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Figma’s digital washi tape began as a playful April Fun Day experiment inspired by a community tweet. The feature translated washi tape’s blend of visual delight, flexibility, and “just-right adhesion” into Figma and FigJam, attracting 224,000 rolls in a single day. Strong user enthusiasm convinced Figma that the feature should become more than a one-day joke.

Why Washi Tape Works

• Japanese washi tape is a decorative form of masking tape used for gift wrapping, scrapbooking, drawing, and planning.
• Its appeal comes from being:
  • Colorful and expressive
  • Easy to tear, move, layer, and write on
  • Functional without damaging the surface underneath
• These qualities make it especially appealing to designers, who enjoy patterns, lines, grids, and color.

The Origins of Modern Washi Tape

• In 2007, three Tokyo artists asked Japanese industrial tape manufacturer Kamoi Kakoshi to create more colorful versions of its masking tape.
• The company invited them to its factory, saw how creatively they used the tape, and developed a new product line called mt.
• The first collection launched with 20 colors.
• Kamoi refined the tape’s “just-right adhesion,” allowing it to be repositioned, torn by hand, layered, and removed without damaging walls or other surfaces.
• The company continued expanding the product with new colors, patterns, and collaborations until washi tape became a common household craft material.

Translating Washi Tape into a Digital Product

• Figma’s team prototyped a digital equivalent for Figma and FigJam.
• The goal was to preserve the physical product’s:
  • Decorative, tactile feeling
  • Ease of manipulation
  • Practical usefulness
  • Ability to add personality to otherwise ordinary work
• The April Fun Day release let users decorate files with bold, colorful strips of digital tape.

From April Fools’ Feature to Lasting Utility

• The feature quickly spread across user files, generating 224,000 digital “rolls” in one day.
• Users experimented with ways to make sticky notes feel “stickier” and incorporated the tape into their work.
• Many users asked Figma to bring the feature back permanently.
• Their response showed that the tape was not merely a novelty: its combination of fun and utility made it genuinely useful in collaborative spaces.

Figma’s experiment demonstrates that successful digital tools can emerge by identifying the emotional and functional qualities of familiar physical objects—not just copying their appearance. Washi tape’s lasting appeal comes from making everyday work more expressive, and digital versions can offer the same sense of creativity with even greater flexibility.