Revolver-DS is a simple revolver-themed ITCSS methodology in CSS; just lock, load & ship your non-destructive design token @layers!
EVERYTHING uses @layers to structure BOUM-tokens using ITCSS, which in turn get loaded correctly and non-destructively in a fresh Revolver-DS @import + @layer combination; @layer reset, lock, load, ship, preset;
/*style.css*/
@layer reset, lock, load, ship, preset;
@import url('../css/lock.css') layer(lock);
@import url('../css/load.css') layer(load);
@import url('../css/ship.css') layer(ship);
<p>The layers reset (first) and preset (last) are specifically designed for developers post designer implementation. All they have to remember is to just lock, load & ship it! A design system should be that easy to implement with other design systems; just pull the trigger.</p>
Revolver-DS aims to do exactly what all the others forgot; create a design system for designers in the same manner as developers do, so there's a seperation of concern upfront "what wins". @layers will fix that, and with five clearly seperated layers, both parties can rejoice!
Revolver-DS strictly uses the @layers feature to prevent any conflict with any class-based DS code, and to keep everything modularly and strictly layered instead of typed. A best practice that designer's know how to do as well, and saves them from naming things technically because "it's code".
RDS strictly uses tokenized "Literal, Relative and Lateral" CSS variables. They supercharge the layering of Revolver-DS without JS, as well as create a pleasant dx-experience without being forced to adopt a framework or alienating concept. Use the design system we already have; language!
What does color--600 actually mean? Is it the default, or the base? Numerics don't cut it that way, semantically. This is why Revolver-DS has it's own semantical token notation called .: B.O.U.~M :. that uses a relative --base to start from. Need more? Base plus one. Need less? Base minus one. It works great with fluid scales like Utopia (included!).
It should require no more than HTML, CSS and a text editor to get started with Revolver-DS. Pen & Paper is how I thought this system out, and in digital it works offline too. Just add .rds to your body element, and poof!
But what is more important than any of that is that the design language is fully semantical, and accessible for non-technical people to get started with. The result: No docs, strictly simple principles to remember by hand so you can self-learn them by your own hands. And maybe even pass them on, but that's beautiful too; to learn yourself or to teach to learn yourself how to teach; a student you are, a student you will remain
The technical aspect of accessibility is something Revolver-DS cares deeply about. Yet there are already better systems out there that can do a better job on that level. Second, we anticipate CSS features like color-contrast() to solve this in a native way.
Developers, rejoice! This design system :has made your DS my primary customer and contains only two classes; .rds and .rds--freeze. Revolver-DS is made with classless CSS, and fully modular @layers so you can lock, load and ship any of it's parts interchangibly any:where! Including the license agreements so many forget. That :is the power of headless CSS design systems, that nothing in your head jams, :not even legal matters.
Revolver-DS is anticipating a trend; to work completely remote and independant. What it means to us is two things; Revolver-DS always works without a connection or dependencies, and second to support development on offline mobile devices. Including the return of Pen & Paper education, no joke.
This makes RDS perfect for "pure" on the go development such as teaching yourself how to structure a DS without relying on a heavy 3rd party framework or Googling. Designed for daily practice, not prestige.
Selflearning is the only golden standard today, if not ever, because what else? A post-human design system with all choices made for you, and that legally owns all your IP from the start before you could say "lock.."?
Lets reclaim our voice, identity and ownership before web3 consumes it, without the need for Revolver-crypto. Just Lock, Load & Ship your lethal and legal DS!
.: B.O.U.~M :. is an intellectual IP that protects design system products & product lincensing for free by using design-tokens as legal tender. A smart contract to manage your design tokens, and the attached IP from copyright "mistakes".
It makes them work like a legal block-chain inside any DS quite literally, without the crypto or burning the planet. Yet it protects any work created by it, Revolver-DS too, against the use of NFT's, crypto-currency or any SaaS-related software supporting web3.
Just a few kb's of CSS logical properties and HTML, protected by a license agreement on the .: B.O.U.~M :. naming convention. So yes, we did not only make a design system but also a custom naming convention, and a design system license agreement that's up to date on ethics. I'm a fan of this planet, and you?
By attaching BOUM-tokens to layer your design tokens, combined your design tokens are now protected by the FREE .: B.O.U.~M :. License. It is a supplement to the Creative Commons 4.0 CC-BA-NC-SA license already included, which solely protects the destributed and attached BOUM-tokens that in turn are attached to yours.
This simple, scalable and professional license model offers very generous public free tiers for everyday design system use (1st & 2nd degree) personally & commercially, has an open source tier (limited 3rd), and professional & paid tiers (3rd & 4th degree) for daily professional who wish to use my IP (BOUM) at scale.
Even without a proof of license which is required for professional use, your products are still protected by the Creative Commons license as a fallback, which defaults to non-commercial, share alike. Revolver-DS and it's methodology is and will always be FREE to use for personal and non-commercial educational use without the hassle if it's not for the hustle.
Have a look and see for yourself if you need Revolver-DS to hustle; BOUM prevents NFT and web3 related usage of your licensed and creative work by default, for FREE! Something no other open source creative copyright license dares to do, or has even tried to apply (to self).
Language is the oldest technology, so just Lock, Load & Ship it! Powered by Revolver-DS, and one dissident Dutch designer named justgu.us; the tiniest Dutch design system agency, packed inside a human body.
I love branding, naming and design systems so much, that I started giving an "all guns blazing" applied game design workshop called: "Naming Things: my DS". For those that want to learn the true art of design systems ; designing a DS pattern language by hand, no code, and applied game design to practice it onsite!
Any Questions about the gamified workshop? Just ask Guus for a remote demo!.
And to sum up how big of a difference one person can make; I, justgu.us, made this design system, it's license agreement, it's distribution model, and the business model, all by myself, for myself. It's a full-stack design system for one single indie to do his business to the highest professional degree possible; self-learning by gamification.
Revolver-DS uses BOUM-tokens to protects it's intellectual and monetary property rights. All artifacts created using the design system are therefor protected by having BOUM-tokens attached and nested to a product (not person). It is free for most use-cases personally and commercially, and has generous free 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree tiers for heavy commercial use too.
Revolver-DS is not meant as a production framework, but a preproduction methodology for designers to structure their CSS in @layers. BOUM-tokens are the actual copyright protected material that can not be destributed commercially, only through sharing alike and accreditation, which makes Revolver-DS needed to be shared alike. This specific CC-license is also the fallback license in case you do not agree with the .: B.O.U.~M :. License agreement, or if you can not prove ownership of holding an official license that you can get for FREE from the BOUM-shop.
Burried by the math behind fluid typescales? 50 yrs of Letterpressing to the rescue!
Gravemaker.css is a demo of how these actual typescales work in digital, and what the difference is between relative and absolute units in CSS. Their origin is fluid typography (duodecimo), but so is digital (sedecimo) because they had to be pressed on a square piece of paper.
This required a numerical system of proportional equality that could support both the typographers needs for designing the iconic symbols of the typeface, but also make the letterpressing a reality by sticking to a formula that could be interdisciplinairy communicated.
Thomas Gravemaker was my mentor for only a short while, and hopefully will remain for as long as possible. He will be privately giving physical workshops that you might be able to book at https://www.letterpressamsterdam.com/ next summer (2022), but for now he's handing things over and I was lucky to get one more workshop with him this year.
I got hopelessly lost at the start coming from digital, as we are use to the 8px grid, but not used to the 12pt in typography, and why that is used as the root value to devide the real estate. Spacings in typography can be so minute because the system behind it supports the layout. And that part is key to creating a great flow of your digital documents too, as we primarely focus on the pixel as the source of truth. Not optimal devisions and flow, like "they" do (typesetters).
If anything, that would be the aim for for Revolver Design System; to create an optimal flow of import, export and departing from design systems for your next creation. Don't like Gravemaker's way of doing things? Well he's not a big fan of digital either, or Amazon. But I do think it's worthwhile to keep practicing, and so I continue on any "luxery time" I have to dive into it in the applied sense (demos).
After reading the dutch book Praktisch Rekenen: voor zetters, drukkers en binders by C. Hofmann, I got to learn the math that Thomas was educated with, and knows by heart and hand how to set right each and every time. Perfect, no computer, just by memory and the science behind the math. This is why I believe any knowledge should require no more than five fingers to explain.
And this way of dealing with numbers, by hand, has been done by a famous (selftaught) physician, scientist, socialist & mentor to many beyond his lifetime 'Bede' (724) who invented this method to "learn by hand" so the mnemonics (in memory) are retained in the physical form, but will always be conveyed by a presence and voice that CAN explain the principle by their own hands. This method is called computus digitorum, later known as just "computus" which is how your contiousness computes.
This to me was as clear as night and day; computus digitorum is most certainly one of the principle behind our everyday computer science, as all software runs by the hand of their creator, which is effectively a computus digital; the physical manifestation of a predefined set of mental operations to be executed by a computer. To me that sounds as relevant as it is ancient, and traces computer science back to well over a melennia than we previously thought.
This method is also a scientific self-test to really see if your teacher knows what they are talking about (meaning in those times; you are your own best teacher!), and to see where you differ with other teachers. So self-learning was about writing and rewriting your handy mnemonics untill self-taught to perfection, or they would simply not work for you; your own mnemonics.
This is the forgotten lesson about hand mnemonics; that you are able to see the abstract theory of your own mind to someone has on their own execution of thought, that both can actually relate to in the physical realm. Nowadays it's just "words against words", meta-physical vs meta-physcial, a quite boring interactivity if you aim for the highest goal; enlightened factfull relativity based on logic vs logic, not illogic mixed with logic.
This is therefor a the balanced middle-ground to help digital typographers as well as letter-pressers a demonstration how those proportions actually relate in odds & even proportions of the root-value. Because it is exactly the root-value that you pick that will set the stage for both your press, and your print. You should be able to see the pattern and it's principles by hand, and not another visual representation of something that it actually never is in real life. You just need to concentrate and find your focus, it's easier than you think.
article on Handy Mnemonics: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/handy-mnemonics