Baseline grids are hard to implement and their value is debatable, but I still irrationally love them. This article outlines a smart approach to using Figma’s vertical trim and Auto Layout to create reusable blocks for a baseline grid.

On Enterprise plans, workspace and team admins now can set default modes for a variable collection. This allows new files to open with the default variables modes set by the admin.

Vercel developed a new typeface specifically designed for developers and designers. ​“We began by creating a monospace version that prioritized readability and seamlessly integrated into coding environments. After perfecting the monospace variant, we expanded Geist into a Sans version, adding versatility to its capabilities.” Heavily inspired by Inter, it looks great and definitely going to be very popular!

A recording of Miggi’s recent Twitch livestream on interactive components.

A new video in the Introduction to design systems course by Figma explains design tokens.

Christine shows how to use a Scroll To action to seamlessly connect navigation on a single-page website, create horizontal scroll effects, and scroll in multiple directions.

Christine Vallaure with timeless advice of using percentages instead of pixels for specifying line height in Figma. There are very few cases when pixels make sense, and more often than not they cause inconvenience.

Designer Advocate Ana Boyer shares some common questions, answers, and resources that she came across when learning about design systems, tokens, and variables. 

Luis shows how to descope and unpublish primitive variables from the design system.

Designer Advocate Anthony DiSpezio recommends the best approach for defining variables for theming: primitive variable → semantic variable → semantic style. The core advice is to keep using styles: ​“Styles represent a group of properties that should be applied to a layer or part of a layer. Variables represent individual values within that style.”

(Years ago, I noticed that when Apple announces a change at WWDC it’s better to go with it even if it doesn’t make sense at the moment — they see the roadmap much further. I wonder if it’s the same case with Figma and styles. At the moment they often feel redundant, but Figma made it very clear that they’re not going anywhere — hopefully something will make it clear soon why it was worth keeping them around.)

A great practical guide showcases the principles of transition animation with examples that are basic, compact, and can be used immediately by anyone in their design process. These insights are not rules set in stone, but rather guiding considerations for new product creation.

Updated corner radius UI makes it easier to bind a variable to each individual corner.

“Org Admins on the Enterprise plan can set a public link sharing policy for Design and FigJam files at the workspace level. This allows customers to have different policies for different workspaces, thereby unlocking user testing and external collaboration in some areas of the business without sacrificing security in other areas.”

Great idea, but I wish this plugin would suggest the nearest color for a fill of the selected object and not just for the hex value. With some polish, this could be an essential linting step before handing mockups off to a developer.

Nate Baldwin works on design systems at Intuit and writes about his experience of using Figma’s REST API to tie design tokens directly to design resources and integrate Figma as part of a CI/CD pipeline for their multi-product setup. The article is quite technical, but he explains every step of the process.

A quick how-to video from Zander on creating a glowing animation inspired by the Disney logo. (And one more with a hover scale effect.)

Step 2: Learn from Vijay Verma how to create a cute animation using variables and conditions.

Ridd points out two common problems with UI kits (manual updates of shared attributes and maintaining multiple breakpoint variants) and shares a variable system to make your life way easier.

Admins in Enterprise organizations can now make workspaces feel distinct with customized icons, header colors, and descriptions.

Great update to the OkColor plugin letting you specify both absolute and relative chroma in colors.