Hey! Webflow frameworks are good now!

Webflow CSS frameworks have always been beasts of compromise. You can save a lot of development time by starting with a prebuilt design system. But the more features you add to a framework, the more specificity you're adding & therefore the more resistant to adaptation it becomes. For some devs, these limitations are non-starters.

At Edgar Allan we spent a lot of effort on aligning the design team with the specific limitations of our in-house framework, Knockout, & developed a Figma file with a built-in design system that translated seamlessly to development. This worked great, saved development time & produced some amazing work.

But what if it didn't have to be this way? What if we could gain all of the efficiencies of a framework without the limitations of pre-defined systems?

Enter Blockhead CSS.

I dreamt up this framework when Vlad previewed Variables & Custom CSS at last year's Webflow Conf. It seemed pretty clear that these two features would bring Webflow into the modern era of CSS where Variables & sophisticated CSS properties like calc could put an end to the rigid frameworks of the past. Frameworks could be even more feature-rich because the various systems can be updated through the Variables Panel with the snap of a finger. Grids could be instantly adaptable. Page gutters could be defined using any unit or even eliminated altogether. Type & spacing systems could be converted from base-4 to base-10 with the update of a few variables.

With the launch of Custom CSS today, these possibilities become reality. The efficiencies of a framework can now finally be enjoyed while still achieving a bespoke look for each project.

Even despite Webflow's still-miserable support for utility classes through its Style Selector, I think the benefits of a framework now far outstrip that frustration. Whether it's Blockhead or something else, there's no longer any excuse not to use a feature-rich framework for Webflow development.

But really, you should use Blockhead.

Blockhead is the first CSS framework for Webflow built specifically to incorporate these new features. To see it in action, view our short demo video below.

More to come.