Figma is Adobe’s now. This is why it does not matter. Or it shouldn’t.

Adobe is acquiring Figma for $20 billion. Silly, I only pay $15 for it.

I don’t know if you have heard of “Jim Will Paint It”. Jim is a lad from Bristol who creates bizarre montages with political and pop culture references.

Regardless of the nature of his creations, the most incredible thing is that he draws all of these using the iconic yet archaic Microsoft Paint.

I have been a designer for 15 years, and you could give me the best illustration app, and I still would not be able to create something so amazing.

“Ultimate 80’s” by Jim’ll Paint It

That’s because the tool matters very little.

I see a lot of designers focusing their energies in learning Figma, Sketch, Illustrator, Photoshop, etc, and becoming really good at these.

I see a lot of tips and tricks being taught on Instagram, but very little of real design advice. In fact, just going around dribbble I can see a lot of templatized, eye-catching designs, with very little substance.

The truth is that design tools come and go. Few years ago there was no Figma. Before that there was no Illustrator.

Before digital tools made our lives easier, designers would have to be extremely precise in creating compositions. That’s because everything would cost money. No room for errors.

That is why you see old ads that are simple, iconic, and have influenced digital design.

I have worked with extremely talented Art Directors that would make ads out of collages. That brings a different significance to layers. You have to think a whole lot before acting, and that’s a bit of what we’re missing now.

Figma is an extremely powerful tool, but you can’t rely only on it. It is everyone's favorite tool of now, but is it the favorite tool of tomorrow?

That’s why putting your energy into learning a tool will not pay off in the long run. That makes you a good “design technician”, not necessarily a better designer.

I have learned a whole lot by pushing pixels manually to the right X and Y axis in the early days of using Sketch than I will ever with Figma’s Auto layout. That is not to say this is not an amazing feature. But if you don’t know how to do it manually, you’ll hardly get why things should fall into a specific place in your designs.

If you want to consistently evolve as a designer, try learning and applying some of its basic laws. Apply it with simplicity before you can go crazy and break those.

Learn how to apply Gestalt principles. If it's overwhelming at first, try to master it one at a time.

Whitespace separates the shapes into two distinct grouping through the principle of proximity. Even when including differing shapes within each group, these two groupings are still clear. (by N&N)

These laws are not something created but simply observed in nature and on how our brains react to certain stimuli. Maybe you can’t pinpoint what is right or wrong about a composition, but your brain certainly can tell if it’s friendly or threatening, if it makes you feel peace or uneasy.

The user's eyes might not tell as well as ours, but the feeling won’t lie.

If you learn and absorb these concepts, you will be free to have no preference for tools and will not rely on which company uses what tool. So fear not that Adobe bought Figma, or if the company you want to work for uses Adobe XD. You’ll pick it up and make the best of it because you’re not a technician, you are a designer.