digital-illustration

2 posts

figma

Meet the Artists Behind Figma's Season 5 Collection | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Figma’s Season 5 merchandise collection was created with eight artists from around the world, each bringing a distinct creative voice. Organized around play, iteration, and hands-on tools, the collection embraces experimentation, imperfection, and unexpected character. The result is an eclectic range of apparel and accessories featuring playful illustrations and tactile, artistic styles. ## Collection Themes - **Play:** Making freely without overthinking. - **Iteration:** Allowing ideas to develop through repetition and refinement. - **Tools:** Celebrating the physical process of creating by hand. - Figma’s Brand Studio selected artists whose existing work reflected these ideas. - The collection debuted at Config, Figma’s annual conference for product makers. ## Quentin Chambry: Repetition and Spontaneity - **Based in:** Tokyo, Japan - **Influences:** Skateboarding, street culture, graffiti, Japanese ceramics, and Tokyo pop culture - **Tools:** Black marker and white paper - Quentin fills hundreds of pages in a session, repeating movements until unexpected shapes emerge. - Using marker rather than pencil prevents erasing, making the process more immediate and exciting. - His designs include smiling figures and cubes featured on shirts, hats, and sweatshirts. - The work reflects play through exploration, editing, and accepting imperfections. ## Meazo: Childlike Creativity - **Based in:** Leicestershire, England - **Influences:** His children’s drawings, DIY illustrators, and tattoo artists - **Tool:** An old, cumbersome drawing app on his phone - Meazo intentionally uses a tool he cannot fully control to avoid becoming overly self-critical. - He combines familiar objects—such as butterflies, clocks, and tomatoes—with surreal transformations. - His designs feature colorful characters, including a cheerful tomato with the phrase “time to make!” - The artwork appears on hats, socks, and long-sleeve shirts, balancing comfort and strangeness. Figma’s Season 5 collection demonstrates how playful constraints, repetition, and imperfect tools can produce distinctive visual ideas. Its strongest recommendation is implicit: approach creative work with curiosity, experimentation, and less concern for making something “good” immediately.

figma

Getting into the groove: How music shaped the scatter brushes in Figma Draw | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Figma Draw’s 10 new scatter brushes were inspired by music genres, using rhythm, repetition, and texture as guides for visual experimentation. Product designer Rogie King created 99 designs, which the team narrowed down to brushes named Bubblegum, Witch house, Shoegaze, Honky-tonk, Screamo, Drone, Doo-wop, Spoken word, Vaporwave, and Oi!. The project also emphasizes making digital art feel approachable and expressive for users without formal artistic training. ## Music as a Design Framework - Scatter-brush patterns resemble musical beats because their elements repeat along a stroke. - Brush settings such as gap, wiggle, and jitter parallel musical controls like tempo, texture, and volume. - UX writer Molly Rosen Marriner gathered genre ideas from the Every Noise At Once genre map and Figma employees. - Visually suggestive genres—including Electroclash, Drone, and Witch house—helped guide the brush concepts. ## From Genres to Brush Strokes - Rogie began with familiar uses such as stippling and shading, then explored more expressive interpretations. - He listened to representative songs and researched each genre’s visual culture. - The Screamo brush, for example, drew on early-2000s imagery associated with mosh pits, dark clothing, and heavy eyeliner. - He also consulted others, including his son, to better understand genres such as Shoegaze. ## Selecting the Final Collection - Rogie produced 99 scatter-brush designs through an intentionally exploratory process. - The Figma team voted on designs that offered the most flexibility and expressive potential. - Molly later matched the selected brushes to music genres, sometimes inventing or adjusting associations to fit the visuals. - The final set includes 10 brushes designed for stippling, shading, texture, and playful decoration. ## Making Digital Art More Accessible - The brushes expand the emotional and stylistic range available in Figma Draw, from mysterious wisps to repeated smiley-face splatters. - The genre-based names avoid overly technical art-school terminology. - Rogie wanted users to feel free to experiment without needing formal artistic education or experience with physical media. - The collection presents artistic expression as accessible, playful, and open to everyone.