Styl Wries

I’m sure you’ve all gone through the process; Designer refines the branding based on the last round of user testing, the new logo looks amazing and the bright new orange preformed great on calls to action.

Now it’s time to implement :O
@1x, @2x, @3x, mobile, web, app, watch, glass, internal, external, print, FB, Twitter, Insta and undoubtedly more. Then its time to update all the contractors and 3rd party revenue streams!

“It used to be that designers made an object and walked away. Today the emphasis must shift to designing the entire life cycle.” — Paul Saffo

Ok, great quote and in the world of product design it’s the holy grail. This is what we should all be aspiring to, work on a product that you love, nurture it and help it grow.

BUT…
This is tech, this is fast, this is constant and today it means being everywhere, from down on your wrist to up in the cloud. Managing these variables even for a small startup can cost extensive time and money.
This either gets done right and takes hundreds of hours OR someones doing a half assed job! Not doing it right means the next time you see an ad for you’re swanky new product, it could have the old logo right in the middle!

ACTUALLY…
This is tech and now is the time when we can order a cab from our watch, pay, give a tip and book lunch before the journeys end!

So why do we still create and manage assets the same way we always have done. We work on apps and websites so cutting edge, to anyone outside the industry it seems powered by magic and cats that ride on rainbows.

If only they knew the grizzly truth! Manual updating of hundreds of assets and deciphering naming structures such as NewerNewLogo-V1–2B-Final-ActuallyFinal.PSD.

This is a necessary evil which in fact doesn’t necessarily need to be evil. Plodding along doing it the same old way seems just like glorified data entry. We are designers, developers, makers of all sorts of awesome and spending our time solving and creating is what we should be doing.

SO LETS CHANGE THIS…
Lets create a living, breathing Style guide that can be an eco-system of assets spawning the creation of great things.

We've started building Styl over at filament and think internally its a great idea. We'd love to get your thought on it and even what you would like from a product like this.

Thanks for reading!
More info and details to come soon :)