Today, we're excited to announce that Figma Tokens is growing. We're evolving to something bigger than just a plugin. Bigger than just for Figma. Something that will be used far beyond just one design tool. An independent way to manage how and what brands are made of. We'll work on making sure design system maintainers have the tools they need to support the complex systems they're building. To underline that intent, we're announcing a change of name.
Going forward, Figma Tokens will be known as Tokens Studio for Figma. The plugin will stay as it is, the only thing that changes is its name. We're also working on a dedicated design tokens manager that you'll be able to use no matter if you use Figma, Sketch, or the next hot thing.
The design tokens space is more exciting than ever. Design tools will soon have built-in support to use design tokens in some form, the design systems community is in for a treat. That wasn’t always the case! When Figma Tokens was created, design tokens, despite its name, was something that designers just couldn't use in design tools. There’s been a lot of groundwork that we had to do when it comes to integrating tokens into design tools, and we’re thrilled to see design tools recognize that and adapt.
With our change of name we’re also announcing a new structure for where our open source efforts live. Up until today, all of our efforts were spread around different places. We’ll change that. Figma Tokens will move to github.com/tokens-studio/figma-plugin where we’ll keep building it in the open. Expect some other projects there in the near future, as we move our tools to our new shared home.
Personally, I’m beyond excited by the possibilities that the future brings. For far too long, design tools worked in isolation of one another. I’m hopeful for a future where design can happen in the open, on open standards. And for actually managing your tokens, we hope to bring some change there as well. Currently, professional design token management is happening either in a small plugin window — or in a JSON! Imagine the potential if you had all the real estate your screen had to offer.
This is a space we're passionate about, and we're excited to be breaking out of just being a Figma plugin. We have big ideas for this space, and are very excited to show you a peek on what we're about to work on. Stay tuned for more.
