Oh hey, my name is Levi.

I've been the lead on a design system project that serves dozens of development teams across a fairly large organization for a little over a year now. I've done a lot of work defining and documenting design standards in that time and have really enjoyed it.

As the project grows and real humans start to use it (sometimes abuse it), and improve it in ways I couldn't have imagined, I've been thinking a lot more about how the system needs to adapt.

I worked in a brand identity agency years ago and remember reading and article back then (I can't for the life of me find a link 😬, I'm sorry 🙏) about how companies tend to think of their brand as a solid structure like a skyscraper—something rigid that will never change. But really successful brands are more like gardens—you plant them and they grow and bloom. Sometimes they turn into something more beautiful than you could have imagined, and sometimes they become overgrown and need to be pruned back.

Maybe this is just a overblown metaphor for saying "Plan for change", but I think there's more to it than that. Before you fire up Sketch, write a line of CSS, or pick which front-end JavaScript framework you're going to use, I suggest you zoom out and spend some time designing how you'll manage the growth and ultimately, pruning of the system over time.

I don't have universal answers to how you design those processes, or what they look like, but I do have a handful of questions to get started.

Partial design system kick-off checklist

Looking back, here are few questions I wish I would've thought more deeply about before I jumped into building a design system.

• How will you build a community around your design system?
  • Do you have a clear process for contributing to your system?
  • How do you recognize teams/individuals that are using the system well?
  • How do you get teams to share work back with you?
• What happens when designers/developers deviate form the system?
  • What if the result of their deviation is good and would be a valuable addition to the system?
  • What if it's really inaccessible, or bad UX design?
• How will you define the lifecycle of your design system?
  • How often will you do releases?
  • How do you retire components from your design system?
  • How do you deal with breaking changes?
• How will you demonstrate the value of your design system?
  • How do you talk with change-averse folks who don't what to learn something new?
  • How do you talk to leadership about the value of a design system?

My partner and I bought a house this summer in the town where we've lived and worked for the past five years. She, our son, and I just finished moving this past week and are enjoying our first weekend in the new place. Yesterday I mowed the lawn for the first time. It was a really hot day (90ºF) and the beer I had right after (a humble Corona), was among the top five best-tasting beers I've ever drank.

I bought a new grill this weekend and last night Lincoln and I grilled up some burgers and sweet corn. Sam made rice crispy treats. She followed the recipe on the back of the cereal box exactly and they were so tasty.

All this is to say that I feel really good right now—more settled, less transient, permanent.

Here's a shoddy photo I snapped with my phone of move-in day.

I've been feeling a lot of the tell-tale signs of burnout. I can't stay focused on complex tasks, it feels like I won't ever finish anything, and I keep working when I know I shouldn't.

It's that last one that is most cruel. The worst thing you can do is try to force the work. When you're burned out, there's a little voice telling you that if you just work for another hour, or open your laptop on Sunday night that you'll have a breakthrough and magically just...not feel burned out anymore.

I've been in this situation enough times to know what works for me. Walk away. Step back and think about something else for the weekend. You're smart, and good at what you do, and you'll figure out that problem you are trying to solve. But first, give yourself a break.

Our dog Bowie passed unexpectedly on Thursday, February 1 2018. As far as we (and the vet) could tell he had a pretty rough life before he came to live with us almost two years ago. I think we were able to give him a pretty good last couple of years of life.

Dealing with any kind of death is such a helpless and frustrating experience and it never gets easier. We miss him and we're still feeling pretty low, but I'm thankful for the time he got to live with us and the great memories we have to share forever.

A little while ago I wrote about how I started a new job at the beginning of this year. About a month after that I had my first solo art show. Work has kept me pretty busy and to be honest, I've barely had the energy to create much art in what spare time I've had.

I don't think there will ever be a time where I don't have the urge to make some kind of art. Creative fulfillment is something that I need in my life, and the urge to pursue it never really goes away. I'm lucky because even though my job doesn't involve making art, I do get a lot of the same sense of fulfillment out the work I'm doing.

I still carve out a little time here and there to make new stuff. It's a slow drip, but here are some new pieces I've made over the last few months.

Small Works Holiday Group Show

I'll be showing a handful of pieces (maybe some of these new ones ☝️) at the Blueline Gallery again this coming month. It's a group show with a few other local artists and it'll be up until December 29.