Figma Borrows From Playgrounds To Build Its Fun & Flexible New Visual Identity
Video screenshots via Figma
Playgrounds and product design delicately balance on a seesaw with Figma’s bold new brand refresh. Known for its design tools that foster collaboration, the platform is rolling out a fresh new look that reflects its growth from a designer’s tool to a broader ecosystem for builders of all kinds. With a vibrant new color palette, playful shapes, and a focus on fluidity, the overhaul is all about embracing creativity and being unafraid to start from square one.
This new identity is built around four main pillars: versatile primitives (shapes), dynamic compositions (layouts), an expanded color palette, and integrated motion principles. The team at Figma’s Brand Studio found inspiration in playgrounds designed by artists Isamu Noguchi and Mitsuru Senda.
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Just like a playground, the Figma canvas is a shared space where multiple activities can happen at once—people creating, experimenting, and interacting in parallel. Play areas are “a metaphor for the Figma canvas—a place where people come together to create and experiment,” describes brand designer Jefferson Cheng.
In 1976, the Noguchi Playscape opened in Piedmont Park, the art piece was donated to the city in honor of its bicentennial. The Noguchi Playscape is an exceptional work of art by one of the most important sculptors and designers of the twentieth-century, Isamu Noguchi. pic.twitter.com/bnu1vNz7Cv
— ATL Parks & Rec (@ATLParksandRec) March 9, 2018
Versatile Primitives
The new identity features a collection of primitives—basic shapes that form the foundation of Figma’s illustrations. These range from abstract blobs to more recognizable forms, representing the diverse perspectives of Figma’s user base. These building blocks or shapes “are intentionally varied, like the hands that made them,” fellow brand designer Leandro Castela adds.
Image via Figma
These forms are unapologetically graphic and oversized, putting the focus on details and precision.
Dynamic Compositions
Just like in Figma, objects can interact with other objects on the canvas, creating endless compositions. To standardize these arrangements, the team revisited its list of modalities and actions pulled from their audit of the product development process. ‘Ideation’ is represented by freeform collage, ‘designing’ relies heavily on manipulation and transformation, and ‘building’ is represented by visual abstractions of coding, inspecting, and annotating. Taken together, these compositional arrangements comprise four main moves: overlap, reveal, clustering, and multi-move.
Expanded Color Palette
Color plays a crucial role in this refresh. While Figma has kept its signature purple, it’s introduced a broader palette that includes bold primaries, neons, and earthy tones. The expanded spectrum echoes the diversity of Figma’s community and the breadth of possibilities within its products.
Image via Figma
The Brand Studio developed a complex yet harmonious system of color schemes, using variables to create a range of expressions of crisp contrasts and the sense of movement to mirror the collaborative effervescenece of a team working on the same canvas.
Image via Figma
Motion
Motion is also woven into every fiber of the brand. From the outset, the team considered how visual elements would move and interact.
Tying it together is Figma’s new typographic system, led by the custom-designed Figma Sans. This new font, alongside Figma Condensed, Figma Mono, and Figma Hand, creates a flexible foundation for all brand communications.
Image via Figma
The previous illustration system relied heavily on geometric shapes with main character energy. For this refresh, the team sought to create a more flexible language that could grow with Figma in the years to come. Correll stresses:
“Enduring visual identities should be thought of as languages, not systems. Systems imply rigid rules and predictability.”
The process of refreshing the brand was far from linear and involved months of collaborative exploration. The team worked fluidly, grabbing and riffing off of each other’s work in an “all-hands-on-deck” effort. Oftentimes, members would lose track of the original authorship of one idea or iteration, an ideal outcome for a team looking to create a scalable system. “Figma lends itself to being egoless,” says Cheng. “It doesn’t matter where something originates; we’re coming together to make something great.”
Image via Figma
The new visual language isn’t just a facelift but, importantly, a foundation for future growth. Supported by teamwork and adaptability, it ensures that Figma can continue to evolve as the needs of its users change.
“This isn’t the final destination. It’s a new starting point,” hints Taryn Cowart, design manager of the Brand Studio. “We’ve created a system that’s flexible enough to adapt as we continue to grow and change.”
[via Figma, images via various sources]
