AI produces unpredictable results and lacks awareness of your organization's realities, standards, and practices.
Design systems are here to help.
They provide UI consistency, organizational standards, and design & code best practices
Design systems provide guardrails
Well-considered design decisions serve as thoughtful constraints to help teams deliver at scale.
They provide a shared language
Design systems connect disciplines, teams, people, tools, and now machines.
AI
Design Systems
AI & Design Systems is a powerful combination.
This course will teach you how to use AI & design systems together to create great digital products.
This course is for anyone invested in the success of digital products at your organization. Whether you're a designer, developer, product owner, manager, or leader, you'll learn how AI & design systems work together to help you create better digital products. The course blends foundational concepts with practical, in-the-weeds instruction to help you level up your skills and understanding. By taking this course, you'll:
Cut through the AI hype and confidently understand and navigate this fast-moving, noisy AI landscape.
Understand design systems' evolving role as critical infrastructure for this new AI-driven era.
Become an expert in how AI and design systems work together to help your organization build great digital products.
Accelerate your AI & design systems journey by receiving sample architecture, demonstrations, and real-world applications.
Transform your team's workflow to gain efficiency and effectiveness without sacrificing product quality.
Unlock designer/developer collaboration, closing the gap between design and development by using shared context, language, and infrastructure
Save time, money, and agony by learning how to synchonize environments, disciplines, tools, and assets.
Course Structure
This self-paced course will feature in-depth videos that cover both high-level concepts and practical instruction to help your team wield AI & design systems together.
Chapter 1
ai + design systems
Learn core concepts around the many ways AI and design systems interact to create better, more efficient, and more consistent digital products.
Chapter 2
technologies & tools
Find your footing amidst the ever-growing and always-changing landscape of AI and design systems tooling and technologies.
Chapter 3
environments and setup
Learn how to integrate AI into your design tools, code environments, documentation, and more.
Chapter 4
context-based design systems workflow
Learn how AI can be used to help create components, QA design artifacts, translate from design to code, validate code, and launch quality work faster.
Chapter 5
maintaining systems & anticipating change
No one can predict the future, and this landscape certainly doesn't sit still. Learn how to build a culture of resilience and adaptability in your organization.
Materials
community & resources
In addition to the course video content, you'll receive access to a Slack community filled with like-minded enthusiasts, a slew of links, and other resources to help you on your journey.
Your Teachers
Learn from industry veterans who have helped countless digital organizations create design systems, adopt new technologies, and work better together.
TJ Pitre
Founder and CEO of Southleft
I’m a front-end engineer, design-systems architect, and the founder and CEO of Southleft. I’ve spent the last twenty years helping product teams turn complex UI into reliable systems that scale across brands, platforms, and teams. I love the craft of building interfaces that are both flexible and durable.
My recent work focuses on how AI can accelerate design-to-development workflows. I’ve created generative UI prototypes and tooling that help teams assemble real interfaces from design systems, validate tokens and component structure, and sustain high-quality standards with less friction. I share this work often through demos, talks, and collaborations that explore how AI can support the way we already build digital products.
I’m based in New Orleans with my wife and three kids. When I’m not building something new, I’m usually cooking, tinkering, or chasing the next fun idea.
Brad Frost & Ian Frost
Creators of Atomic Design, Design systems consultants
Brad Frost Web is Brad and Ian Frost, two brothers passionate about making things and helping people.
With over 30 years of combined industry experience, we've helped countless organizations—including many Fortune 500 companies—evolve design systems, establish better processes, and create better digital products.
We help digital teams level up through training and online courses about design systems, design tokens, frontend development, collaboration, and more.
We live five minutes away from each other in beautiful Pittsburgh. When we're not neck-deep in design systems, we're playing music, making things, and spending time with our families.
Testimonials
Brad, Ian, and TJ are industry leaders who are trusted by industry experts, tool makers, Fortune 500 clients, and thousands of professionals.
My expectations for Subatomic were high, and yet they were exceeded. Brad and Ian's course helped me understand the fundamentals of design tokens on a remarkably deep level. The way they break down token architecture into practical, implementable systems transformed my approach to design. I now have the confidence to build scalable multi-brand experiences and tackle any theming challenge. I feel I can do anything now 💪.
There are plenty of resources out there talking about the basic concepts of design tokens, which I get, but having the words like code package managers, package import to target applications, npm, yarn, etc are the real important stuff to get the tokens working. I love how you're empowering designers like myself to be on the same playing field with the engineers so we can collaborate.
The course is **fantastic**, and I would go on to say that this course should be a mandatory course for every designer graduating college and entering the workforce. Not only for them, also for seasoned designers. I'm finding so much peace of mind updating my ways of working as I include design tokens in our company's design system.
I enrolled today and the way I can describe this experience is "declench"! This is what I need, a guide that doesn't assume I've never heard of design systems before and gives practical, actionable advice that I can then carry out. The relief is palpable. This course is a triumph.
From the very first finished chapter, I was hooked. The way you break down the history, the roles, and the perspectives of both designers and developers—it's like finally getting a nutrient-packed meal after years of snacking on half-baked Design Systems content.
The course has been a marvelous feast of insights from two of the best and most experienced teachers you could ask for. It came at the perfect time for a project to support customers configuring a white labelled product. The course offers easy to consume videos that in the end are very thorough and cover the whole process end-to-end. Highly recommended! This will be one I come back to again and again.
Guys, I can't imagine how many hours you have put into this course. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with all of us, I'm about half way through chapter four and it's so thorough! Exactly what I needed at just the right time 🤟🏼
The depth and effort you seem to have put into this course are impressive. I'm not sure anyone else has taken such a deep dive into this topic yet.
I really loved how simple and easy to follow the course was! The way it introduced the three-tiered token architecture—Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3—made so much sense ^_^ It was great to see how we can apply this structure in real-world projects without overcomplicating things.
I am really enjoying Subatomic. Me and a few coworkers are taking the course, and it's been a huge help as we create a new design system.
It is one of the best courses available online these days. Thanks for putting such a great effort into producing it.
I've been loving the subatomic course! Optimizing methods/workflows at the subatomic level returns a tremendous amount of value. #gamechanger
Industry Leaders
Brad is a long-time trusted expert in Design Systems, who literally wrote the book on Atomic Design. He's one of the most knowledgeable people in this space, and this paired with his depth and knowledge of Figma makes him a perfect person to run a deep-dive course on Design Systems.
Brad Frost is one of the most original creative thinkers I know, and he has long been ahead of the curve on the collaboration between modern design and development. Take this course and you'll not only get far more done in less time, you'll also enjoy your work more, while rising in the opinion of your colleagues and stakeholders.
I can't think of better people to teach Design Tokens than Brad and Ian. Their years of experience building sophisticated design systems for a wide range of organizations and products have given them a deep knowledge of all things design systems—balancing what's possible with what's practical. With this course, you will learn everything you need to know and have fun doing it!
You want to learn about building design systems from someone who has built design systems. Like, a
lot of them. For totally different organizations. Take this course and learn how to do it, not in the abstract or theoretically, but
from people who get paid doing this exact work.
Brad and Ian Frost are renowned industry experts in design systems for a reason: they have worked deeply with varied companies through the industry for decades, building durable, thoughtful, and maintainable architectures. Taking a course with them is an accelerant to any developer: being able to incorporate years of expert experience into your own practice.
Brad is a luminary at the intersection of design and frontend. This course is a pragmatic and
future-thinking way to get design tokens into production.
I would follow Brad into any design systems battle! His experience, perspective, and thoughtful way of communicating makes him an amazing resource and teacher. Any course led by him and Ian is guaranteed to be worth the investment!
Brad has been instrumental in advancing the concept of design tokens and design systems. I am constantly referring to Brad's talks and articles, especially the article about a three-tiered approach to design tokens. Brad and Ian are amazing teachers and writers so I know this course will be amazing.
Over the past decade working in Design Systems I've relied on Brad's ideas, advice, and resources
countless times to help frame discussions and move forwards. Quite literally, I did it this week! Brad and Ian
are not only people with big ideas about Design Systems, but also people who repeatedly demonstrate their ability to
execute and deliver complete systems to empower teams all over the world.
Brad is one of the top design systems experts I recommend to my students. In a space full of noise and quick-money promises, his work stands out for being thoughtful, practical, and grounded in real experience. I've learned so much from his articles, workshops, and courses. Brad makes complex ideas clear and approachable, and his fun, down-to-earth style makes learning from him an absolute joy. He really knows his stuff—and shares it in a way that just clicks.
Brad Frost and Ian Frost are absolute powerhouses in their field. Atomic Design has shaped the way
the tech industry approaches design, and I had the opportunity to work with them on a major project for a Fortune 10 company. If you're
looking to deepen your understanding of design systems, you won't find better guides than Brad and Ian. Their new course is bound to be
a goldmine for anyone wanting to create scalable and impactful work.
You know your design system. But Brad and Ian know a multitude of design systems—like, literally
hundreds! Take advantage of their experience and benefit from everything they've learned along the way to make sure your design system
is best in class.
I've seen Brad and Ian teach hundreds of designers and developers about atomic design and design systens. They have worked with some of the largest companies in the world and have a unique track record of training and practical experience, so if you're at all interested in learning how to create an effective design token system to help your organization design and build at scale, then this course might be _just_ what you need.
Brad and Ian have been at the forefront of design systems since the beginning. I can't think of two safer pairs of hands to not only teach folks about how to do anything with design systems. More than that, they'll teach you how to do it right.
The industry needs a course like this that focuses on the fundamentals of how we think about the systematic expression of a brand. Much like how Atomic Design changed the way we all thought about modular reusable interfaces, this course will help put the industry on a pathway toward a structured and practical understanding of how design tokens can deliver immense value at scale.
I've known Brad for over 10 years and he REALLY knows his stuff. Hell, his book Atomic Design
pretty much put design systems on the map. But even more important is how he works. Atomic Design was built in the open, for free, for
anyone. He just wants good ideas to be out there. Not only that, he takes a healthy chunk of his earnings and
gives it to charity. Brad and Ian aren't just smart; they're good people.
If you're looking to level up your knowledge of design systems and design tokens, you're in the right place. Brad and Ian are two of the smartest people I know when it comes to this stuff. They make complex ideas easy to understand and keep things fun along the way. You'll learn a ton and have a great time doing it!
Brad's writing and work have redefined how our industry builds and scales design systems and design tokens. He has a rare gift for taking even the most complex topics and making them accessible. Whether you're a beginner trying to learn the basics or an experienced practitioner refining your approach, Brad and Ian are the perfect pair to lead you through all the topics, details, and steps.
Brad is one of my go-to experts on large, enterprise-wide design systems. He's been out there solving the really tough problems where organizations deal with complexity and politics yet emerge with a cohesive, thoughtful, future-friendly design system. His magical ability to reduce complex ideas into simple ones makes him the best at helping these teams overcome these huge challenges. He can help you.
I've known Brad and Ian for a while now and I am continually impressed with the way they (1) care
for the people around them and (2) share what they've learned through their considerable portfolio of work. I can't think of many folks
who are as qualified to share this kind of knowledge with the community!
Brad's work is one of the first things I consult whenever I'm stuck on a tricky design systems problem. His contributions to the industry are colossal.
I've no doubt that his and Ian's upcoming course will prove instrumental, and a solid investment for anyone working on design tokens.
Brad's atomic design equipped designers with a systematic way of designing screen-based interaction. More than a cute play on words, atoms, molecules, organisms, templates and pages positioned designers to serve the needs of users, product owners, engineering, brand and other stakeholders. This course shows the same promise for elevating design practice and addressing challenges presented by enterprises.
What you've got here is people with years and years of design systems experience with all shapes and sizes of organisation, sharing their knowledge in a way you'll actually be able to apply to your systems - and it helps that they're some of the nicest people you'd meet!
Skip to the end of your design token quest, Brad and Ian have a course out. This power duo combines
years of industry experience into a high-quality course about design tokens.
Brad and Ian have spent years helping companies make sense of design tokens. Let them to do the same for you.
Every time I run into Brad (and sometimes when I don't) we have wild conversations about the minutia of design token organization and management. Wild! But also practical. This is the foundation of any design system, and I'm excited to see how Brad pulls it all together.
If you are looking for a practical and comprehensive deep-dive into design tokens, stop — that's it! Brad shares a very pragmatic, real-world overview of how to get design tokens just right — and how to avoid all the troubles and hassles that syncing, automation and handoff bring along! Highly valuable, and highly recommended!
When Brad and Ian have something to say, I stop to listen. Their advocacy for iterative
cross-disciplinary collaboration and for core web technologies rekindles and sustains the spirit of the web. Their foundational work
endures hype cycles and continues to inspire new generations of developers.
I've known Brad for years having spoken at many of the same conferences, and can attest that he really knows his stuff and is a world expert on design systems. I have full confidence that this course will be fantastic, and I'm personally looking forward to it!
I've known Brad and Ian for over 10 years and I've watched as they've shared their deep knowledge with design systems teams and practitioners around the world. They've worked with teams of all sizes, and I know that you'll learn from two experts who've seen and experienced the real-world challenges that folks face in their day-to-day work.
I've long admired Brad and Ian's work—their insights, tools, and generous sharing of knowledge. They're not just experts in design systems but also funny, honest, and thoughtful educators.
Working with Brad and Ian is always pure joy. Not only, because they are experts in their field, but they are also enthusiastic and friendly people to work with. Now that their new course is out, you can see all of this yourself: their expertise, their passion for what they do and the friendly and positive way of delivering this.
Preorder the course for $500
We're working hard to put the course together, we're offering preorders to passionate people eager to dig into AI & design systems! In exchange for your support and patience, you'll get:
A 45% discount off the full course price (which will be $900)
An additional 20% discount for teams/enterprises
Preorder-exclusive resources to get you started right away
First access to new videos, resources, and materials as soon as they're ready
Access to our Slack community for passionate design systems & AI practitioners
Live sessions and Q&A with TJ, Brad, and Ian
Our eternal gratitude
Already subscribed? Go to the order page to preorder the course!
