Bringing new life to Figma’s brand | Figma Blog

Figma’s 2019 brand refresh expanded an existing visual language rather than replacing it. The process centered on collaboration, using research and Figma itself to create a brand that could feel both professional and playful. The result emphasized curiosity, vibrancy, honesty, boldness, and the imperfect process of making.

Evolving an Existing Brand Language

• Figma found that its original brand foundations were strong but had been created when the company was much smaller.
• The refresh expanded the limited brand guide with additional rules for areas such as blog imagery and illustration.
• Existing elements, including geometric shapes, were given new applications while remaining recognizable.
• The goal was continuity: the new identity should feel like an extension of Figma’s original character.

Defining Figma’s Personality

• The team treated Figma as a person to clarify how the brand should behave and communicate.
• Four personality traits became the main guideposts:
  • Curious: clever, playful, imaginative, and eager to explore.
  • Vibrant: dynamic, confident, energetic, and enthusiastic.
  • Honest: inclusive, empathetic, approachable, and willing to learn.
  • Bold: powerful, unexpected, nonconforming, and authentic.
• These traits were intended to let the brand shift between consumer and enterprise audiences, and between reserved and playful expressions.

Shapes That Represent Collaboration

• Figma’s new illustrations use shapes as characters that interact, cooperate, disagree, or simply coexist.
• Their positioning creates different compositions and communicates collaboration.
• Illustrations vary in complexity:
  • Simple visuals support learning and clarity.
  • More abstract arrangements are used when the context allows greater expression.
• Basic shapes can combine into complex images, making the construction process visible.
• The illustrations deliberately show work in progress, including edited or manipulated elements, rather than presenting only polished final results.
• This imperfect quality reflects the messy, evolving nature of design and encourages people to share how they make things.

A Typeface with Hidden Character

• Figma selected Whyte by Swiss type foundry Dinamo as its new brand typeface.
• The team preferred Whyte’s inktrap version, which contains notches historically used in metal type to control pooled ink.
• These details are subtle at small sizes but become visible when enlarged, giving the typography an illustrative quality.
• The typeface supports Figma’s desired balance between conventional clarity and nonconforming personality.

Refreshing Figma with Figma

• The team created the entire refresh in Figma rather than relying on Photoshop or Illustrator.
• Working in its own product challenged the designers to develop new workflows and creative techniques.
• Collaboration was central, and Figma’s capabilities sometimes pushed ideas further than initially planned.
• The tool became both the subject of the rebrand and the medium through which the new identity was developed.

The refresh demonstrates how a growing company can strengthen its brand by extending existing principles, defining a clear personality, and making the creative process itself part of the identity.