Honestly, I always assumed that SVG bugs are just a part of the game and will always be here — not a surprising conclusion when 49% of imported SVGs relied on buggy features. In retrospect, it was a silly assumption considering SVG is one of only a few open vector formats. In this fantastic thread, Figma engineer Lauren Budorick shows how much work went into detecting, analyzing, and fixing these bugs. I didn’t realize that luminance mask support was a part of this work as well, and Miggi is already exploring creative applications for composited motion visuals in prototypes.
Last spring my team at @figma finally took on an area that we've known has been a huge pain point for a long time: SVG imports. We would soon find out just how bad it was (bad!) and that we’d need to build a whole new feature in the process.
— Lauren Budorick (@lbudorick) March 28, 2023
Meng To published a set of gorgeous handcrafted 8K wallpapers generated from 3D.
Jordan Singer shares what Diagram learned from participating in OpenAI Converge with early access to GPT‑4 and how they’re using it in Magician and Genius plugins.
as part of @OpenAI’s Converge we’ve been building AI design tools with access to GPT-4 @diagram over the past few months
— jordan singer (@jsngr) March 14, 2023
here’s what we’ve learned and how we’re using it 👇 pic.twitter.com/sSHUympi46
Fons Mans is back with a colorful poster tutorial.
Tutorial Thread!✨
— 10X Designers (@10x_designers) March 14, 2023
Learn how to create this colorfull poster with @figma in just a few easy steps.
Let’s dive in 👇 pic.twitter.com/u1GdVXVDvG
Vijay Verma wraps up his Figbruary challenge with a full list of 28 experiments he made last month.
It's Figma Friday Fun 😍
— vijay verma (@realvjy) March 17, 2023
From creating simple illustration to animation and faking 3D rocket in the space. Sharing all 28 @figma experiments with community file here ↓↓ pic.twitter.com/CnLUJ9JI5T
Luis keeps digging into different ways of structuring Figma libraries and styles. In this thread, he thinks through naming conventions on styles and explores the pros and cons of more abstract and specific naming conventions.
Here's another thread about managing Figma styles 🗂
— luis. (@disco_lu) March 16, 2023
It's pretty hard to know how far to push naming conventions on styles, and you can end up in some heavily nested folder structures if you're not careful
So let's take one component and work it out! pic.twitter.com/cO30LFzAd8
Ridd came up with a new tutorial on how to use Kernel for designing in Figma 10× faster with real data. Kernel is a new product that “makes it easy to generate and access the content you need so you can design faster than ever”, and connects Figma to other services like Notion, Airtable, Google Sheets, and OpenAI.
Dan Hollick with a fascinating thread on an optimal x‑height size and a visual arc.
Why are some typefaces harder to read than others at the same font-size?
— Dan Hollick 🇿🇦 (@DanHollick) March 16, 2023
Well, it has a lot to do with x-height but of course it's a bit more complicated than that: ↓ pic.twitter.com/QElNG1aq7q
Yuhki Yamashita’s talk from WebSummit 2022. I shared slides and an article based on this talk last November. In it, Yuhki explores how design is changing and how we need to change with it. He also offers practical advice on navigating our new always-in-progress world and Figma’s approach to developing collaboration features designed with that in mind.
“Introducing the Device Mockups Ultimate Collection — the ultimate resource for designers looking for high-quality device mockups. With over 43+ photo-realistic devices, including phones, tablets, desktops, and monitors, all built with scalable vectors and exact manufacturer specs, your designs will look stunningly accurate.”
Another project by Jon Moore, this time for planning your perfect home right in Figma. Hundreds of true-to-size objects for designing a spectacular space, also available as the imperial system version. Wish it was available a couple of months ago when I did something similar from scratch for a home project!
The level of customization to virtual spaces that this kit provides is mind-blowing. Make sure to watch the video on the homepage! “LabKit offers a new collaborative way to create digital experiences using Figma and FigJam. Our highly detailed vector components come with loads of easy-to-use variants for customization. Everything you find is designed with joyful multiplayer interactions in mind.”
Jon Moore is one of the creators who seized the opportunity provided by the paid resources on Figma Community and launched a collection of helpful design resources. Paying a few dollars for a high-quality asset to save a few hours of work is a no-brainer. Every Collection includes maps, calendars, social buttons, file types, slides, and charts.
🚀🚀🚀 LAUNCH DAY 🚀🚀🚀
— Jon Moore (@TheJMoore) March 7, 2023
I'm excited to launch the Every Collection for @figma!
A heap of resource files for those annoying things that no one likes to design in Figma (for the hundredth time in your design career).
Meet the collection below 🧵
Joey Banks is back with this year’s iPadOS 16 UI Kit for Figma! “This file contains hundreds of components, templates, demos, and everything else needed to help you start designing for iPadOS. Each component uses the latest version of Auto Layout, supports Component Properties, variants, Light and Dark Mode, and much more.”
Molly Hellmuth shared a few tips from her recent event with Smashing Magazine.
The new series at Figma blog, Meet the Maker, kicks off with Marcin Wichary, a design manager from the Editor team. I wrote about Marcin’s book Shift Happens in issue #102 — since then, it became the #1 tech book of all time on Kickstarter and reached its final stretch goal! This is a lovely interview touching on many topics close to my heart — exploring niche interests, making things, experimenting, prototyping, getting feedback, and obsessing over details.
The first installment of “Fridays with Fons”, where Fons Mans shows how to create and generate fun, geometric illustrations in Figma in just a few easy steps.
It’s time for the first edition of “Fridays with Fons”! ✨
— Fons Mans (@FonsMans) March 10, 2023
Learn how to create and generate fun, geometric illustrations in @figma in just a few easy steps.
Ready? Let’s dive in 👇#sponsored pic.twitter.com/2jHV76yp88
Rogie King reflects on the launch of new selling tools and the Figma Creator Fund for the Figma Community, and why these additions are important for the next generation of the Figma Community. I’ve been thoroughly impressed with Figma’s openness to the community feedback while preparing this release, and Rogie’s advocacy for the needs of the design community.
Paid resources are finally available on Community! The days of dealing with license keys, paying through 3rd-party websites, and importing downloaded files are over. As a customer, you can try most resources before buying, and if something went wrong easily apply for a refund.
While this release makes the whole experience much smoother for end users, it’s a huge change for Community creators — “there’s no dealing with payment integrations, license keys, emailing files, or even managing refunds — just set your price, publish, and start earning”. A few years ago, I was delighted to learn that some creators earn a living from selling Figma plugins and resources. This will become much more common now because of additional exposure and a lower barrier to entry. There has never been a better time to start contributing to the design community.
If that game wasn’t enough, check out these spatial 3D animations made using SkewDat plugin. There is a tutorial as well.