Figma’s accessibility team shares what they’ve learned from the community and their vision for what’s ahead.

Affinity announced Version 2 of the Designer, Photo, and Publisher apps on November 9th. Their suite provides the strongest alternative to Adobe Creative Cloud, and now is an important time to support indie alternatives. Affinity offers the Universal License on all platforms with just one payment (currently 40% off!) and without subscriptions.

I’m not a heavy user by any means, but bought the previous version of Designer back in 2016 and been using it occasionally. The app was regularly updated all these years, so I just ordered the Universal License and set up the new apps. Hope after climbing the learning curve they’ll become a great addition to my Figma-centric workflow.

Vijay keeps teasing Rogie’s new plugin Noise & Texture. You’ll notice that it’s currently in beta and requires a code to unlock, but if you look closely at this thread you may find one.

Figma Product Manager Jacob Miller’s keynote at Schema Conference on navigating the increasing complexity of design systems and what we can learn from the world of code.

Love when folks share some of the Maker Week projects! Here is a beautiful finished mural.

A library with 1,680+ icons. The free version includes all icons in one of four available styles.

Steve Schoger shows how to draw a fingerprint icon using the full power of Figma’s vector networks.

A popular thread on some of the key Figma features for use in a design system.

A beautiful deep dive into the making of a new background music feature in FigJam.

“The Justice Department is preparing to open an in-depth investigation of Adobe’s $20 billion takeover of design collaboration company Figma, according to four people with knowledge of the matter and a document viewed by POLITICO.”

Seems like Figma’s design team had a fantastic time together in their San Francisco hub.

I’m indifferent to the Halloween celebration, but the fact that the Figma team took the time to add so many fun touches across both apps makes me happy.

I’m excited to see more commercial design systems adopting design tokens. ​“Version 3.0 introduces new features that will boost designer and developer workflow: sync Figma Tokens with code, improved components Inspect panel, redesigned documentation, and Slot, Space, and Grid components.”

Organize content with sections to help teammates navigate through busy Figma files. A section is a default top-level element on the canvas and its own layer type is used primarily for organizing files and grouping designs. Additionally, sections allow you to organize prototypes and preserve their state, as Miggi shows in one video and Anthony in another. See also Sho Kuwamoto’s notes on the controversy surrounding launching this feature.

Dan Hollick explains how every color blending mode in graphic editors works.

In this CNBC interview, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen shares his thoughts on the company’s plans to acquire Figma and innovation in a hybrid work environment.

Noah Levin talks about Figma’s unique processes in hiring and culture on the Design To Be podcast.

Dann Petty shows how to make hand-drawn vectors using Illustrator and Figma.

Vijay Verma is a prolific member of the Figma community (see his projects featured in the past), and in this Twitter thread, he explains why he picked Figma over Sketch or Penpot. Don’t miss his time-lapse comparison of all three tools on YouTube, where he created the same icon and analyzed some key points.

I love his conclusion: ​“At the end, I learned that a tool is just a tool. It doesn’t matter what tool you choose depending on your needs, just start creating. You will find a way to achieve what you want to create with what you have on hand.”

An unofficial audio series (definitely not a podcast!) from the Figma designer advocates team.