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Ariel Salminen

@arielsalminen.com
3.7K followers 202 following 1.5K posts

Design (systems) engineer • A girl who lost her heart somewhere in California 🧡 • Mainly posting about design systems, web components, the web platform & my road cycling adventures. 📮 arielsalminen.com 📍 Helsinki, Finland 👩🏻‍🦰 She/her

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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 11/09/2026
On a test ride today. Still missing a few parts here and there, but very happy with this thing overall! ☀️
A photograph of Arielle’s new fixie/single speed (depends on my mood, I guess) commuter bike
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 10/09/2026
This thing already looks like it wants to explore places
A half setup Raspberry Pi 5 on a wooden desk. It almost looks like it has four legs and a little tail at this point…
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 09/09/2026
My Raspberry Pi side project finally moving forward. Took a while to acquire every single part this thing needed 🤓
Raspberry Pi 5 (16GB) laid out on a wooden floor with a NVMe SSD, NVMe base, active cooler, wide-angle camera module, various sensors, ribbon cables, servos, screen, power supplies, and a selection of other boards, cables, sensors and small parts.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 03/09/2026
This thing is kinda moving forward… (bar tape is just resting on there, not wrapped yet)
A purple Surly Steamroller frame partway through a build. Orange, blue and white patterned bar tape is loosely coiled around the drop bars. Black Thomson seatpost, olive green saddle. A crank arm and two bronze flat pedals sit unfitted on the floor.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 17/08/2026
Thanks GitHub
GitHub error page that says “No server is currently available”
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 17/08/2026
A new friend for the old bike just arrived (…well, a part of it, anyway…)
An unopened Surly box in front of my old red Wilier road bike. The box says “Surly. bikes. parts. chaos.”A half unpacked purple Surly Steamroller frame in front of the box it.Unpacked purple Surly Steamroller frame in front of my old red Wilier road bike.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 15/08/2026
Gathering parts for a new Raspberry Pi side project. The rest is still in transit 🤓
Raspberry Pi 5 (16GB) laid out on a wooden floor with a NVMe SSD, NVMe base, active cooler, wide-angle camera module, ribbon cables, power supply, and other random bits and pieces…
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 10/08/2026
None yet. Currently designing/building the idea around Surly Steamroller frame:
A screenshot of a Figma canvas with random bicycle parts spread around Surly Steamroller steel frame.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 22/07/2026
Got completely soaked on this ride. Literally had to stop and pour water out of my shoes a couple of times 🌊
My view over the handlebars of a rain-soaked red road bike, water droplets covering the frame and a Garmin bike computer, wet asphalt below.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 20/07/2026
On a bit of a summer break from work and this is what I’m doing instead: *nerding out about these matching red disc brake lockrings that I just installed on my bike* 🤓
Close-up of my Wilier Verticale’s rear hub showing a red anodized Miche centerlock lockring securing a silver disc brake rotor, matched to the bike's glossy red frame.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 11/07/2026
A random view from today’s bike ride. The piece on the underpass wall says “Girls are awesome” ❤️
Arielle’s red Wilier bike leaning against an underpass wall with huge graffiti that says “Girls are awesome” in white stencil-style letters on a red background.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 22/06/2026
Monday after work ride with 🧡. (featuring a tiny friend who liked my bike 🐤)
A glossy red Wilier Verticale SLR road bike leaning against a wooden fence in summer sun, with a small house sparrow perched on the bike computer between the handlebars. Green foliage and a building behind.GPS map of a ~70 km cycling loop around Espoo, Finland, winding northwest through Nuuksio and Ämmässuo and back. The route is color-coded by elevation, with a green start marker south of the city.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 05/06/2026
*A random photo from somewhere along that route*
A small uninhabited island in the Turku archipelago, photographed across choppy deep-blue open sea under a clear sky. The island rises from smooth granite at the waterline to a dense crown of pine forest, with more low islands faintly visible on the horizon.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 05/06/2026
Did a bike ride around the archipelago near Turku, Finland. Such beautiful views. I honestly assumed riding across a bunch of islands would be mostly flat, but the elevation profile (and my legs) seem to disagree. 🚴🏻‍♀️😅
Red Wilier Verticale road bike on Pirelli P Zero tires, leaning against a wooden picnic table on a grassy shore. Two pink bottles in the cages. Behind it, a marina full of sailboats and a small ferry under a clear blue sky.View over the handlebars of a red Wilier Verticale road bike with a Garmin cycling computer showing a paused ride on the map screen. White cycling shoes and black tights below, riding on a paved path with sunlit grass to the right.Two red road bikes leaning against white storage lockers on the deck of an archipelago car ferry, beside a green muster-station sign marked 42. Cars queued on the deck to the left, an open metal staircase climbing up the middle, bright blue sky overhead.Google Maps screenshot of the cycling route: a large loop through the Turku archipelago, starting and finishing downtown Turku and running clockwise via Kaarina, Pargas and Nagu in the south, then back north through Röölä, Rymättylä, Otava and Naantali. The track is color-coded by elevation from blue (lower) to red (higher), per the legend at the bottom.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 08/05/2026
Ended up here.
A red road bike parked on a sandy beach beside calm blue water, with the photographer's legs and white cycling shoes stretched out in the foreground. Pine trees line the shore and a swan floats nearby.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 08/05/2026
Pretty test runner output from the Kesko Design System. Colors inherited from my terminal theme. 👩🏻‍💻 *Alt:* Terminal screenshot of the Kesko Design System test runner, with a coral pink ASCII-art “K” logo. All 87 test files and 2,831 tests across 13 test suites passed in 42.66 seconds.
Terminal screenshot of the Kesko Design System test runner, with a coral pink ASCII-art “K” logo. All 87 test files and 2,831 tests across 13 test suites passed in 42.66 seconds.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 07/05/2026
Did a slightly more proper test ride today after adjusting things.
A map of Helsinki with a cycling route along the coast and a text label below saying “Distance: 54,9 km.”A photograph of a cycling path in Helsinki showing Kalasatama buildings in the horizon.A red Wilier road bike in front of a yellow wooden building.A red Wilier road bike leaning against a black fence. Behind the fence is Vanhankaupunginselkä that connects Vantaanjoki river to the Baltic Sea. Further away you can also see a bridge that crosses the bay.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 06/05/2026
Had to take a slightly longer lunch break today to get this thing unboxed 😍
Two red Wilier road bikes in a living room. The new Verticale SLR in front, the older Wilier behind it, with design books and plants in the background.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 05/05/2026
*don’t mind me I am just here collecting old Shimano parts from all over to fix my bike* (dura ace bits are for the new bike though)
An array of new Shimano bicycle drivetrain components in their packaging on a light wood floor.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 24/04/2026
Working with these internet speeds over the past weeks have made me focus on improving the performance of everything I’ve touched at work. Also, reminded me of something that I wrote in April 11 years ago which somehow feels even more relevant in 2026: arielsalminen.com/2015/the-man...
A screenshot that shows download speed of 2,98 Mbps, and upload speed of 0,35 Mbps.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 21/04/2026
Evenings like this 🧡
A child with long hair stands on a sandy beach at dusk, tossing a handful of small stones into the air above her. The calm Baltic Sea stretches out before her, reflecting the soft pink and peach tones of the sunset sky. A forested island sits on the horizon to the left, with smooth rocks and boulders visible along the shoreline.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 14/04/2026
Created this small tool to explore the current system’s token tree to better understand how the relationships work between token groups → primitives tokens → semantic tokens → themes → UI modes. Has already helped us so much to improve the overall architecture and naming+grouping conventions.
A screenshot of a design token visualizer that allows you to explore the full design token tree to understand how the relationships work between groups, primitives, semantics, themes, and modes.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 11/04/2026
Things you find from your parent’s archives. This one’s coming with us home 😅
A vintage View-Master stereoscope viewer in dark brown plastic sits on a wooden surface next to a red plastic basket filled with View-Master reels in navy blue paper sleeves. The front reel sleeve reads “One View-Master Reel: 7 Three Dimension Full Color Pictures” with a Peter Pan title visible on the reel label inside.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 11/04/2026
SET I don’t think anyone at LinkedIn tested their app with the a11y features I am using 🙃
A screenshot of LinkedIn’s iOS app with text so large it doesn’t even fit one word into the viewport.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 08/04/2026
@donnie.damato.design I would love to buy your new book, but is it only possible in UK or US? …or am I doing something wrong? 🥲
A dialog asking me to confirm my location. The availability options are UK or US.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 30/03/2026
Wait, does @csswizardry.com live in the future
A posted dated “2 April, 2026”, 3 days in the future from now
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 30/03/2026
Just received two of these t-shirts in mail. 😍 shop.joinmastodon.org/products/mas...
A woman with twin braids wearing a navy colored t-shirt featuring the slogan "I write alt text".
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 24/03/2026
Googles “webfont performance”. Sees her own article as the 3rd result: arielsalminen.com/2025/optimiz... *…oh…*
A screenshot of Google search results showing “Optimizing Webfont Performance” from https://arielsalminen.com/2025/optimizing-webfont-performance/
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 18/03/2026
Celebrating 3 year birthday with my man. And this food is just 😍
Roasted deer with glazed beetroot and forest berry sauce.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 05/03/2026
Grabbing some cheese 🧀 on my way home from the client’s offices.
A photograph of a cheese shop in Töölö, Helsinki.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 26/02/2026
Found a bug in Firefox with CSS @scope and [attr=value], but now checked out the pre-release build and seems to be fixed there. So perhaps this won't exist soon anymore (in v149?). Minimal reproduction regardless: codepen.io/arielsalmine...
@scope (.test) { :scope { ... } }
@scope (.test) { :scope[disabled] { ... } }
@scope (.test) { :scope[variant] { ... } }
@scope (.test) { :scope[type="green"] { ... } }
@scope (.test) { :scope[variant="danger"] { ... } }

Hover the last <div class="test" variant="danger">...</div> and it’ll work 🤷🏻‍♀️
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 18/02/2026
Has set up a tent in our living room because why not
A red Hilleberg Rogen tent set up in the middle of Arielle’s living room covering most of the space.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 18/02/2026
My browser wants to FaceTime the ruler tho
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 14/02/2026
I am not addicted to block blast, I am not addicted to block blast, I am not addicted to block blast,
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 13/02/2026
Just a simple example of what writing a new component with Elena looks like atm. Most of the hard work is done behind the scenes to keep this layer as simple as possible.
Elena is a project I’m working on currently. It’s basically a lightweight, opinionated library for building blazing fast progressive custom elements. "Progressive" because Elena works without JavaScript, supports partial SSR, and additionally provides full support for React/Next.js Server Components.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 03/02/2026
We’re currently working on revised foundations for the new Kesko Design System and I’m researching the existing color systems + their usage across various products and contexts. Super fascinating work given the scale of the organization. 😍 Here's a glimpse into what’s happening:
Figma artboard titled “Color Systems” displaying comprehensive color system research organized into six horizontal sections: Brand Architecture, Brand Assets, On Web, On Mobile, Brand Guidelines, and Existing Color Systems. Each section contains numerous screenshots showing color palettes, UI components, and design documentation across Kesko's various products and brands.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 22/01/2026
Brought my friend to the office today. She’s clearly eyeing for this position as well.
A golden-brown plush aardvark named “Muurahaiskarhu” stands on a laptop keyboard, its long snout extending toward the screen which displays the Kesko logo in orange and white. The soft toy is photographed against a minimal office setting with white pendant lights visible in the blurred background.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 20/01/2026
Solving the Cheese Crave™
Baking cheese horns, 1/3.Baking cheese horns, 2/3.Baking cheese horns, 3/3.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 17/01/2026
Had a wonderful dinner with my boyfriend and a few friends this evening to wrap up this vacation (yeah, I am finally returning to work next week…!).
Risotto with beetroot, feta, dill, parmesan and lemon at YesYesYes vegetarian restaurant in Helsinki.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 03/01/2026
Hamburg looks like home now. ❄️
Snow-covered evergreen trees and residential buildings in a quiet Hamburg neighborhood under an overcast winter sky.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 16/12/2025
Baked a little evening snack for me and kids
Cheese horns, with, surprise surprise, lots of cheese inside
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 08/12/2025
My second favorite feature is finally getting native Figma support for importing/exporting design tokens in the W3C Standard Format. 😍 www.figma.com/blog/schema-...
Importing and exporting variables:

Native import and export has long been a top-requested feature in our forums. We’ve held off on adding this feature—opting instead to release an open source import/export plugin—until The Design Tokens W3C Community Group (DTCG), a community focused on creating design tokens standards, finished their 1.0 release. This was to ensure a better authoring experience across our tooling ecosystem. The community group spec is now officially at 1.0, along with native import and export support in Figma.

Variables import and export will be available in November.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 08/12/2025
Very late to the party, but if looking at the new Figma features, I think I’m most excited about the ability to _finally_ import code based components into Figma (and not the other way around). Have dreamed of this since 2016 (helloo, remember react-sketchapp???).
Npm package imports: For teams who already have a design system in their codebase, we will allow you to import your React components—whether self-built or open-source components—via public and private node package manager (npm) imports.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 08/12/2025
Please excuse me for turning this thing into a whole new project. 😂
Included approaches:

No framework:

- ✅ 🔟 ⬆️  Progressive Web Components (with Split Server Parts)
- ❇️ 🔟 ⬆️  Progressive Web Components
- ✅ 🔟 ⬆️  Custom Elements with CSS Framework
- ✅ 🔟 ⬆️  Declarative Shadow DOM
- ✅ 🔟 ↕️  HTML Web Components
- ✅ 1️⃣ ↕️  Split Web Components
- ✅ 1️⃣ ⬇️  Isomorphic Web Components
- ⚠️ 🔟 ⬇️  JavaScript Web Components
- ⛔️ 🔟 ⬇️  JavaScript Web Components (without slots)

With framework:

- ⚠️ 5️⃣ ⬆️  Lit
- ✅ 5️⃣ ⬆️  WebC
- ✅ 5️⃣ ↕️  Enhance
- ✅ 5️⃣ ⬇️  Stencil
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 05/12/2025
Saw this random t-shirt online and I obviously *needed* it.
Arielle wearing a white t-shirt with the following text: “you can be gay if you want to”
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 13/11/2025
Found a new space to work on my bicycles 😍
A photograph of a bike repair shop in HelsinkiA photograph of parts in a bike repair shop in Helsinki
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 12/11/2025
Yeah I mean if you want only CSS I guess you’re pretty much stuck with what you can do within @font-face. That isn’t much, beyond size-adjust. Nevertheless, got curious what even are the unicode-ranges for emojis so did a quick attempt: codepen.io/arielsalmine...
/* Make a custom emoji font that we can adjust */
@font-face {
  font-family: "emoji";
  src: local("Segoe UI"), local("Roboto"), local("Helvetica"), local("Arial"), local("Apple Color Emoji"), local("Segoe UI Emoji"), local("Segoe UI Symbol");
  size-adjust: 250%; /* The only “real” thing you can reliably do here */
  unicode-range: 
    U+1F600-1F64F,   /* Emoticons */
    U+1F300-1F5FF,   /* Misc symbols and pictographs */
    U+1F680-1F6FF,   /* Transport and map */
    U+1F1E0-1F1FF,   /* Regional indicator symbols */
    U+2600-26FF,     /* Misc symbols */
    U+2700-27BF,     /* Dingbats */
    U+FE00-FE0F,     /* Variation selectors */
    U+1F900-1F9FF,   /* Supplemental symbols and pictographs */
    U+1F018-1F270,   /* Various asian characters */
    U+238C-2454,     /* Misc items */
    U+20D0-20FF;     /* Combining diacritical marks for symbols */
}

body {
  font-family: "emoji", sans-serif;
}
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 12/11/2025
Took this single photo yesterday. I had risotto with smoked reindeer heart as the main (sorry, not photographed, this was the entrée).
Dinner with my boyfriend yesterday. Entrée in the photograph.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 10/10/2025
“I have not been working on planning [a design systems infrastructure] this week.”
A screenshot of a slide deck with 108 slides on how to develop a successful design systems infrastructure.
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Ariel Salminen @arielsalminen.com · 19/09/2025
This thing arrived today.
My daughter touching a “sky blue” iPhone Air sitting in its original box, waiting to be set up.
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