use, making it highly accessible for students, professionals, and content creators. https://tinywow.com
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Huemint
AI-powered color palette generator that uses machine learning to create harmonious and contextually relevant color schemes for graphic design, branding, and websites. Unlike traditional color tools that produce a flat palette, Huemint’s key innovation is generating colors based on how they will be used in the final design, such as considering which colors are for…
