And they made a show about it.

Figma just launched Source Material, a weekly video series in which the creatives who’ve shaped modern culture discuss the references and influences that refined their taste.

The first guest was Thom Bettridge, editor-in-chief of i-D Magazine and founder of Content World. Throughout the episode, Thom talked about the magazines that built his perspective and the design standards he particularly loves breaking.

The episode rolled out across X, Threads, and Figma’s own blog, receiving 7.8M views and counting on X.

One of the world’s largest design platforms, instead of using its platform to push product demos and ads, highlighted a creative’s point of view as the only thing worth examining.

Let’s not sugarcoat it. Figma is commoditizing design.

Thousands of formats, elements, or layouts are at your fingertips when you use Figma. So it’s interesting that the tool that can automate almost anything focuses on the one thing it can’t.

It’s exactly what designers like Bettridge possess. Years of absorbing references. Hundreds of personal projects. An originality that can only be built through experience.

Figma seems like it’s contradicting its own AI product, but it’s really telling the market where permanent value now lies.

And by releasing Source Material, Figma’s positioning itself beside it.

There’s not a tool in design that Figma can’t give you.

The only thing that’ll differentiate quality work from the rest is a curated point of view: something you can only build on your own.

Source Material is predicated on that idea, and it’s an idea that any creator can incorporate into their own content strategy.

When you make your personal taste the product, you separate yourself from anything an AI or design tool can build on its own and establish an authority audiences reward.

So do you have a point of view, or just a prompt?