Tailwind CSS joins Paper as investors and partners to ​“do whatever we can to help make Paper the absolute best design tool in the world for modern web teams.” Lately, Tailwind CSS has gotten strong tailwinds from AI codegen tools, as this standardized and encapsulated approach to styling works great both for humans and LLMs. Excited to see what a deeper integration with the design tool might look like.

Figma rebuilt its renderer on WebGPU, detailing the engineering work in this article: compute-shader opportunities, clearer error handling, and lower CPU overhead (with plans for RenderBundles/​MSAA), plus how the team rolled it out safely with device blocklists and mid-session fallback.

Figma announced early access to the limited alpha of editing designs using text prompts on the canvas. I’m stoked about this release as it will make experimenting, trying new ideas, and exploring alternatives so much faster.

The new design tool Paper entered public alpha and is now open for signups: ​“We are launching with features like image generation, shaders, real flex layout, Copy as React, OKLCH color picker, vectorize, and many more.”

Stephen Haney, founder of Paper, thought it’d be fun to let everyone try the Apple heat map invite effect on their logos and shared a public playground file. Mind-blowing that a complicated animation like this made with shaders could just be copied from the design app straight to React.

“For years, the boundaries between product development roles have become less defined. Our latest report quantifies this shift and explores what it means for you and your team.”

The Shape Builder is a newer vector tool added to Figma Design from Draw. First, Miggi shows how to use it to easily cut up a shape with a path. Next, he makes a yin-yang symbol with it in just a few seconds.

Emil Kowalski helps decide when and how to animate to provide a better user experience, starting with ensuring your animations have a purpose. I finished Emil’s course Animations on the Web this summer and highly recommend following his writing on motion and animation.

Design Manager Jonas Downey shares tips he learned for building resilient design teams at Figma, Twitter, and 37signals: start with team health, encourage experimentation and shifting roles, treat craft as a differentiator, build bridges across the org, be judicious about process, scale with intention, and make time for levity. ​”Adaptability doesn’t happen by accident—it’s a product of intentional leadership, express permission, and encouraging people to continually push the boundaries of what’s possible. And sometimes it takes a bit of trial and error to get right.”

I rarely wear clothes with prints, except for Figma’s swag. This article looks at a greater phenomenon of corporate attire: ​”Whether it’s a coveted Power Mac G4 Cube T‑shirt or a current Figma style, software is trending. One might call it ​“corpcore”: a sensibility that both revels in the iconic software logos of yore while celebrating the tech companies that touch a nerve today. People are increasingly repping apps on tote bags, hats, and water bottles in the same way they might wear a band T‑shirt or sports jersey.”