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Sketch2React was designed by a developer

And that’s actually a great thing.

Since 2018 we have shipped fast, early and just kept going with that same attitude. All those tutorials, demos, resources, articles etc? Me, as a designer, trying to make sense what Fredrik Ward had come up with. ?


For real. Not made up.

So instead of being caught up in development hell we said to ourselves “this is good enough, let’s see what people think ?”.

There was never a master plan either. Roadmap? Hahaha ? Not the first year. We actually got that question asked.

Since we had the luxury of working together, even in our day jobs, we were sitting there, side by side, starring at the question.

I felt a bit stupid, I must admit. Of course you needed a roadmap when building software. But this was not our regular jobs, this was our passion project, our hobby.

But we listened, learned and got ourselves a roadmap ???

10% entrepreneurs?

I recently read something about 10% entrepreneurs. The term is nothing new but it suits us perfectly well. We’re not quitting our regular jobs any day soon. They provide us the means to do this on this side. They give us and our families security. You’re probably never going to see us hanging around any startup hub in Stockholm. Never say never though ?

A year ago we met with presumed investors who liked what we where doing. They where great in many ways, we learned a lot, but not a match for us.

Turns out most people meeting investors look for money to do their thing full-time, as this somehow would make their idea more valuable?!

Why is that? So all the people that are not ready to jump in, risk everything, are not worthy of creating new businesses?

We want to grow slow and the day that (if) this becomes a full-time we’ll be there adapting.

We’re also super happy doing this as a 10% side thing, as long as people keep using our products we have purpose.

This doesn’t mean we don’t give 100% of ourselves when working as Team Sketch2React. Anyone that has been in direct contact with us knows that to be true.

Basically the first time I did something related to my usual day job as a designer was when we started working with Stratos. Speaking of Stratos!



Stratos Alpha 2 with more ❤️ for design tokens

Some time next week we should have a freshly baked Stratos Alpha 2 out of the software oven, for you to play around with. We have given design tokens some real love, as we see this being one of our killer features, if not the single feature that will create momentum for us. Why? Simple really:

It’s really powerful, easy to learn and really difficult to stop using, once you have understood it’s value.


Design tokens also creates the perfect balance between design & development. Developers who are panicking or slash laughing, when they hear things like “design real code components in Sketch” should be calmed by the use of design tokens.


Basically designers touch what designers care most about (be honest now godamnit) — the look and feel of things like typography, colors, spacing (white space bro, whiiiiiiite space rules) … and leave the rest alone … the rest being what devs care most about, their beloved code base.

Later on, when both designers and developers feel more at ease with tools such as Stratos, they will start using the more advanced features.

Of course, this is a huge over-simplification and 100% guesswork here. So basically we know nothing. Like Manuel in Faulty Towers.



That’s all folks!

Juan Maguid, designer Team Sketch2React

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