Alpina Tech is an engineering-first design system agency. Most design system agencies are design studios: they hand you a Figma library and a guideline PDF, and your engineers still have to build everything. We deliver the system as code. You get a versioned component package, design tokens, Storybook documentation and CI checks, merged into your repository as pull requests your team can review. In one engagement for a US-based Series-B multi-team B2B SaaS scale-up, duplicate component variants fell by roughly 70% and design review cycles got about 40% faster. The client’s own case study calls those figures directional, and so do we.
What a design system agency does
A design system is the shared set of design tokens, components and usage rules that lets many people build one product and keep it consistent. A design system agency plans, builds and rolls out that set for you. If you want the long definition first, read our guide on what a design system is.
Design system agency vs design system consulting
Design system consulting means an audit, a roadmap and governance advice. Your own engineers do the build. A design system agency does the build too: we write the components, ship the package, migrate your screens and hand over. We offer both. Many teams start with consulting to size the work and then decide whether to build in house or with us.
Design system services
Every service ends with something you keep and can use without us.
Design system audit and roadmap
We inventory every component in your codebase and design files. You get a count of duplicate variants per component type, a list of accessibility gaps and a migration plan ordered by usage. This is the consulting engagement on its own, and the first step of every build.
Design tokens pipeline
Color, spacing, typography and radius are defined once as tokens. They compile to CSS custom properties and a Tailwind theme, and they sync with Figma variables. A token change in one place reaches every component.
Component library (React, Radix, shadcn, Tailwind)
We build accessible components on Radix primitives, styled with Tailwind, often starting from shadcn. The code lives in your repository, so you can change any component without waiting on a vendor release. For the implementation detail see our shadcn development page, and for the trade-offs read shadcn vs MUI.
Storybook, docs and visual regression
Every component ships with Storybook stories, prop tables and accessibility notes. Snapshot and interaction tests run in CI, and a merge is blocked when a story changes without approval. Designers check behavior in the same place engineers do.
Figma-to-code workflow
Each Figma component maps to one code component with the same name, props and token references. Designers and engineers work from one source, so there is no redline handoff and fewer spec mismatches.
Migration and adoption
Teams only switch when switching is cheap. We write codemods for the most used components, run a phased rollout team by team, and let legacy components live next to the new ones until each screen moves over.
AI-assisted component generation
We use AI tools to draft component scaffolds, Storybook stories and test cases from the token set and a written spec. An engineer reviews every generated file, and it passes the same CI gates as hand-written code. Generation speeds up the repetitive parts. API design, accessibility and the final review stay with people.
Engineering-first vs design-studio agencies
| Aspect | Design-studio agency | Alpina Tech |
|---|---|---|
| Primary deliverable | Figma library and guidelines | Published component package plus Storybook |
| Tooling named | Rarely | Design tokens, Radix, Tailwind, Storybook, CI |
| Handoff | Documentation | Merged pull requests in your repository |
| Governance | Style guide | Contribution rules plus visual regression in CI |
| Team | Designers | Engineers plus a design lead |
A design studio is the right pick when you need brand and visual exploration first. When the design language already exists and your problem is that six teams build six versions of the same button, you need engineers who can fix it in the codebase. That is the work we do.
How we work
We run four phases and set the timing for each one from your audit.
1. Audit
We map components, variants, tokens and consumers across your repositories and design files. The output is the inventory, the gap list and a scoped plan with a fixed price for the build.
2. Foundations
We set up the token layer, the package and its release pipeline, Storybook and visual regression. Then we build the first components, starting with the ones that have the most duplicates.
3. Rollout
We move product teams onto the library one at a time, with codemods and per-team migration guides. Feature work keeps going while screens migrate.
4. Handoff and support
Your engineers take over with contribution rules, review ownership and CI gates in place. We stay on for support or as an embedded team if you want.
For scale: in the B2B SaaS engagement below we had one quarter to deliver a production-ready library and a second quarter to complete adoption across all six teams. For a European Series-B fintech, the eight-week timeline covered audit, build, documentation and the first wave of team migrations.
Case study: design system and Storybook for a multi-team B2B SaaS
A US-based Series-B multi-team B2B SaaS scale-up had grown to six product teams shipping in parallel. Buttons, form fields and data tables each had three or four variants spread across separate packages. Design reviews were slow because designers reconciled design-tool components against production code by hand.
We introduced a design-token layer using CSS custom properties and built a React component library on Radix primitives. Every component went into Storybook with visual regression tests. Codemods and per-team migration guides let engineers adopt the library screen by screen.
- ~70% reduction in duplicate component variants
- ~40% faster design review cycles
- 3x increase in shared-component coverage across product teams
The case study marks these figures as directional. Read the full story: Design System and Storybook for a Multi-Team B2B SaaS.
Two more examples of the same work:
- shadcn and Radix component library for a European Series-B fintech, eight teams on one library.
- Design system build for a US-based enterprise B2B SaaS suite, with a design-tool-to-token pipeline.
You can browse all case studies as well.
Pricing and engagement models
We do not publish a price list, because two design systems with the same component count can differ a lot in effort. Every engagement is scoped after the audit. Three shapes cover most requests:
- Audit and roadmap, fixed scope. You get the inventory, gap list and plan, and you can build it yourself.
- Build, fixed scope per component set and priced from the audit.
- Embedded team, billed monthly. An embedded design system team works inside your sprints on the library and its rollout.
What drives the cost:
- the number of components and variants you need;
- the number of product teams that will consume the library;
- how much existing code has to migrate, and whether codemods pay off;
- how mature your tokens and Figma library already are.
Who we work with
Our design system clients are SaaS companies with several product teams that ship in parallel, from Series-B scale-ups to enterprise B2B SaaS suites, and fintech platforms with many teams working on one product. The three case studies above are a US-based Series-B B2B SaaS scale-up, a European Series-B fintech and a US-based enterprise B2B SaaS. We work with US teams and keep working hours that overlap with yours.
Next step
Tell us how many teams and components you have and where the duplicates hurt most. We will propose an audit and a scoped plan. Book a design system call.
If you need product or visual design rather than a coded system, see our UI/UX design services.
