Graphic Design | Techlist.io

figmaJun 29, 20262 min readCurated summary

Meet the Artists Behind Figma's Season 5 Collection | Figma Blog

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.

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Graphic Design Figma Design Tools Config+1

tossApr 3, 20263 min readCurated summary

Why Toss reduced its design roles to two

On April 1, Toss’s Design Chapter consolidated six design roles into two: Product Designer and Visual Designer. The change reflects how role boundaries had already blurred as designers crossed disciplines and technology reduced the importance of tool-specific expertise. Toss’s central argument is that designers should be organized around judgment and user problems—not the tools, media, or screens they work with. ## Why Role Boundaries Became a Problem - The previous structure separated designers by tools and outputs rather than by the decisions they made. - Ambiguity emerged in areas such as: - Whether interaction in a design system belonged to Platform or Interaction Designers - Whether interactive graphics should be handled through Lottie, code, or UI design - Whether expanding a PC product to mobile belonged to a Tools Product Designer or Product Designer - These divisions sometimes determined ownership based on medium instead of capability or context. ## Designers Were Already Crossing Disciplines - Tools Product Designers began designing mobile products. - Interaction Designers worked on parts of internal design tools. - Graphic Designers created semantic icon systems. - Platform Designers built interactive web pages. - Brand Designers with visual-design backgrounds worked on lighting products. - AI and other tools have shortened the time needed to learn formerly specialized skills, including: - Video and Lottie production - Figma prototyping - Coding interactive experiences - As tool proficiency becomes less differentiating, the ability to judge what creates a good experience becomes more important. ## Product Designer - Product Designer and Tools Product Designer were merged into one role. - The distinction between mobile and PC disappeared. - The role now focuses on: - Understanding the user’s context and problems - Deciding how those problems should be solved - Designing across screen sizes and product environments ## Visual Designer - Platform, Interaction, Graphic, and Brand Designers were combined into Visual Designer. - Visual Designers are expected to work across media and produce what the experience requires, such as: - Building interactions within systems - Creating icons for prototypes - Designing interactive web experiences - The defining capability is visual judgment: deciding what is beautiful, appropriate, and correct. - The title was chosen to emphasize visual decision-making rather than a specific medium or technique. ## Lessons from Other Industries - Disney animation reduced many physical and intermediate production steps through software while preserving stages requiring important creative judgment. - Digital audio workstations allow artists such as Billie Eilish and Finneas to compose, perform, record, and mix with a laptop, but human judgment about what sounds good remains essential. - Digital cinema and streaming weakened the historical distinction between film and television production. - Across these industries, tools converged while the value of creative judgment increased. ## What Comes Next - The new job structure will not immediately change how people work. - Toss still needs to redesign hiring standards, onboarding, and career-development paths. - The consolidation is intended to give designers broader ownership and more room to make decisions across disciplines, ultimately improving the experiences delivered to users.

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Graphic Design Figma Design Systems Product Design+4

tossJan 15, 2026Original article

Creating Toss's new face (opens in new tab)

Toss redesigned its brand persona graphics to transition from simple, child-like icons to more professional and inclusive human figures that better represent the brand's identity. This update aims to project a more trustworthy and intelligent image while ensuring the visual language is prepared for a global, multi-cultural audience. By balancing iconic simplicity with diverse representation, the new design system maintains brand consistency across various screen sizes and service contexts. ### Refining Proportions for Professionalism * The team adjusted the vertical facial ratio to move away from a "child-like" impression, finding a balance that suggests maturity and intelligence without losing the icon's friendly nature. * The placement of the eyes, nose, and mouth was meticulously tuned to maintain an iconic look while increasing the perceived level of trust. * Structural improvements were made to the body, specifically refining the curves where the neck and shoulders meet to eliminate the unnatural "blocky" feel of previous versions. * A short turtleneck was selected as the default attire to provide a clean, professional, and sophisticated look that works across different UI environments. ### Achieving Gender-Neutral Hairstyles * The design team aimed for "neutrality" in hair design to prevent the characters from being categorized into specific gender roles. * Several iterations were tested, including high-density detailed styles (which were too complex) and simple line-separated styles (which lacked visual density when scaled up). * The final selection focuses on a clean silhouette that follows the head line while adding enough volume to ensure the graphic feels complete and high-quality at any size. ### Implementing Universal Skin Tones and Diversity * To support Toss's expansion into global markets, the team moved away from a single skin tone that could be interpreted as a specific race. * While a "neutral yellow" (similar to standard emojis) was considered, it was ultimately rejected because it felt inconsistent and jarring when displayed in larger formats within the app. * Instead of a single "neutral" color, the team defined a palette of five distinct skin tones based on universal emoji standards. * New guidelines were established to mix these different skin tones in scenes with multiple characters, fostering a sense of inclusivity and representation that reflects a diverse user base. The evolution of the Toss persona illustrates that as a service grows, its visual language must move beyond simple aesthetics to address broader values like trust and inclusivity. Moving forward, the design system will continue to expand to ensure that no user feels excluded by age, gender, or race.

Graphic Design Design Systems User Interface Inclusive Design+3

figmaAug 12, 20253 min readCurated summary

The Anatomy of an Activation | Figma Blog

Figma marked its 2025 public-market debut by turning the New York Stock Exchange into a public celebration of design and community. Rather than follow a conventional IPO event, the company created “Figma Commons,” supported by citywide murals, posters, billboards, and street experiences. The activation aimed to make the milestone accessible and enjoyable for both longtime users and people encountering Figma for the first time. ## A Citywide Celebration of Design - The July 31 NYSE event centered on the message “Design is everyone’s business.” - Figma’s events and community teams expanded the celebration beyond the exchange with: - A large Brooklyn mural - Posters across New York City - A Times Square digital billboard - The Figma Commons outdoor event - The initiative reflected Figma’s belief that its community is central to the brand and should share in major milestones. ## Building Figma Commons - Community and events leads Jordan Scott and Kelley Sauer shaped the experience over weeks of planning. - The project required approvals from the NYC Department of Buildings, NYPD, and the mayor’s office. - Temporary structures had to be mounted on wheels to comply with emergency-access regulations. - Storms complicated installation, with work stopping for 30 minutes after each lightning strike. - The team deliberately chose a larger, more ambitious event than a standard NYSE listing ceremony. ## Extending the Invitation - Because communications were embargoed until a press release was issued, Figma had fewer than 15 hours to promote the event. - The team relied on grassroots and physical marketing: - Flyers at subway stations and ferry terminals - Wildpostings around Manhattan and Brooklyn - Direct outreach to longtime local customers - Posters included QR codes linking to free invitations, reinforcing the idea that the event was open to everyone. ## Designing the Experience - Figma paid close attention to visual and physical details because its community values design craft. - The event included: - Bespoke signage from Figma’s brand team - Limited-edition merchandise designed to feel fresh rather than excessively branded - Food and drinks from popular New York eateries - A live mural by graffiti artist Greg Lamarche featuring the word “make” - Additional citywide creative work promoted Figma Make, including Times Square billboards and a Brooklyn mural built from more than 200 hand-drawn glyphs. Figma Commons demonstrates how a corporate milestone can become a participatory public experience. By combining strong visual design, local culture, grassroots outreach, and careful logistical planning, Figma made its IPO celebration feel like an invitation to join the company’s broader design community.

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Graphic Design Figma Figma Make Qr Code+1

figmaAug 6, 20252 min readCurated summary

Getting into the groove: How music shaped the scatter brushes in Figma Draw | Figma Blog

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.

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Graphic Design Figma Figma Draw Vector Editing+2

figmaMay 6, 20252 min readCurated summary

The Making of Practice, a Book on Design and Craft by Figma | Figma Blog

Practice, Figma’s third annual Config magazine, explores craft as intentional making shaped by patience, precision, experimentation, and repetition. The project argues that quality depends not only on whether something works, but on how it works. Its editorial and visual design connect historical craftsmanship with contemporary digital tools and creative practice. ## Craft as the Theme - The magazine focuses on what it means to make with intention. - Craft is presented as a process of: - Practicing repeatedly - Learning through failure - Studying more experienced makers - Taking risks and pushing boundaries - Dylan Field summarizes the central idea: “The question is not just, can you make it work? It’s how it works that actually matters.” - The contributors demonstrate that patience, observation, and intentionality apply across disciplines and mediums. ## A Contemporary Take on Traditional Bookmaking - Design studio Other Means created the print edition with type designer Kia Tasbihgou. - The visual direction draws inspiration from William Morris and the Kelmscott Press, particularly its emphasis on intrinsic quality and artistic taste. - Traditional bookmaking elements—including: - Initial caps - Fleurons - Decorative borders - Drop caps - These details were reinterpreted in a contemporary style to connect historical craft with modern design. ## Craft Across Design and Technology - Practice brings together articles, interviews, and essays from Figma’s Story Studio. - Its contributors work with screens, pixels, data, and digital tools, but share principles with makers in more physical disciplines. - The project presents craft as both rooted in tradition and driven by innovation. - The magazine’s featured subjects explore craft through themes including adaptation, iteration, application, and value. ## Practice as a Typeface - The book’s distinctive drop caps were expanded into a complete typeface. - The resulting font includes a full alphabet of visually distinctive characters. - Figma created a type specimen website using Figma Sites. - The typeface is available to view and download through the Practice website. Practice ultimately recommends treating making as a deliberate, ongoing discipline rather than a race to a working result. Whether designing software, typography, books, or physical objects, strong work comes from sustained practice and attention to how the final result is made.

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Graphic Design Figma Typography Figma Sites+2

figmaMay 6, 20253 min readCurated summary

24 Artifacts That Define Craft | Figma Blog

Figma’s “24 artifacts that define craft” presents objects chosen by designers and makers as examples of intentional making. The collection argues that craft is not limited to perfection or complexity; it comes from thoughtful decisions, practiced skill, meaningful constraints, and attention to both process and experience. Whether an artifact is durable, practical, playful, or fleeting, its quality reflects deliberate choices. ## Craft as Intentional Decision-Making - The artifacts come from *Practice*, a Figma book created by its Story Studio and Brand Studio teams and designed with Other Means and type designer Kia Tasbihgou. - Examples range from a vintage puzzle box and precision-mixed daiquiri to an AI poetry camera and a familiar spreadsheet. - Each object reveals its maker’s judgment: - What to refine or leave raw - When to continue experimenting or stop - How to balance durability, usefulness, and delight - The central idea is that great craft “doesn’t happen by accident.” ## Designing Experiences, Not Just Objects - Garden designer Piet Oudolf’s work demonstrates that craft can mean shaping an experience rather than producing a fixed visual artifact. - His freehand garden schematics use loose forms, color nodes, and plant abbreviations while reflecting deep knowledge of how plants interact. - Oudolf avoids renderings because they capture only one artificial moment, rather than the changing experience of being in the garden. - His work shows that expertise can support spontaneity and looseness instead of requiring rigid precision. ## Structure and Flexibility in Graphic Design - Ladislav Sutnar’s *Catalog Design Progress* revitalized industrial catalogs through a combination of strict typographic systems and adaptable layouts. - The catalog provided a consistent visual framework while allowing individual products to receive customized treatment. - Its design transformed an everyday commercial tool into both an organizational system and an example of visual art. - Craft emerges through the balance between standards and room for variation. ## Precision Under Limitation - A Russian Constructivist poster by the Stenberg Brothers illustrates how constraints can intensify craft. - Its sharp geometric stripes and repeated, photorealistic portraits create tension between contrasting visual languages. - Lithography required decisions to be made directly and intentionally, without endless digital-style revisions. - The poster suggests that simplicity is demanding because every compositional choice remains exposed. ## Doing More with Less - Playdate, the yellow handheld console by Panic with hardware by Teenage Engineering, embodies craft through limitation. - Its one-bit screen and small processor prevent technically elaborate graphics but encourage inventive game design. - Distinctive features—including the bright yellow body, limited “seasons” of games, and physical crank—make the constraints part of the product’s identity. - The console demonstrates that craft is about doing something exceptionally well, not adding more features. ## Making the Process Part of the Art - Wintergatan’s Marble Machine combines a music box with a Rube Goldberg-like mechanism. - Its elaborate, human-powered construction makes the act of producing music as engaging as the resulting sound. - The machine invites active participation from both performer and audience, contrasting with passive music consumption. - Its appeal comes from the visible relationship between mechanism, effort, and outcome. ## A Broad Definition of Craft - The selected artifacts span landscape design, publishing, posters, consumer electronics, and musical machines. - Together, they frame craft as a mindset rather than a particular medium or aesthetic. - Craft may appear as precision, improvisation, restraint, system-building, physical labor, or playful interaction. - The common thread is purposeful making: understanding materials and constraints well enough to create something with character and intent. The collection recommends looking beyond polished appearances and examining the decisions behind an artifact. Good craft comes from combining knowledge, discipline, and judgment with the courage to embrace limits and leave room for human experience.

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Graphic Design AI Product Design Typography+2

figmaMay 6, 20252 min readCurated summary

Express Yourself with Figma Draw | Figma Blog

Figma Draw is a new workspace within Figma Design that combines streamlined vector editing with expressive illustration tools. It aims to help designers move between precise UI work and more creative, tactile design without switching applications or disrupting their workflow. The feature emphasizes faster iteration, improved control, and a workspace tailored to visual expression. ## A Workspace for Visual Expression - Figma Draw reorganizes Figma’s interface around illustration and vector design. - New expressive tools include: - Brushes and pencils - Dynamic strokes - Progressive blur - Texture and noise effects - Text on a path - The redesigned workspace includes: - **Layers panel:** Thumbnail previews for frames, groups, shapes, vectors, and images make assets easier to navigate. - **Toolbars:** Pen, brush, and pencil tools are more prominent, while specialized vector features are easier to access. - **Properties panel:** Larger previews, sliders, expanded stroke controls, and preselected fills, strokes, and effects reduce repetitive adjustments. ## Faster, More Precise Vector Editing - Quality-of-life improvements make it easier to: - Select vertices - Align and distribute objects - Tab between selected geometries - Close open paths - Update vector handles - Upgraded boolean and outline-stroke engines make combining and subtracting shapes more fluid. - Multiple node editing allows users to select and edit several vector nodes simultaneously. - Keyboard shortcuts support faster workflows: - **Enter** edits selected nodes together. - **Shift-click** adds nodes to a selection. - **Command-click** jumps into vector editing on another node. - The shape builder tool helps construct icons and logos from multiple shapes. - Lasso selection makes it easier to select irregular groups of objects or detailed regions of the canvas. ## Tools for Creative Experimentation - Figma Draw expands Figma beyond production-focused vector work into illustration and visual exploration. - Brushes can create more distinctive marks, while texture and noise effects add tactile qualities. - Progressive blur introduces depth and softness to designs. - The goal is to let designers create icons, illustrations, branding assets, social graphics, and other expressive work without relying on external tools or plugins. Figma Draw is positioned as a way to keep both precise and expressive design work inside one canvas. Designers who regularly switch between interface design, illustration, branding, and visual assets may benefit most from its unified workflow and expanded vector controls.

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Graphic Design Figma Design Illustration Figma Draw+2

figmaApr 21, 20252 min readCurated summary

The Power of Play | Figma Blog

Laura Fehre’s experiment creating the Figma-based “Mani Mansion” shows how play can unlock creativity when perfectionism and rigid expectations get in the way. Although she initially rejected structure, she discovered that a flexible design system made experimentation easier and more enjoyable. The project ultimately became less about producing a perfect digital salon and more about creating something delightful and inspiring. ## Finding Inspiration in Everyday Experiences - Fehre drew inspiration from the childhood game *Barbie Nail Designer* and her own nail-salon appointments. - She explored real nail salons to capture their sounds, scents, textures, and ’90s aesthetic. - Sketches of plush seating, neon signs, and glossy counters helped translate the physical experience into an interactive Figma playground. - Her goal shifted from designing for efficiency to creating a space where users could lose track of time. ## When Disorder Needs Structure - Fehre initially made every nail shape unique, hoping to create a wild and unconventional experience. - This approach made layering and combining elements difficult, producing endless duplicates and a frustrating file. - She realized that structure and reusable components were necessary to support creative freedom. - The experience also exposed her insecurity about rusty graphic-design skills and unrealistic expectations. ## Reframing Problems as Play - Collaborating with fellow Designer Advocate Miggi Cardona helped Fehre turn creative frustration into experimentation. - They played with nail shapes and patterns without focusing on whether the results were “useful.” - Fehre recognized that trying to impress others had made failure feel threatening. - Letting go of perfection allowed setbacks to become opportunities for learning, humor, and discovery. ## Designing and Sharing the Final Manicure - Fehre created a mood board combining disco glitter, ’80s Versace influences, bold black clothing, “baddie” energy, and Valentine’s Day hearts. - A systematic set of nail shapes and colors gave her enough consistency to explore combinations freely. - She brought the resulting design to her nail technician as creative inspiration rather than an exact template. - The final manicure demonstrated how digital play can inspire real-world collaboration and expression. The practical lesson is that structure and play are not opposites. Designers can use systems as a foundation, then experiment freely within them—especially when the goal is delight rather than perfection.

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Graphic Design Figma Design Systems Vector Design+1

figmaMar 10, 20253 min readCurated summary

From Screen to Zine: Meet the Makers Using Figma for Digital DIY | Figma Blog

Figma is helping a new generation of creators revive zine culture by combining digital speed with the handmade spirit of print. The article highlights designers, musicians, and community organizers using Figma to document underground scenes, produce physical artifacts, and collaborate remotely. Its flexibility, plugins, and collaborative canvas make it especially useful for highly iterative, visually experimental work. ## Figma and the revival of zines - Zines have historically given fringe communities and subcultures a way to publish outside mainstream media. - The article profiles several creators using Figma for digital DIY projects: - Dance Data’s 97-page *Underground Fanzine*, created by Jesse Pimenta and Cheyce Batchelor. - Figma’s AAPI employee resource group, which created *AZINE*. - Dominique Saiegh, who designs cassette and CD packaging. - Sebastián Ortega, who creates assets for online radio station SutroFM. - Tara Ridgedell and Gonzalo Guerrero, who run remote risograph workshops through Secret Riso Club. - These projects use digital tools to build real-world connections and preserve ephemeral music and cultural communities. ## The history and spirit of zine culture - Modern zines began as science-fiction fan magazines in the 1930s and 1940s. - Their history continued through: - Beat-generation small presses in the 1950s and 1960s. - Punk music zines and copy-shop publishing in the 1970s and 1980s. - Riot Grrrl and broader zine culture in the 1990s. - E-zines, blogs, and websites in the 2000s. - A renewed interest in printed zines, festivals, and libraries from the 2010s onward. - Dance Data’s publication deliberately recreates the scrappy, Xerox-inspired aesthetic associated with punk-era zines. - Printing the zine gives readers a lasting physical record of an underground music scene whose parties and collectives are often temporary. ## Designing a 1990s-inspired publication in Figma - Pimenta and Batchelor produced the zine in approximately three months. - Figma’s canvas provided a broad overview of the publication, while Auto Layout helped organize and reorder content efficiently. - Figma’s speed supported an iterative process in which every interview spread could have a distinct visual identity. - Pimenta drew inspiration from rave flyers, computer newsletters, technology magazines, and Archive.org’s *The Magazine Rack*. - The desired aesthetic combined hacker culture, cyberpunk imagery, retro computer graphics, and old-school clip art. ## Plugins for a photocopied, experimental look - **Noise & Texture** added gritty, speckled effects resembling 1990s photocopies. - **Photopea** enabled image manipulation, including noise and threshold filters. - **Skew Skew** distorted typography into irregular shapes that suggested warped Xerox reproductions. - These tools, combined with retro rave references, helped the digital design resemble handmade print work. ## Preparing digital work for print - Pimenta had to export individual pages at four times their intended size, convert them into print-ready PDFs, and then resize the final document. - Exporting was slow because the publication contained thousands of small assets. - The project illustrates both Figma’s usefulness for complex editorial design and the practical challenges of converting a large digital file into a physical zine.

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Graphic Design Figma Figma Plugins Pdf+2

discordFeb 26, 2025Original article

Leveling Up Black Voices in Gaming (opens in new tab)

Discord is celebrating Black History Month 2025 by spotlighting the contributions of Black creators, developers, and communities within the gaming industry. Led by the Black and African American Movement (BAAM) Employee Resource Group, the initiative aims to foster inclusivity and recognize the profound impact of Black culture on gaming. Through these efforts, Discord highlights how diverse voices are essential to creating a more representative and welcoming global gaming landscape. **The BAAM ERG and Community Support** * The Black and African American Movement (BAAM) Employee Resource Group is driving this initiative by curating a selection of influential creators and innovators. * The focus spans the entire gaming spectrum, including competitive players, casual gamers, professional game developers, and community builders. * The initiative emphasizes the intersection of identity and representation, inviting the wider community to engage with experiences that honor the spectrum of Black involvement in tech and gaming. **Spotlighted Creators and Organizations** * Aurélia Durand: A French graphic artist who designed the event's header artwork, her work focuses on celebrating diversity, identity, and womanhood. * Black Girl Gamers: Founded by Jay-Ann Lopez, this organization advocates for diversity and inclusion while specifically amplifying the voices of Black women in the industry. * Brown Girl Gamer Code: Created by Brandii JaVia, this digital community supports women and femmes of color in both gaming and technology to ensure their stories and contributions are recognized. To support these efforts and help build more inclusive digital spaces, Discord encourages users to engage with these featured creators and explore professional opportunities through the company's career portal.

Graphic Design Gaming Community Building Diversity And Inclusion+2

figmaJul 12, 20232 min readCurated summary

Paula Scher’s 10 Rules for Play | Figma Blog

Paula Scher argues that creative “play” comes from freeing the mind to make unexpected connections between existing ideas, not from inventing something completely original. Her approach combines deliberate mental wandering, exposure to history and other disciplines, supportive collaborations, and a willingness to reject trends. The goal is to create conditions where designers can experiment and initiate new directions. ## Creating Space for Ideas - Meet the client, understand the brief, then do a mindless task such as cleaning to clear mental space. - Look through design-history books broadly, without copying or bookmarking ideas; begin the project later. - Use boring or uncomfortable situations—waiting rooms, traffic, offline flights—as opportunities to sketch and let the mind wander. ## Building Conditions for Play - Nurture long-term relationships that allow creative freedom, such as Scher’s decades-long work with the New York Public Theater. - Maintain a healthy mix of projects, support the team, and encourage people to question assumptions. - Treat better work as a way to raise expectations and generate even better work. - Recognize that genuine opportunities to experiment are rare, and consider pro-bono or low-paid projects as spaces for discovery. ## Escaping Familiar Influences - Change tools and leave the computer behind. - Visit bookstores, museums, galleries, or shops, and explore disciplines unrelated to the current project. - Accept that all creative work is influenced by something else; originality comes partly from how influences are combined and from avoiding passing trends. - Avoid mood boards when they merely encourage producing a slightly altered version of existing marketplace styles. ## Starting New Directions - Initiate your own creative “cluster” by doing something daring. - Design trends often become ordinary when others imitate the first bold example, so innovation requires being willing to go first. Designers can cultivate play by creating distance from routine, seeking varied experiences, and protecting relationships and projects that enable experimentation rather than imitation.

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Graphic Design Design Thinking Branding Visual Communication+1

figmaMay 26, 20203 min readCurated summary

The making of Maker Week | Figma Blog

Maker Week is Figma’s twice-yearly company-wide tradition for exploring projects beyond everyday roles. In 2020, the event moved fully online, prompting Figma to prioritize connection, emotional expression, and collaboration over polished results. Its theme, “How to help one another,” shaped both the creative direction and the activities. ## A Company-Wide Creative Tradition - Maker Week is open to everyone, unlike hackathons that typically focus on engineering and design. - Employees pause nonessential meetings and, when possible, interviews to collaborate with people outside their usual teams. - The event is intended to remove day-to-day constraints and encourage experimentation rather than shipping finished products. - Figma continued the tradition because maintaining company culture was especially important during remote work. ## Prioritizing Process Over Output - The 2020 event explicitly discouraged optimizing for productivity or delivering polished work. - The emphasis was on working together, exploring ideas, and creating space for individual circumstances and capacity. - This approach acknowledged the difficulty and uncertainty many employees were experiencing. ## “How to Help One Another” - Earlier Maker Weeks had no central theme beyond making something related to Figma. - The new theme provided a guiding principle while responding to the broader challenges of 2020. - It encouraged projects and interactions centered on support, empathy, and mutual help. ## Designing Space for Vulnerability - Remote work created emotional distance but also offered opportunities for people to share more openly. - Figma’s creative direction aimed to give employees an outlet for whatever they were feeling. - The organizers encouraged vulnerability and treated all emotional responses as valid. ## Mood Characters - Figma created a shared playground file where employees could build “mood characters.” - Characters were assembled from familiar objects found around designers’ home workspaces. - The objects represented the mixed, conflicting, and often confusing emotions of working through a difficult period. - The activity gave everyone a simple way to make and share something, even without the time or energy for a larger project. ## Bringing Maker Week Online - Office-based traditions such as posters, shared breakfasts, and in-person kickoff moments had to be reimagined. - Figma replaced them with digital experiences, including custom Zoom backgrounds. - The company used visual design not only for branding, but also to create energy, delight, and a sense of shared participation remotely. Maker Week’s remote adaptation shows how a company tradition can preserve its purpose by changing its format. By focusing on connection, vulnerability, and low-pressure creativity rather than productivity, Figma made the event relevant to the circumstances of its employees.

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figmaApr 20, 20202 min readCurated summary

How Inneract Project empowers brown and black designers | Figma Blog

Inneract Project, founded in 2004 by Maurice Woods, introduces Black and brown students to design as a path for creative expression, community impact, and future careers. Its curriculum evolved from hands-on paper exercises to professional digital design training as students’ interests shifted toward UX/UI. Figma became especially valuable because its browser-based, free-to-start platform removed cost and access barriers while enabling collaboration and continued practice outside the classroom. ## Building a Foundation Through Hands-On Design - Early courses avoided software and hardware, emphasizing critical and creative thinking through paper-based activities. - As students requested more formal training, Inneract developed **Pathway to Design**, a curriculum for students as young as middle school. - The program initially focused on graphic design, then introduced professional software and hardware. - Expensive licenses and limited equipment often meant students had to share computers. ## Finding Figma - As the industry moved toward mobile apps and interfaces, Inneract updated its curriculum to teach UX/UI design. - Figma was free to get started, reducing financial barriers for students and the program. - Its beginner-friendly tools were also relevant to professional design workplaces. - Because Figma runs in a browser, students could access their files from libraries, schools, and other public computers. - Students practiced outside class more easily, accelerating their skills. - Collaborative Figma projects expanded opportunities to work with classmates, volunteers, and community partners. ## Student Growth and Real-World Projects - Inneract offers workshops, multi-day courses, hackathons, company partnerships, and an expanding student community. - Students have pursued design education and careers, including graphic design and design research. - Student projects address practical community needs: - Sierra designed a more usable walker concept for elderly people and created a music-focused mobile app. - Noah developed an ad campaign supporting homeless youth and created a zine about Oakland graffiti and street art. - Leigh created posters and graphics for her high school before studying graphic design. - The projects demonstrate how early design education can build confidence, creativity, and an interest in solving real-world problems. Inneract’s experience shows that accessible tools, combined with early mentorship and community-focused projects, can help underrepresented students envision and pursue careers in design.

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Graphic Design Figma Mobile Apps Wireframing+2

figmaSep 9, 20192 min readCurated summary

How to make background patterns for your next design project | Figma Blog

Namika Hamasaki uses a daily pattern challenge to develop creativity through repetition without producing repetitive results. Her process combines observation, unconventional color palettes, layout grids, geometric experimentation, and Figma components to turn simple ideas into seamless patterns. The central lesson is that consistent practice and attention to everyday details can make creative work easier and more adventurous. ## Finding Daily Inspiration - Inspiration can come from ordinary surroundings, including: - Food - Architecture - Furniture - Nature - Landscapes encountered during a commute - Hamasaki photographs interesting shapes, colors, and compositions for later reference. - Maintaining an inspiration library helps prevent the blank-page problem and provides starting points for new designs. ## Building a Color Palette - The challenge allows her to experiment beyond the brand color restrictions common in professional work. - She often derives palettes from inspiring photographs. - Figma’s Image Palette plugin extracts colors from images and generates a usable palette. ## Setting Up a Grid - A grid helps organize pattern elements and ensures that the final design can repeat correctly. - Hamasaki uses Figma’s Layout grid to establish the structure before placing shapes. ## Experimenting with Geometric Shapes - Complex-looking patterns begin with basic forms such as circles, rectangles, and triangles. - She strategically places shapes on the grid, then experiments with: - Rotating circles or semicircles - Shifting elements - Varying rotation angles - Testing different color combinations - The process is intentionally exploratory, allowing unexpected visual results to emerge. ## Creating Seamless Patterns - Once a design feels successful, Hamasaki converts it into a component. - She turns off the component’s **Clip content** option. - She duplicates and arranges the component across a frame to create a repeating pattern. - Editing elements inside the master component lets her quickly test different layouts across all duplicated instances. The practical recommendation is to establish a regular creative exercise, document visual inspiration, and use simple, flexible systems—such as palettes, grids, and reusable components—to explore many possibilities efficiently.

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