Tweets
“I broke Figma”
A super detailed illustration with complex lighting and textures by Mark Bennett.
I broke Figma 😅 pic.twitter.com/tnMnaNoRqn
— Mark @ designloom (@designloomco) January 16, 2024
Bind variables to variants
Chad shows how to use variables to change your variants on nested component instances when setting a mode.
Did you know that you can use variables to change your variants on nested component instances when setting a mode in @figma? Here's a quick tip showing it in action!
— chad (@dotdude) January 18, 2024
Are you already using variables with nested instances in your design files? I'd love to see what you're making! pic.twitter.com/z2YXNccqPt
Tips for working with comments
A few less-known and undervalued tips from Mal on working with comments in Figma. Personally, I had no idea that comments can be added to a selection or can contain images! I’d also suggest enabling the “Only current page” filter to keep a list focused.
got 2 mins? ok cool cuz I have a few tips for working with comments in @figma. Stick around to the end to see how you can add media to your threads now 😎 pic.twitter.com/2BZwX6FScR
— Mal (@mdeandesign) January 17, 2024
Randomized illustrations
A cool technique of using randomizer plugins like Random Swap Variants and Variants Randomizer to generate a set of unique illustrations from predefined components.
Some #figma tip
— Max (@Aximoris) January 11, 2024
I was tasked by my manager to create around 6 covers for our blog page.
So I prepared a few components with different variants (background color, texture, shape, doodle), and then - using a randomizer plugin I quickly generated more than 6 covers per second 😎 pic.twitter.com/sWrMNwOU2E
Japanese tea house
Using variables to create a night and day version of the same illustration. Love this approach!
Had some time to make an isometric Japanese 🫖 tea house in @figma for fun.
— Dallas Barnes ☀️ (@DallasBarnes) January 3, 2024
This was realllly just an excuse to use variable collections/variables in FIgma in order to create a 🌙 and ☀️ version of it. pic.twitter.com/aDL3IzHcZh
5 mini resolutions
Molly Hellmuth suggests building small design habits in a new year that will make future you grateful — sticking to one naming format, avoiding groups, adding thumbnails to files, naming all your layers (good luck!), and unifying the name of your icon shapes.
5 mini resolutions for your Figma Files
— Molly Hellmuth (@molly_hellmuth) January 2, 2024
Start building small design habits now that will make future you grateful. Like better naming and organizational practices.. pic.twitter.com/yM3rao96ja
Prototyping pro-tip
Ridd recommends including little nav menus in high-fidelity prototypes so that viewers can easily inspect the different states of a page. Great advice and something I’m going to introduce to my prototypes!
Prototyping pro-tip:
— Ridd 🤿 (@ridd_design) January 2, 2024
When I'm sharing a high-fi prototype for feedback it helps to include little nav menus so that viewers can easily inspect the different states of a page 👀 pic.twitter.com/QlYI08bgrV
How to make a color wheel
Miggi celebrates his 3rd anniversary at Figma (congratulations!) by demonstrating how to make a color wheel. (A coincidence, but just earlier this week I was making the same color wheel with a very similar technique!)
Celebrating my three year anniversary by showing you all how to make a color wheel in @figma and giving a bonus hex value explainer along the way! 🎨 https://t.co/1pxyr9W3hX pic.twitter.com/uF07YDtPCo
— Miggi ✌🏽 (@miggi) January 5, 2024
Using the Noise & Texture plugin
A cool tutorial on creating an animated card background using Rogie’s popular Noise & Texture plugin — fast-forward to the end to see the final result.
See our new tutorial to learn how to use @rogie's Noise & Texture Figma plugin to create a beautiful bento card.
— Alex Barashkov (@alex_barashkov) November 23, 2023
Send me DM or reply in a comment to get a Figma link. pic.twitter.com/EcpLMt30oT
Midjourney 6
Fascinating side-by-side comparison of Midjourney 5.2 and the newly released version 6. The generative art from Midjourney has always felt more realistic and interesting compared to other services, and now the gap appears even larger.
Midjourney v6 is finally here!!!! 🔥
— Nick St. Pierre (@nickfloats) December 21, 2023
Here are some side-by-sides, --v 5.2 versus --v 6, as well as some new highly detailed prompts and camera angle tests.
These are all unaltered and unedited, straight out of Midjourney.
v6 is a HUGE leap forward
Prompts & examples 👇 pic.twitter.com/uqo6RSqh7y
Redesign of Porsche’s CarPlay Interface
John LePore is “designing the future” through his work on futuristic interfaces for films, video games, and the automotive industry, including the Hummer EV. He offers his own take on the recently announced Porsche’s bespoke interface for Apple CarPlay. Great presentation and deep thinking behind his choices.
Apple + Porsche instrumentation:
— John LePore (@JohnnyMotion) December 23, 2023
My thoughts, distilled as:
-a re-design
-process + analysis video pic.twitter.com/M3ElrmOBzl
Image fade effect
Fons Mans explains how to create an image fade effect in Figma.
Quite some designers asked me how to create this image fade effect in @figma, so I made a quick tutorial on it!
— Fons Mans (@FonsMans) December 19, 2023
Let’s dive in 👇 pic.twitter.com/NxxysuJUPW
Frozen screen in Figma
Double Glitch reproduced in Figma a cool (or should I say “frozen”? Sorry!) effect first created by Marcus Eckert for the Riveo app. This cursor-tracking prototyping technique is getting wild!
Nooooo, I tried to add this post to hightlights and somehow it got deleted without any confirmation wtf😲
— Double Glitch 🇺🇦 (@double__glitch) December 18, 2023
Anyway, I'll open the file to everyone, here's the link:https://t.co/yT3XezmOOy
And thanks @marcus_eckert for the inspiration again pic.twitter.com/ZqF4sjYCyl
Juicy buttons and themability
How to preserve a button’s volume across multiple themes? Ridd suggests combining brand variables with a style wrapper for reusing gradients.
We all want those juicy buttons 🤌
— Ridd 🤿 (@ridd_design) December 19, 2023
But how do you add texture while maintaining themeability in @figma ?
Here's a quick breakdown 👇 pic.twitter.com/MslvJ27mKz
Four design system files
Molly Hellmuth recommends dividing design system assets into four files for increased flexibility and improved performance. These include Foundations, Icons, Components, and a separate design file with “local” assets.
Most Figma Design Systems should start with ~4 files
— Molly Hellmuth (@molly_hellmuth) December 19, 2023
Let me share why.. pic.twitter.com/3t8p5qewd0
Figma Creator Micro and ✨
I wonder what that button on Jordan’s micro keyboard does?
i've never been faster at figma
— jordan singer (@jsngr) December 19, 2023
what does ✨ do? pic.twitter.com/X5gaeAWUsC
Soleio’s early investment into Figma
Soleio, an early designer at Facebook, is now one of the best-known designers turned investors. He shared a story on the Design MBA podcast about investing in Figma’s seed round in 2012, which became his highest-performing investment.
If you had invested in $10,000 in the @figma seed round it would be worth $4,568,181 today!
— Jayneil Dalal (@jayneildalal) December 18, 2023
I asked @soleio how he got early access to this deal and he replied:
"I invested before the Series A and got involved between their 2012 financing when @IndexVentures backed them.
I've… https://t.co/TqPjRoNjBs pic.twitter.com/hQhUETLeBo
Dragging a field value
Never noticed that smart UI trick — excellent find from Anthony Hobday.
In Figma, if you drag a field value and your mouse cursor hits the edge of the application window, the cursor will be teleported to the other side of the window so you can drag further. Has this always been the case? I think it's excellent design. pic.twitter.com/w1maoL45hK
— Anthony Hobday (@hobdaydesign) December 12, 2023
10 icons in 2 minutes challenge
Vijay challenged himself to create a small set of icons in 2 minutes — that’s just 12 seconds per icon! My takeaway is the importance of a good starting grid template (like this one from Font Awesome) that saves a ton of time and helps with consistency.
Last night decided to create 10 icons in 2 minutes as a challenge. Here is the live result/tutorial⏲️. Upload & download icons were a real timesaver; otherwise, it would have been hard.
— vijay verma (@realvjy) December 12, 2023
Who's next? @miggi, are you up for it?
Shared some more insight below - pic.twitter.com/8doERA5zrA
Interactive glowing card
Double Glitch is building on the powerful cursor-tracking technique I shared in the previous issue with a new tutorial for creating an interactive glowing card using a resource file he published in the community.
Aaaaaand the tutorial is out!
— Double Glitch 🇺🇦 (@double__glitch) December 14, 2023
Let's create this interactive glowing card in @figma using the new powerful cursor tracking technique.
More about it at https://t.co/uC0mu6GYwu pic.twitter.com/FuQ5P5mw9B