All posts
2026-05-30·June Park·7 min
Tokens, not pixels
The day we deleted every hardcoded hex value was the day dark mode became a data change instead of a rewrite.
A design token is a promise: this value has a name, the name has a meaning, and the meaning survives a redesign. A hex code in a component is the opposite — a decision nobody can find later.
Our rule is mechanical. Components consume semantic variables; variables resolve from a theme document; the theme document is data. Light mode, dark mode, a client rebrand: all of them become edits to one JSON file.
It is the least glamorous migration we ever ran, and the one with the highest return. Every surface in this journal, including the one you are reading, is painted through that chain.