by The announcement of Adobe’s acquisition of web design platform Figma made waves in the design community this year, with some designers concerned about how the platform could be transformed. At this year’s Adobe MAX conference in Los Angeles, Adobe shared some new details about the merger and told Creative Bloq about some of the thinking behind the acquisition.
During the inaugural Keynote, Adobe’s CPO Scott Belsky invited Figma founder Dylan Field to briefly discuss the new relationship, with Field announcing that the first tangible change to Figma will be the much-requested addition of Adobe Fonts. (Check out the best free fonts if you’re looking for typography inspiration.)
Field also described how joining forces with Adobe will help the platform “build a lot more and faster” and how Adobe’s expertise in areas like vector and video will help add a lot more features to the web-based browser. Belsky added that while both brands are committed to making digital product design accessible to all, Figma will “retain autonomy.”
While Belksy didn’t compromise on some of the most pressing concerns among the creative community, such as pricing, he did explain to Creative Bloq how and why Adobe plans to keep Figma autonomous. “Figma is a massive fast-growing business,” she said. “One of the best things we can do is say ‘hey, we can help you reach more customers.’ Instead of forcing integrations, we want to focus on what the community wants. Dylan told me that the first thing people want is Adobe fonts. So we’re starting there, and we’ll see where customers take us.”
Belsky also highlighted the success of previous Adobe acquisitions. “Behance has not only benefited its community after its acquisition, but it is also a better product, growing from 1 million to over 31 million users. Same thing with Substance – the power, the accuracy, the range and the revenue are way beyond what it was when we acquired the team.”
Time will tell exactly how much Figma will change with Adobe, and more importantly, whether users will be forced to use Creative Cloud subscription prices. In the meantime, if you want to know about the tool, check out our Figma review. And speaking of creative concerns, Adobe also spent a lot of time at MAX 2022 addressing concerns around the rise of AI-generated art.
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