This is a story of how a misinterpretation between a designer and a developer became the starting point of a living design system. Design systems does not only ensure a coherent design and user experience across multiple applications but can also function as a common ground that minimizes miscommunication between designer and developer and makes working in multidisciplinary teams more effective and enjoyable. This will not be a how-to since I have found there to be no universally applicable recipe on how to make a complete design system. It will however perhaps offer some inspiration on why and how you could get started with your own system.