In theory, design tokens were supposed to save us. They were the missing link between design and code, a neat way to abstract decisions—colors, spacing, typography, motion—into a unified language that both designers and developers could understand.

No more manually updating hex codes or tweaking border radii by hand. Instead, tokens would ensure consistency and scalability across entire ecosystems. Beautiful idea. Elegant in a slide deck.

But in practice, something went sideways. The same abstraction that promised harmony has started to suffocate creativity, clarity, and even the purpose of design systems themselves . We’ve entered the era of token fatigue —a point where the layers of abstraction have become so recursive, so self-referential, that the system spends more time describing itself than designing anything. Let’s unpack how we got here.

The Original Promise: Design Tokens as a Bridge

The concept of design tokens originated as a pragmatic response to chaos.…