CUBE CSS: A methodology that leans back into CSS itself
Andy Bell has introduced CUBE CSS, a front-end methodology he positions as a counterpart to approaches like BEM. Bell notes that he has long enjoyed BEM, but sees such alternatives departing from the core language—something worth remembering given how “CSS” is right in the name.
For Bell, the language’s core capabilities are essential to scalable styling. He advises that a genuine design system moves beyond component-level tweaks and into high-level organization, a shift he calls “diplomacy work.”
“[…] a design system doesn’t just make you think at a micro-level, but also at a macro-level, because you have to make not just decisions about pixels, but also high-level organisation decisions which the design system helps to solve. Design system work is actually diplomacy work, a lot of the time.”
A narrow, component-only focus often reduces design systems to what Bell calls component libraries—tools that solve a narrower set of problems. His proposed balance: pair an inside-out approach—starting from very small, specific styling blocks and grouping them up—with an outside-in view that ensures components are sensibly composed together.
