Design tokens are still the backbone of Material Design

Google's Material Design continues to push token-based theming as the default way to build flexible, on-brand components — it's the clearest real-world example of tokens done at scale. For juniors, understanding tokens beats memorising any one system's components.

Material Design's ongoing evolution keeps proving the same point: the value isn't the components, it's the token layer underneath — colour, spacing, and type values that cascade through a whole product so one change updates everything downstream. This is now the standard way mature design systems are built, not a novelty. If you're using a component library at work or in a side project and don't know which values are tokens versus hardcoded numbers, that's a gap worth closing early — it's one of the first things design system leads will probe in interviews.

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Design tokens are now table stakes, not a nice-to-have

Naming styles as tokens (color-bg-primary, not "Blue 3") has moved from best practice to baseline expectation on teams running any kind of design system. This is established practice, not a new fad.

radical.design20 Sep

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Material 3 Expressive: systems that flex, not just scale

Google's Material 3 Expressive update layers more personality — motion, colour, shape — onto Material's existing token structure without a rebuild. It's a solid case study in how mature design systems evolve.

design.google16 Apr

Established

Penpot puts native design tokens in its free tier

Penpot now bundles native design tokens and shared component libraries into its open-source platform at no cost — a feature set that's often gated behind paid tiers elsewhere. Design tokens themselves are a well-established practice, just newly accessible without a licence fee.

penpot.app1 Sep