Three Creator Fund projects to know and love
Our grant program empowers the community to make free resources for all. From a kit for building immersive environments, to a design-to-code plugin, to a text animator, these tools have helped nearly a million people create in Figma.
Application dos and don’ts
- Do be intentional with a clear vision of what you want to build
- Don’t dash off a couple sentences—spend some time with it
- Do be prepared with visuals if we follow up for more details
- Don’t worry too much about what we want to see, and go with what interests you
Since launching the Figma Creator Fund in March, we’ve received hundreds of grant applications to make free widgets, plugins, templates, and more for the Figma Community. So far, we’ve distributed nearly $300,000 to 13 creators across nine different countries. Their contributions span from a five-part Mandarin tutorial on design systems to a plugin that teaches you how to use Figma’s developer platform.
The projects we’ve seen have not only inspired us, but also expanded our understanding of what’s possible. A tool like Figma to Code, for example, translates design into a variety of front-end frameworks, empowering more creators to start their own businesses based on the products they make. “We’re drawn to projects that tackle hard problems and offer practical, time-saving solutions,” says Tucker Stockman, Corporate Development and Strategy at Figma, who helps organize the fund. “This approach helps us sustain these crucial projects for the creators who pour their time and energy into them, while keeping the resulting resources free for the entire community.”
With the program well underway, we sat down with some of the first grant recipients to hear about what they built, how they approach their craft, and what they’ve learned in the process.
Have an idea you’ve been meaning to get off the ground or take to the next level? Submit your application for the Creator Fund.
Figma to Code by Bernardo Ferrari
Location: Curitiba, Brazil
The elevator pitch: Figma to Code is a prototyping plugin that quickly converts Figma layouts to code. It’s versatile and works with HTML, Tailwind, Flutter, and SwiftUI.
Check out a cached version of the Covid-19 tracking website. Bernardo also co-authored a paper on the redesign of the site.
From pandemic to plugin: Two weeks into my master’s program, the pandemic arrived. A group of professors built a website tracking the spread of Covid-19 in our state and needed help maintaining it. It had a massive amount of information, and I decided to rewrite everything. There was just one problem: It had been a while since I’d worked with the web—early 2015, to be exact, when jQuery was still going strong. I did know Figma, though, so I would design something in Figma and then try to reproduce it in code. A few plugins to convert layouts to code already existed, but each one was limited because of these common problems:
- It was too slow
- It took too many steps to generate code
- It required payment to unlock full functionality
- It only supported part of Figma’s API, missing important features like auto layout
- It only exported to a single language or framework
- It didn’t consider responsiveness or accessibility issues
I decided to take on the challenge and spent two months working on a design-to-code plugin that was released in July 2020.
A fund to keep from falling behind: Over the next few years, Figma changed a lot, but my plugin didn’t keep up. When the plugin was released, padding could only be set vertically and horizontally, and auto layout only supported “min” and “fixed.” Things also changed on the framework side. When I found out about the Creator Fund on Twitter, I saw my chance to radically improve the plugin without making it pay-to-use.
Going live at Config: The grant motivated me to push things further than I ever had before. I had about a month to make all the changes I’d proposed and fully support Dev Mode before it was announced at Config 2023. I loved the process and recommend talking with the Creator Fund committee if you have an idea: They want to see you win. I was at Config in person and had a 15-minute window to push the update live between keynote speakers. I didn’t have a laptop, so I borrowed one from the Figma team to remotely access my computer in Brazil (which my father powered on). Exciting! The good news is: Now I own a laptop.
I loved the process and recommend talking with the Creator Fund committee if you have an idea: They want to see you win.
Thinking like a designer, Bernardo has helped shapes render about 20% faster in Flutter and convinced Android’s Jetpack Compose to add item spacing and percent-based layout.
A designer-developer mentality: Looking back and ahead, the main lesson I learned is that frameworks are not static, and I can help them change for the better. Flutter is both open source and more flexible than the web, so I’ve started suggesting Figma features to make the lives of designers and developers easier. In the plugin’s early days, I would ask, “What is the best workaround to get borders working as expected in Flutter?” Now I ask, “What is Figma doing that is still hard to do in Flutter, and how can I bridge the gap?”
What’s next: I want to make a SwiftUI-inspired Flutter plugin. I’ve made a few unsuccessful attempts, but I love making tools that help people and want to give it my best shot.
LabKit by Niclas Bauermeister and Marcel Tobien
Location: Berlin, Germany
The elevator pitch: With LabKit, we want to bring the spontaneity of real life into the digital space by building a definitive library of beautiful, isometric objects you can add to Figma or FigJam. You can use the objects to create immersive virtual workshops, offices, or icebreaker exercises, or add them to slide decks and web projects—anywhere you want to make a stronger impression.
How it all started: We were playing around in a Figma file and started to build surfaces and simple furniture. After just a few objects, the file took on the vibe of a real room. We became a bit obsessed with creating new items and met up on weekends to work on them. It made us think about collaborative experiences and the emotional connection we have with the objects around us.
With funding brings focus: We always knew we wanted to get LabKit into the hands of many. Hundreds of people from all over the world had signed up to test it, give feedback, and request new items for the library, but it was challenging to find the right scope for the project while making it accessible to everyone. That’s when we met some folks at Figma and heard of the Creator Fund. We’re really proud and grateful to be part of the first cohort. The grant motivated us to deliver, and enabled us to dedicate more of our free time to building LabKit.
Charting new territory: We’re really proud of how versatile and adaptive it is. We worked with the Config 2023 team to build a virtual conference space using real floor plans—that was exciting and truly inspiring. It brought our work to a new level of sophistication and detail.
Feelings as community feedback: People are really enthusiastic about LabKit and often have an emotional reaction to the uniqueness and attention to detail. We’ve seen people use it to create client workshops, virtual offices, or rooms for their teams to hang out in. It’s always exciting to see how other people use it.
Cat people: LabCat is our first expansion pack for LabKit. We wanted a cute mascot, and a cat was one of the community’s most popular requests. Even in early sketches, we knew that this would have to be a real component with different poses, fur colors, emotions, headwear, glasses, and other accessories—while most importantly being adorable.
Our design mantra: Craft things that are surprising and delightful.
Animate Text by Aamir Shaikh
Location: Ahmedabad, India
The elevator pitch: Animate Text creates text animations for presentations, web pages, and other designs.
The lightbulb moment: When I was building my online portfolio and browsing references, I noticed that many exemplary websites incorporated text animation. Used correctly, it’s the difference between good and great design: It can convey personality or guide a user through a flow. However, animating text with video editing tools or coding both have a steep learning curve, so I decided to make a plugin to empower anyone to be able to do it in Figma.
The importance of community: It’s easy to forget that every resource we see online was made by someone who encountered the same problem, decided to solve it for themselves, and shared it with others. In that sense, communities are key to learning, whether it’s a new subject or overcoming technical hurdles.
It’s easy to forget that every resource we see online was made by someone who encountered the same problem, decided to solve it for themselves, and shared it with others.
Paying it forward: Aside from giving me a confidence boost, the Creator Fund allowed me to launch the plugin for free. From start to finish, the project took 69 days, and I mostly worked on it during weekends. I’m proud of the UI, which has live preview, hover interactions, and tooltips with property explanations. It’s also robust in handling edge cases—for example, notifying users if no text layer is selected, or if they haven’t installed the font. I consulted Figma’s plugin API docs for guidance, and later got help from the community forum to work through technical problems.
A warm reception: The response from the community has been amazing. It’s been used by over 10,000 people, which surprised me! I’m a self-taught developer, and this is the first product I’ve launched. It’s a great feeling. People have shared what they made, and a few told me they use it for other purposes as well, such as splitting individual letters of text.
Words of wisdom: Take a break when you’re stuck. Things will sort themselves out when you come back to the work.
The Creator Fund grant committee reviews applications on a rolling basis and chooses up to five new recipients every month. Whether your idea solves a common pain point or pushes the boundaries of what people can make in Figma, we’re always looking for exciting projects to support. Tell us what you want to make to be considered for the next cohort.
Hero illustration by Jefferson Cheng
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