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Best Article Finalist

Transitioning to colour Tokens in Figma: A New Palette for Pennylane

Erica Scolaro

A summary of the article

This article by Erica Scolaro details Pennylane’s strategic move from primitive colour styles to semantic colour tokens in Figma. With a team of 45 designers and a 200-component system, the shift solved widespread consistency issues and improved efficiency. The guide shares practical steps, real production data, and before/after examples, highlighting how structured tokens enable scalability, team alignment, and future enhancements like dark mode.

Highlight

“The shift to colour tokens in Figma is akin to upgrading from a basic paint set to a professional, organised palette. It brings clarity, consistency, and efficiency to our design process, paving the way for exciting new features like dark mode.”

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Timeline

  1. Nominations will be open from Tuesday 13 May. If you have any questions about the nomination process, then check out the FAQs, or if your question isn't answered, please get in touch at community@zeroheight.com

    13 May, 2025

  2. Once the nominations are closed, we'll be collating the longlist and working through it to determine a shortlist. The shortlist will be determined by the team at zeroheight, and will be based on uniform judging criteria (which we will share in a month or two). With the shortlist creation, we aim to remove as much bias as possible and give everyone a fair chance across the board.

    22 August, 2025

  3. In September, the shortlist will be announced, including public voting! We'll notify all folks as to whether they made the shortlist. The judges will then individually judge each shortlisted entry. We'll also have public voting on each category live on the site!

    15 September, 2025

  4. Once all the judges and public votes are counted, we'll then be able to determine the winner for each category, based off a weighted compilation of votes.

    3 November, 2025

  5. In December, we'll gather the community together at an event in London to announce the winners live. We'll also be live-streaming the ceremony for those who can't make it. The live event will be invite only, but we'll offer the community a chance to apply for a ticket later in the year! We'll also post the results to the zeroheight site the day after the event.

    December 2025 (TBA)

Past Winners