January 2026

Igor Schwarzmann

The Evolution of Design Systems

A story of pattern recognition, institutional capture, and unexpected return.

Prologue

Context

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Igor Schwarzmann

Last week I published an argument. This week I'm showing you the proof.

"Strategy-as-Protocol" proposed that strategy should be written in plain language — readable by humans, executable by machines.

Design systems are the test case. What you're seeing right now was built that way.

One architect changed how we think about design problems.

A Pattern Language, 1977

Act I: The Pledge

Timeline

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Igor Schwarzmann

1977

The origin point.

Act I: The Pledge

The Insight

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Igor Schwarzmann

Each pattern describes a problem which occurs over and over again in our environment, and then describes the core of the solution to that problem, in such a way that you can use this solution a million times over, without ever doing it the same way twice.
— Christopher Alexander

Christopher Alexander, architect and theorist

Act I: The Pledge

The Problem

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Somewhere between vision and shipped product, we lost the thread.

Vision

Gap

Execution

Alexander's language described what to build. Someone still had to build it.

Act II: The Capture

Timeline

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2006

The tipping point.

Act II: The Capture

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Yahoo released something new: patterns paired with code.

Pattern Library

+

Code Library

=

Shipped Together

February 2006: For the first time, specification and implementation shipped together.

Act II: The Capture

The Blueprint

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Igor Schwarzmann

Yahoo created the blueprint every design system would follow.

Document

→

Implement

→

Govern

The BSD license democratized access — enterprise-grade tools became freely available. A new category was born.

Act II: The Capture

Timeline

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2014

The institutionalization begins.

Google transformed design systems from tools into strategy.

Material Design, June 2014

Act II: The Capture

Enterprise

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Every major company followed.

Carbon

IBM, 2017

Fluent

Microsoft, 2017

Lightning

Salesforce, 2015

Design systems became essential infrastructure with dedicated teams, formal governance, executive sponsorship.

Act II: The Capture

Timeline

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2019

The ecosystem phase.

Act II: The Capture

The Apparatus

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Modern design systems require armies to build and maintain.

What Alexander imagined one person could use now required organizational infrastructure to create.

Design System Lead

Component Designers

Engineers

DesignOps

Governance Committees

Documentation Specialists

Act II: The Capture

The Process

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Building a component now follows a five-stage factory process.

Inception

→

Design

→

Development

→

Governance

→

Documentation

Each phase involves handoffs, reviews, tooling. Massive infrastructure for tiny output.

Act II: The Capture

The Irony

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Igor Schwarzmann

Alexander's "language anyone could use" now requires specialists to speak.

"...a million times over, without ever doing it the same way twice."

Senior Design Systems Engineer
Requirements:
• 8+ years React
• 5+ years TypeScript
• Figma expertise required
• Experience with Storybook
• CI/CD pipeline knowledge

The implementation gap became an organizational function with headcount, budget, and roadmap.

Act III: The Turn

Timeline

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2025

???

The 40-year implementation gap is closed.

Vision

Execution

Here's the proof.

Act III: The Turn

The Proof

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A working design system. Built alone. Not because I'm special — because the tools finally are.

1,253 lines of human-readable specification. Written in plain language — AI interprets it directly.

"Volt = 'This is my perspective.'

Signal = 'This is emerging.'

Shift = 'This changes everything.'"

The system describes principles, not pixels — and that's enough.

Act III: The Turn

Execution

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AI interprets the specification and generates the output.

Same specification, three outputs

Act III: The Turn

Honest Assessment

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The revolution isn't that we don't need designers. It's that designers can focus on what AI can't do.

The Gap AI Closes	The Gap That Remains
Design → Working code	Working code → Accessible code
Principles → Pixels	Pixels → Brand differentiation
One-off creation	Sustained governance
Individual builder	Cross-functional alignment

Act III: The Turn

The Collapse

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Igor Schwarzmann

The apparatus that grew up around the gap is now optional.

Design System Lead

Component Designers

Engineers

DesignOps

Governance

Documentation

One mind + AI

Same output

Act IV: The Prestige

Timeline

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2025: The Return

Full circle.

We've returned to Alexander's original vision.

Act IV: The Prestige

Full Circle

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A Pattern Language, 1977

Design System, 2025

48 years apart. Same vision. Finally possible.

Act IV: The Prestige

Implications

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This changes who can build — and what "design system" means.

The gap closes

How we think about tools What design systems mean Who can build

Act IV: The Prestige

Meta-Proof

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The protocol made this possible. You're looking at it.

Strategy-as-Protocol

Substack, last week

→

This Presentation

My own system, this week

The essay described the theory. This demonstrates it.

Last week's essay ran on Substack. This deck runs on my own system.

Coda

The New Skill

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Clear thinking becomes the implementation skill.

Pattern Recognition

→

Clear Specification

→

AI Execution

→

Output

The value moved upstream. Design systems become thought systems made executable.

Coda

What's Next

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The experiment continues. This is the beginning, not the end.

Show me version 2.0 in six months. That's the real test. Can AI handle maintenance, breaking changes, evolution?

I don't know yet. But I know Alexander's original vision — one mind, pattern recognition, usable output — is closer than it's been in 48 years.

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Igor Schwarzmann

Culture. Technology. Pattern recognition.

igorschwarzmann.com