Halloween is my favorite holiday. When I was a kid, my mom had to forbid me from mentioning Halloween until September 1st. And she'd refuse to buy or make me any costume pieces until mid-October because I'd change my mind so much.
In addition to Halloween, I also love design systems and terrible puns. Since I still come up with more costume ideas than I can pull off in one year, I’m going to share some. Let me know if you end up using one!
Headless design system
Just rent a Sleepy Hollow costume. No one will understand what you are, so you’ll have a fallback when you give up trying to explain halfway through the night.
Skeleton loader
Paint the areas where your costume is supposed to be gray. If you’re feeling extra line your outfit with LED string lights set to pulse. Bonus points if you change into a real costume later.
Ghost button
Cut some eye holes out of a sheet and paint a CTA across the front. Just don’t expect anyone to pay attention to you.
Design system tokens
Tape together two cardboard circles in a sandwich board. Paint the coin iconography of your choice in the middle and your favorite CSS variable around the edge. This would be a great group costume.
Stakeholders
Another great group costume, but only for friend groups who can never agree on a single plan together.
Bug
This costume can go cute or creepy. The key is to make it yourself but tell people you don’t know where it came from when they ask.
Figma’s Make Design feature
Just steal someone else’s design system costume and put the word AI on it somewhere.
Scale and Efficiency
You’ll be all anyone at the party wants to talk about.
Bonus couple’s costume
One of you dresses up as Jigsaw, and the other wears a bear trap around your head. Together you are “proving the value of design systems to leadership.”
And the scariest design systems costume of all…
Layoffs
Dress as your favorite horror movie serial killer and carry around a quarterly earnings report that needs amping up. This won't start as a group costume, but once you do it, others will feel pressured to copy you.
Bonus decor idea
Design systems graveyard. RIP Material Design 1 and 2.
