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Maker Stories

Meet creators and builders on the other side of the browser

Perspectives on creativity

Illustration of Pablo Sánchez, who has curly hair and is wearing a yellow sweater, over a green backgroundIllustration of Pablo Sánchez, who has curly hair and is wearing a yellow sweater, over a green background

Pablo Sánchez’s 7 rules for designing the unexpected

By 
Pablo Sánchez

The designer of Ableton’s Note app shares unconventional principles for creating unforgettable digital experiences.

Maker StoriesDesignUI/UX
An illustrated portrait of Charmaine Lee shows a smiling woman with long hair and glassesAn illustrated portrait of Charmaine Lee shows a smiling woman with long hair and glasses

Charmaine Lee’s 10 rules for building developer tools that feel like magic

By 
Charmaine Lee

As a product manager working on Snapchat’s Lens Studio for AR developers, Charmaine knows what it takes to delight creators.

Maker StoriesProduct managementEngineering

Peter Yang’s 10 rules for making products that customers love

By 
Peter Yang

Product lead Peter Yang taps into his decade-plus career to explain why staying focused on the craft is a product manager’s superpower.

Maker StoriesProduct managementCareer & education

How Patagonia’s teams collaborate in Figma and FigJam

Figma was always a better way to share documentation with developers because they can collaborate, comment, and inspect.
Manu Garzaron, Senior Experience Designer, Patagonia
Read the article

Making moves

A photograph of Nicole, who has long blonde hair and is wearing red glasses, sitting in front of her quiltsA photograph of Nicole, who has long blonde hair and is wearing red glasses, sitting in front of her quilts

Meet the maker: Nicole Boettcher’s Figma-designed quilts

By 
Jenny Xie

A former product designer now crafts quilts using the design tool she knows best—giving whole new meaning to moving rectangles in Figma.

Maker StoriesDesignProfiles & interviews

The art of the professional pivot

By 
Aaron Britt

Six creatives working in the product design world share their journey to making big leaps and side shuffles into their next career chapter.

Maker StoriesCareer & educationDesign

Building in the browser

A collage of images, maps, text, and graphics from archival NPS brochures on a black gridA collage of images, maps, text, and graphics from archival NPS brochures on a black grid

Made in Figma: The National Park Service goes from paper to pixels

By 
Jenny Xie

How do you design an app for 431 diverse national parks and monuments? By taking a page from iconic NPS park brochures. Learn how a small team adapted Massimo Vignelli’s seminal design system for a digital interface.

Maker StoriesBrainstormingDesign systems
An illustration of a ship hull being built in a warehouse with several workers building the body or examining drawingsAn illustration of a ship hull being built in a warehouse with several workers building the body or examining drawings

The anatomy of a component sprint

By 
Brian Alfaro, 
Victor Alejandro Aguilar

The Washington Post’s inclusive process for creating new design system components bridges the gap between design and development to make features that help navigate the news online.

Maker StoriesDesign systemsBrainstorming

Just your type

Just our type: The story of creating Figma Sans

By 
Jenny Xie

As Figma expands to include tools for all product builders, our community has evolved—and so has our brand. We’ve overhauled our entire visual identity from color palette to illustration style, and even commissioned a new typeface.

Inside FigmaTypographyBranding

Full-scale expression with Grilli Type

By 
Ted Brown

Grilli Type's Theirry Blancpain on the promise and expressive ease of variable fonts.

Maker StoriesTypographyProfiles & interviews

The birth of Inter: How the new open-source typeface used by GitHub and Mozilla came to be

By 
Carmel DeAmicis

It takes a lot of work to invent a typeface. Figma designer Rasmus Andersson learned that first hand while creating Inter — a font meant to make it easier to read text on computer screens.

Maker StoriesDesignBehind the scenes

More Maker Stories

Illustration of Pablo Sánchez, who has curly hair and is wearing a yellow sweater, over a green backgroundIllustration of Pablo Sánchez, who has curly hair and is wearing a yellow sweater, over a green background

Pablo Sánchez’s 7 rules for designing the unexpected

By 
Pablo Sánchez

The designer of Ableton’s Note app shares unconventional principles for creating unforgettable digital experiences.

Maker StoriesDesignUI/UX
A collage of images, maps, text, and graphics from archival NPS brochures on a black gridA collage of images, maps, text, and graphics from archival NPS brochures on a black grid

Made in Figma: The National Park Service goes from paper to pixels

By 
Jenny Xie

How do you design an app for 431 diverse national parks and monuments? By taking a page from iconic NPS park brochures. Learn how a small team adapted Massimo Vignelli’s seminal design system for a digital interface.

Maker StoriesBrainstormingDesign systems
An illustrated portrait of Charmaine Lee shows a smiling woman with long hair and glassesAn illustrated portrait of Charmaine Lee shows a smiling woman with long hair and glasses

Charmaine Lee’s 10 rules for building developer tools that feel like magic

By 
Charmaine Lee

As a product manager working on Snapchat’s Lens Studio for AR developers, Charmaine knows what it takes to delight creators.

Maker StoriesProduct managementEngineering
An illustration of a ship hull being built in a warehouse with several workers building the body or examining drawingsAn illustration of a ship hull being built in a warehouse with several workers building the body or examining drawings

The anatomy of a component sprint

By 
Brian Alfaro, 
Victor Alejandro Aguilar

The Washington Post’s inclusive process for creating new design system components bridges the gap between design and development to make features that help navigate the news online.

Maker StoriesDesign systemsBrainstorming
A photograph of Nicole, who has long blonde hair and is wearing red glasses, sitting in front of her quiltsA photograph of Nicole, who has long blonde hair and is wearing red glasses, sitting in front of her quilts

Meet the maker: Nicole Boettcher’s Figma-designed quilts

By 
Jenny Xie

A former product designer now crafts quilts using the design tool she knows best—giving whole new meaning to moving rectangles in Figma.

Maker StoriesDesignProfiles & interviews
An illustration with panels showing people in different scenarios getting a push notification on their phone, whether it be relaxing in bed or watching the Super BowlAn illustration with panels showing people in different scenarios getting a push notification on their phone, whether it be relaxing in bed or watching the Super Bowl

The anatomy of a Super Bowl ad

By 
Jenny Xie

How learning app Duolingo’s cheeky five-second spot beat the odds in a crowded field.

Maker StoriesBehind the scenesBranding

Peter Yang’s 10 rules for making products that customers love

By 
Peter Yang

Product lead Peter Yang taps into his decade-plus career to explain why staying focused on the craft is a product manager’s superpower.

Maker StoriesProduct managementCareer & education

Shipping hype: PMs on what it takes to bring AI features to market

By 
Suzanne LaBarre

How do you build AI features people want and trust? Product Managers at Figma, Duolingo, Asana, and LinkedIn share their tips.

Maker StoriesAIProduct management

The art of the professional pivot

By 
Aaron Britt

Six creatives working in the product design world share their journey to making big leaps and side shuffles into their next career chapter.

Maker StoriesCareer & educationDesign

Building a design system that breathes with Headspace

By 
Caitlin Lee

In a world that can often feel stressful, Headspace, the meditation company, has given us reason to pause with its flagship app, which has made meditation and its benefits on sleep, mental health, and happiness more accessible.

Maker StoriesCase studyDesign systems

Shishir Mehrotra’s 10 rules for leading great team meetings

By 
Shishir Mehrotra

Coda Co-founder and CEO Shishir Mehrotra explains why the best product teams often put as much care into how the work gets done as what product gets shipped.

Maker StoriesThought leadershipTips & inspiration
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