🧱 Choosing the Right Container for Your Vision
A Beginner’s Guide to Design Systems and Visual Tooling
🌋 The Moment Every Builder Hits
You’re deep into a spreadsheet, or juggling JSON tokens, or color-tagging Notion rows and suddenly it hits:
“Wait… is this the right container for my vision?”
That moment? It’s sacred. It’s where design systems are born — not as code, but as questions.
This guide is for people (like me) who are figuring things out as they go.
You don’t need to be a designer or a developer — you just need curiosity and a vision you’re trying to express clearly.
🧠 What Is a Design System?
A design system is: - A collection of reusable tokens, styles, and rules - A shared visual language for things like color, spacing, typography, components - Something that helps you move faster without guessing every time
You can think of it like:
✨ “A playlist of visual decisions you want to repeat, remix, and recognize across platforms.”
🔢 Semantic Visual Tables vs. Token Registries
| Type | Purpose | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Semantic Visual Tables | Group colors, spacing, etc. by meaning (e.g., "Background", "Accent") | Designers, planners, communicators |
| Token Registries | Precise, codified source of truth (e.g., primary-500) |
Dev teams, automation, build tools |
You probably want both — one for seeing, one for building.
🛠 Tool-by-Tool Breakdown
🎨 Figma
- What it is: The go-to collaborative design app
- Where it shines: UI design, token plugins, live previewing systems
- Best paired with: Style Dictionary, Tokens Studio, Zeroheight
- Coding required: None — but structured thinking helps
- Vibe Check: If you like drag-and-drop + design ops
🧮 Adobe Illustrator
- What it is: Industry-standard vector and layout tool
- Where it shines: Print assets, manual visual systems, diagramming
- Best paired with: You + patience + visual storytelling
- Coding required: None
- Vibe Check: For folks who want visual freedom and precise control
🧬 Style Dictionary
- What it is: A dev tool for generating token files in CSS/SCSS/JSON/etc.
- Where it shines: Multi-platform systems (web, mobile, design tokens)
- Best paired with: JSON token files, design system source-of-truth
- Coding required: Yes — Node.js, config skills
- Vibe Check: For builders who want to future-proof their system
📚 Zeroheight
- What it is: Style guide generator that pulls directly from Figma
- Where it shines: Team documentation, visual standards
- Best paired with: Figma tokens, shared rules, multi-role teams
- Coding required: None
- Vibe Check: For onboarding, training, documentation
🔗 ChainLift
- What it is: A design-token builder made for Webflow users
- Where it shines: Managing themes, syncing tokens visually
- Best paired with: Webflow projects, Notion specs, utility frameworks
- Coding required: None
- Vibe Check: A lightweight style dictionary with Webflow in mind
📘 Notion
- What it is: A flexible doc/wiki/database workspace
- Where it shines: Spec tables, internal docs, color logs
- Best paired with: CSV token dumps, visual swatch previews
- Coding required: None
- Vibe Check: If you want an interactive “source of clarity” space
📊 Tool Comparison Table
| Tool | Visual? | Dev-Ready? | Best For | Coding Skill Needed | Webflow Friendly? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Figma | ✅ | ✅ (with plugins) | UI design, prototyping | Low | ❓ via plugin |
| Illustrator | ✅ | ❌ | Print, layout, manual specs | None | ❌ |
| Style Dictionary | ❌ | ✅ | Token → Code export | Yes (Node, JSON) | 🔁 manual |
| Zeroheight | ✅ | ✅ | Style guides + docs | None | ❌ |
| ChainLift | ✅ | ✅ | Webflow token theming | None | ✅ |
| Notion | 🟨 | ❌ | Docs + visual tables | None | 🔁 manual reference |
🌱 Visual Decision Tree (Text Style)
Do you want to work visually?
→ Yes → Try Figma, ChainLift, or Notion
→ No → Go Style Dictionary or JSON/YAML
Do you want code integration?
→ Yes → Style Dictionary
→ No → ChainLift or Notion
Are you working in Webflow?
→ Yes → ChainLift, plus a visual token tracker
→ No → Try Zeroheight or Style Dictionary with handoff docs
✍️ Final Thought
You’re not building the perfect tool.
You’re building the right container for the story you’re trying to tell.
Start with what gives you clarity. Expand from there.
You’re not behind — you’re right on time.