This was the Coachella for design, but I'm literally seeing that. So, there's 10,000 people that are expected to come. What kind of companies are representing this crowd?
Pretty much all of them. It's international. People come from all over the world, not just tech or software. It's everything you can imagine. Any role you can imagine in terms of software and media, advertising and content. I mean, you know this better than anyone. The potential economy is real. Staying out hard. I think that it takes not only human steering and human intent, but also it takes a point of view.
It is not enough to wear a thinking cap. You have to actually think.
Elon Musk once said, "If a product is special enough, it needs no logo." What do you think about that?
Dylan Field, thank you for having me.
Thanks for having me. Where are you?
I mean, I've heard this was the Coachella for design, but I'm literally seeing that it hasn't started yet, and it's already packed full.
Uh, well, today we got Config Commons most importantly, and it's a good time for you to get your badge so that we don't have a long line tomorrow. Uh, one time we had like an hour keynote delay. It was very embarrassing.
Yeah. So, we have a pre-reg thing now. Uh, but also try to give people food, hangout spaces, get them to mingle.
I think it's really cool because like people are always reconnecting with like old friends here, but also they have a chance to just meet so many new people in the design community and uh it's a really special community. And that's not just for Figma, it's just for design more broadly.
So, there's 10,000 people that are expected to come.
What kind of companies are representing this crowd?
Uh pretty much all of them. Uh uh but no really I mean it's international people come from all over the world and uh not just tech or software it's uh everything you can imagine and you know any role you can imagine IC to leadership. Um we have everybody from like the chief design officer to the uh students that are part of our our city programs here. So yeah it's all over the place.
Yeah. Okay, we're gonna attempt to walk through the crowd.
Let's go for it.
And you already had some paparazzi on you, so we'll see how this goes.
Um I I think they're coming for you, you know.
No, they're not, Dylan. This is literally the Config, like Figma conference.
Okay. So, how many years have you been doing this and why start it in general?
Yeah. So we started in 2020 uh right before the pandemic and it was it's this is actually our 10th Config because we've done international Configs that are fast follows to the Config in SF. But the reason it started um we had basically user groups starting to pop up all around the world and then from there as the user groups started to really gain momentum we wanted some way to bring everyone together. And uh at first we're like kicking our ideas like oh yeah maybe like a few hundred people. We decided let's go big like 800 people and that sold out instantly. So then from there we were planning to right afterwards like okay next time it's going to be really big. Well it actually ended up being even bigger because of this pandemic. And so it was like this is going to be a remote conference now.
Um, we got so lucky the first time because we were able to three weeks I think before the pandemic started uh in full in the US the world shut down um had the chance to bring everyone together and I can't imagine what it would be if it was 3 weeks earlier.
Yeah, that's insane.
Yeah. So the big headline right now which I think uh you have pretty much disproven is that design is dead.
Uh look around you. Um no I mean I I think that the weird thing right now is everyone is kind of putting down all the other roles. So, like, you know, I'm seeing way too much of engineers saying, I don't know, that either PM and designer, and the PM's like, I don't need the engineer, designer, and the designer's going, maybe I don't need the PM or the engineer. Um, and so, like, why is that happening? And I think that we're in a temporary phase of um people really, you know, getting excited about what they can do with AI.
Uh, but not yet realizing all the limitations that they have. And hey uh and yeah, so I think that there's um like it's truly exciting what you can do, but also the value of a team is really important. And I think we're we're hitting a line here.
We're we're in a line. What is is this for is this for food?
Okay.
I heard that you guys not to deviate too much, but I heard you guys are going to sell out of merch in like five seconds.
I hope not. Hopefully it lasts a little longer. Um but the uh
But yeah so I I think it's like very lonely the idea that you're just gonna work alone on everything forever. Um, and I think that, you know, if you want to build scalable, real systems, explore broadly, build the right thing, not just like something fast, then I think it's really important to lean into design. Um, not just from a visual and aesthetic standpoint, but also from a user experience standpoint, from like understanding the user, understand the culture around you. Like design is so much more than visuals and aesthetic.
Uh, that's just the tip of the iceberg. But what I think is really promising is how I'm seeing so many engineers now that are uh I hope our cameraman did not trip. Um uh we're seeing so many engineers now just get interested in Figma and as that happens uh they're starting to really pick it up because you go build something really fast that's awesome but then you're like okay can I like actually now make it great.
Right? I mean, what I thought was interesting is like
Figma not only unlocked design for just normal people who like just didn't really know how to design anything, but your software is like really easy to use. It's very intuitive, but now you're involving code into it. And so now engineers are literally coding design.
Yep. Um, and I think that the aspects of like what we're launching tomorrow uh will be even more in that direction. So, I'm really excited about that. Go for it.
Thank you.
Uh, yeah. So, now we're inside. So, that'll be a little
Now we're inside. Let's do a little 360 here. Come around.
This is the emptiest it'll be.
So, how is it all set up? Where do people really mingle and all that kind of stuff?
Uh, the mingling will occur everywhere, but downstairs is going to be more like mainstage keynote. Uh, and that's like where there's a lot of activations and area to explore.
Is that your favorite part? Um the mainstage keynote.
Yeah, it I don't usually remember it. So, uh once I get past it, then I'm like
Yeah, it's a little bit of a blackout experience.
Yeah, but you can watch it later online and then you're like, oh, I said what?
Yeah, I was talking to Michael about this before, but I was like watching all of the previous Config videos and I was like, this is really cool.
Well, the content that we're doing is so much. Yeah, the content on all the tracks are amazing and we've had such incredible speakers and like at legendary times too. Uh I I actually one of my favorite ones was um Jesper from Teenage Engineering. I don't know if you saw that one.
No.
I got to interview him and uh yeah, he is a character. Definitely watch that one later.
Are there any speakers this year you're excited about?
So so many speakers um that I'm excited about, but two that I'm like off-the-wall excited about. Um one is Holly Herndon. She's a total visionary artist who I think people don't appreciate like how far ahead she sees things. Um you know, she was into very specific like quirky ways of using NFTs or they weren't called it then. Uh early on she open sourced her voice with AI early on, you know, this is back in like 2021 or something, 2020. I mean, it's just like the the time scale that she's operating on is different than the rest of us.
Um Grant Sanderson, 3Blue1Brown on YouTube, is another person that I think will give a great talk. Uh and I can't wait to watch it. He's someone that I've been uh following for a long time. Uh I'm lucky to call a friend. And he does these explainer videos for math that are just incredible and um uh really uses graphics and design to be really craft-forward in his explanations and he puts so much care into them and just has been a teacher for so many to
That's why you're vibe mathing.
It's it's it's just a form of psychosis, you know.
Uh until it's not but we'll see. I I I think that the models are really decent at math for like pure math. Um, and it's a bit of an antidote to the non-verifiable domains that I'm usually in. So, for Figma, I mean, it's all vibes. Uh, right? Like you're trying to figure out um sometimes it's very clear, okay, like literally you didn't center the div, like learn to center divs AI. Uh but I think more often um you know it's more like okay well actually you're giving a lot of styles that are very similar here. You're not as broad in your range as you could be if an LLM provider is asking us for feedback uh or we're trying to steer it and the eval uh stuff we're doing stuff others are doing like a lot of it is inherently non-verifiable. It's like got to be human judged at the end of the day. Uh and you can set up more automatic methods for that, but you still have that human intent. Whereas formal domains like math, I mean that's as formal as it gets if you set up the formal systems correctly, which are really easy to mess up. Um and uh uh I think it's kind of just a nice antidote in contrast to like Figma experience.
I love that. It's very unexpected.
Um so you were talking about some of the speakers. Were there anybody else that you're excited about?
Uh so many. I think that um well I'm in keynote brain right now.
And I think the keynote will be really awesome. So we're going to have a bunch of Figmates that are showing just incredible stuff.
I know. I love that. It's like we were start we started by the big sign and then all of a sudden you got swarmed.
Oh well those are all people I see all the time. Yeah. We have a great team. Um actually uh Ian who you met
Uh I was in a class in my senior year of high school. We were in a a real analysis class together and this is where I first met him and then he randomly applied to Figma at some point uh and didn't even tell me. I was like why didn't you tell me and I found out soon as I found out I'm like this is the smartest guy like I've ever one of the smartest people I've ever met. Like please can we get him in?
He still went through the full loop of course.
Shout out to Ian.
All right so we're going to head over and sit down for the Pantone Lounge.
It's super exclusive. There's a
Just two of us.
Yeah. All right, Dylan Field, we are in the Pantone Lounge.
We're in the Pantone Lounge. We made it through.
We made it through the crazy crowd who was screaming your name and taking pictures.
Maybe exaggerated a little bit. It was a great It's a great group out there. Uh so I'm glad you got to be there.
How did you convince all of them or their bosses that they should take the day off?
Uh I think if you convince them and their bosses to come, it helps. Uh so that's more of uh I think what's happening. So, they're all having a lot of fun.
Because we're in the Pantone Lounge, I want to ask you a very pressing question.
What is your favorite color?
I'm not going to ask about ref number.
Purple.
Yeah, I'm a purple guy, but purple has a broad range. Uh, and so it's very hard to define exactly where in purple. I kind of like the range, you know, and sometimes it's like more of a reddish purple, something more bluish. But yeah, I I also think it's amazing when people are great at color theory. I am not.
Uh I I know enough to know that I'm not amazing at color theory, but I have the utmost respect for those that are.
You haven't gotten your color waves checked. Do you know that's like a thing, too?
Uh like if I'm what? Tetrachromatic or something. Like if you're like it's a I think it's like a Korean thing where they like color theory you and like see what your aura is and what colors you should be wearing.
No, I don't think so.
Um but no, I mean I think that uh composition and color is like a real skill and um a bunch of people really try and train for this and some people have got it to to the degree that others don't and it's amazing when you find them.
We're going to take it even more serious. Okay. You were recently on Mafia.
