---
title: "design tokens | Skills We Assign For | Azendo"
description: "Design tokens — one source for design decisions, theming, plus the Azendo roles assigned for it."
url: "https://azendo.co/skills/design-tokens/"
---

[Skills](https://azendo.co/skills/) Design and research 

# design tokens.

Design tokens are named values for design decisions — colour, spacing, type scale, radius, motion — stored in a format both design tools and code consume, so a change propagates rather than being reapplied.

## Where design tokens fits on a long engagement.

Tokens replace repetition with reference. A colour defined once and referenced everywhere means a brand change is one edit rather than a search through stylesheets and design files, and it removes the near-miss variants that accumulate when values are typed by hand.

The naming structure is what decides whether tokens survive. Semantic names describing purpose — surface, text-primary, border-subtle — survive a rebrand; names describing appearance, like blue-500, become wrong the moment the palette changes, which is exactly when tokens should be helping.

## What an assigned team does with design tokens.

Tokens only deliver if both sides actually consume them. A token file that designers maintain while engineers hard-code values is overhead with no benefit, and it is the normal outcome without a pipeline connecting the two.

Building that pipeline is joint design and engineering work, scoped together under [outsourced design team](https://azendo.co/services/ux-ui-design/) capacity.

## What we use design tokens for.

* Brand changes that propagate One edit reaching every surface rather than a search through files.
* Semantic naming that survives a rebrand Names describing purpose rather than appearance.
* Theming from one source Light, dark and white-label variants generated rather than maintained separately.

## How design tokens capacity is assigned.

Token work sits between design and frontend, with the pipeline that gets tokens into code treated as the deliverable rather than the token file itself.

## Roles we assign design tokens for

* [UI Designer UX/UI design](https://azendo.co/services/ux-ui-design/ui-designer/)

## Service lines it sits in

* [UX/UI design](https://azendo.co/services/ux-ui-design/)

Capacity is agreed as a committed monthly capacity across a discipline, not per skill.

## Related in design and research

* [Figma — skill we assign for](https://azendo.co/skills/figma/)
* [Storybook — skill we assign for](https://azendo.co/skills/storybook/)
* [Maze — skill we assign for](https://azendo.co/skills/maze/)
* [Hotjar — skill we assign for](https://azendo.co/skills/hotjar/)
* [usability testing — skill we assign for](https://azendo.co/skills/usability-testing/)
* [design systems — skill we assign for](https://azendo.co/skills/design-systems/)
* [component libraries — skill we assign for](https://azendo.co/skills/component-libraries/)
* [Figma Dev Mode — skill we assign for](https://azendo.co/skills/figma-dev-mode/)

## Tell us what your roadmap needs design tokens for.

A service delivery manager replies with the disciplines we would assign, the monthly capacity and what the first month looks like.

[All skills we assign for](https://azendo.co/skills/)