On Theme: Design Systems in Depth

Y’all know I am fully bought in on design-with-code tools, so I loved this episode with Robin Cannon, VP of Product at Knapsack and former IBM Carbon and J.P. Morgan Salt design system exec, on why he thinks the infinite canvas is obsolete, and what we might replace it with. 
Robin chats with us about a future where software design happens in the same medium as production code, making the “infinite canvas” abstraction obsolete. But what does “designing with code” really look like today… and in the future? We explore a world with tools that could enable us to build with design-system rules plus broader product context. Plus we discuss why today’s design-with-code tools aren’t quite there yet, the enterprise barriers to working in new ways, and you as a designer can make this shift.

Links & References
Robin Cannon on LinkedIn
robin-cannon.com
Building for coherence, not compliance, lessons from Baldurs Gate 3, by Murphy Trueman
Erika Flowers, Zero Vector and Open Vector design approach
Agentic Development is just MMOs for Coding, and I am LFG, Erika Flowers
Knapsack
Dessn and Mockdown

💖 Season 2 of On Theme is officially here! 🎉 💖 If you like what you're hearing from On Theme, hit subscribe in your favorite podcast platform and sign up to get episode release notes at designsystemsontheme.com! On Theme is  sponsor free and listener supported, so please support the show with a monthly donation.

📲 Send me a text!
Support the show

Noelle joins me again for some 2026 predictions trend encapsulations, and we try to unpack the absolute madness of the first two months of 2026. 
1️⃣  Designing with code is in, making pictures of UIs is out. 
2️⃣ The new critical deliverables for systems teams are design guidelines, agent rules, tokens, and semantic APIs. 
3️⃣ We're gonna see a real focus on brand expression, but also on one-offs. 
4️⃣ Design system teams, you do organizational behavior change. 
5️⃣ The next chapter of the design system narrative is around quality rather than efficiency. 
Plus: the rise of the design engineer and a return to the early 2000s ways of working? I hope so!, nothingburger brands, and design systems gatekeeping.
Season 2 of On Theme is officially here! 🎉 💖 If you like what you're hearing from On Theme, please hit subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. On Theme is  sponsor free and listener supported, so please support the show with a monthly donation.
📲 Send me a text!
Support the show

My very first minisode of the entire podcast was some 2025 predictions, and a lot has changed. (Honestly, what was I thinking trying to make predictions in the era of AI? fml) Noelle Lansford joined me for Season Two's official first episode to  recap my 2025 predictions with me and look back on the trends and themes we saw in design-systems-land last year.
Stay tuned for part two where we dive in to our 2026 predictions!
📲 Send me a text!
Support the show

I'm back from Zeroheight's Converge conference in Bristol, UK, with my recap and thoughts. In this minisode, find out my three major themes from the event: reducing complexity, shifting towards code to design, and the narratives "framing our future". 

Resources & Links:
Zeroheight's Converge
3 practical ways LLMs can support design systems teams today, on the Zeroheight blog
From Promises to Practice: the Future of Design Systems, my talk at Converge (video coming soon)
John Voss's talk Framing the Future (coming soon)
US Section 174 R&D Tax explained
📲 Send me a text!
Support the show

Surprise minisode! In this quick episode, hear a few ways AI tools are useful for design systems now, my new favorite design-eng handoff tool, and three can't-miss industry events this fall.
📲 Send me a text!
Support the show