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Long-form guides written by practitioners and reviewed by our editors. Each cites the standards it relies on and is updated when those standards change.
Mira Okonkwo-Lind · 10 Feb 2026 · 7 min read
Why semantic color roles matter more than hue harmony
Color-wheel harmony tells you which hues look nice together. It says nothing about which color should be the button. That second question is the one that breaks products.
Tomás Reyes · 2 Mar 2026 · 8 min read
Designing palettes for deuteranopia: a practical guide
Red–green color vision deficiency affects roughly 1 in 12 men of Northern European descent. Here is how to design for it from the first swatch rather than patching it at the end.
Mira Okonkwo-Lind · 18 Apr 2026 · 7 min read
The lifecycle of a brand color system
Brand colors are born in a workshop, adolescent in a style guide, and middle-aged in a codebase with forty shades of 'primary'. Here's how to manage every stage deliberately.
Hana Sato · 6 May 2026 · 6 min read
How film color scripts can inform UI palettes
Animators plan color across an entire story before a single frame is finished. Product designers can borrow the technique for onboarding flows, campaigns and brand evolution.
Hana Sato · 14 Jun 2026 · 8 min read
From RGB to pigment: bridging digital and physical color
Screens add light; paint subtracts it. Here's why a hex code can never be a paint recipe on its own — and how to get close anyway.
Mira Okonkwo-Lind · 22 Jul 2026 · 6 min read
Version control for design systems: lessons from software
Software engineers solved the 'who changed this and why?' problem decades ago. Design systems are only beginning to catch up.