Design Tokens Are Now the Default, Not a Nice-to-Have

Design Systems News coverage shows tokens (colour, spacing, type as structured data) have moved from edge-case practice to expected baseline for any real design system. If your system doesn't have tokens yet, that's the gap worth flagging.

Design tokens — named, structured values for colour, spacing, typography — have shifted from 'nice advanced feature' to assumed baseline across design systems coverage. The pattern: tokens let one source of truth drive Figma styles, Penpot libraries and code variables at once, so a rebrand or theme change doesn't mean hand-editing hundreds of components. For juniors, the practical skill isn't building a token architecture from scratch — it's understanding *why* a system uses tokens and being able to trace one token from Figma style to shipped CSS. Label: **established** — standard practice in any team running a mature design system, not a new idea.

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