designseeddocs

Community

Submission guidelines

2 min read

The library is curated, but submissions are open. If you've crafted a DESIGN.md for a brand you love (or your own project), we'd love to consider it.

What we accept

  • Brand-inspired systems modelled on a real public brand. Stripe-inspired, Vercel-inspired, etc. Original authorship is fine; we don't ship the source brand's actual files.
  • Original systems for community projects, indie products, or open-source projects. Treat the public brand as the inspiration source.
  • Refinements to existing library entries. Spotted a contrast issue? A missing dark theme? Open a PR.

What we don't accept

  • Direct copies of a brand's official design system files (legal reasons).
  • Systems for products you don't have permission to publicly associate with.
  • Single-purpose or campaign-specific designs (looking for systems that hold up across many use cases).

Submission process

  1. Author your DESIGN.md in the editor or by hand.
  2. Validate it: designdrop validate DESIGN.md.
  3. Fork github.com/designdrop-app/library-content.
  4. Add your file under brands/<slug>/DESIGN.md.
  5. Add a meta.json:
{
  "slug": "your-brand",
  "name": "Your Brand",
  "description": "One-line description.",
  "category": "SaaS",
  "dominantColor": "indigo",
  "isOriginal": false,
  "inspiredBy": "https://yourbrand.com",
  "submittedBy": "@your-github-handle"
}
  1. Open a PR. The CI pipeline runs validation + visual diff against the source brand.
  2. A curator reviews + leaves feedback. Most PRs go through 1–2 rounds of refinement before merging.

Quality bar

We keep the bar high — see Quality ratings for the full criteria. Briefly: complete tokens, AA contrast everywhere, both themes when applicable, round-trip clean exports.

Rejection isn't personal

Roughly 1 in 4 submissions ships. We reject when:

  • Token coverage is sparse — missing required roles or thin scales.
  • Contrast fails AA in too many places.
  • The brand fidelity is off — the design feels generic rather than capturing the brand's actual posture.
  • The submission overlaps a recently-shipped entry.

Rejected submissions get specific feedback. Most can be revised and re-submitted.