The Evolution of CSS Architecture

Introduction

CSS has come a long way since its inception. We’ve moved from simple stylesheets to complex preprocessors, and now to utility-first frameworks like Tailwind CSS.

The BEM Era

Block Element Modifier (BEM) was a methodology that helped us organize our CSS classes. It was verbose but effective.

.block__element--modifier {
  color: red;
}

The Rise of CSS-in-JS

With React, we saw the rise of CSS-in-JS libraries like Styled Components and Emotion. These allowed us to scope our styles to components.

Utility-First CSS

Tailwind CSS changed the game by providing a set of utility classes that could be composed to build complex UIs.

Conclusion

The future of CSS is bright, with new features like Container Queries and CSS Nesting making their way into browsers.