Episode 6: Gleb Sabirzyanov on Open Design and the Figma Plugin Ecosystem

Aug 11, 2021

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Guest

Gleb Sabirzyanov

Panelists

Memo Esparza | Richard Littauer

Show Notes

Hello and welcome to Sustain Open Source Design! The podcast where we talk about sustaining open source with design. Learn how we, as designers, interface with open source in a sustainable way, how we integrate into different communities, and how we as coders, work with other designers. Today we have as our guest, Gleb Sabirzyanov, Designer and Digital Maker of all things. Gleb is currently doing all things related to Figma. He tells us about the plugins he built, Blend and Master, a project he started working on called Pink Turtles, and where he sees the future of Figma evolving in the next couple of years. Go ahead and download this episode now to find out much more, and if you’re interested please subscribe!

[00:01:14] Gleb tells us more about himself and how he started working in open source. He talks about two plugins he built called Blend and Master.

[00:03:10] How did Gleb get involved into the world of design?

[00:05:28] Gleb talks about how his relationship with Figma has been evolving.

[00:08:01] We learn how Figma works as a platform for designers as well as how they enable you to build plugins.

[00:09:55] Richard wonders what Gleb is using the tools for that he’s building and how does he make sure that he’s approaching the need of people who are using Figma to build their own websites if he’s just building plugins.

[00:11:45] Memo asks Gleb about the future of Figma and how he sees it evolving in the next couple of years.

[00:14:51] Gleb talks about designers working on open source but using tools that are not open source, and Memo shares more about the Figma community with us.

[00:19:35] Gleb shares his views on open design and a project he started working on called Pink Turtles.

[00:24:27] Memo asks Gleb how we can bring all of the talented people into the design comfort zone and make them realize that they are creative and that they can produce designs by themselves.

[00:27:59] Find out where you can follow Gleb on the internet.

Quotes

[00:11:51] “I think Figma is an interesting tool and an interesting company because it changed the design industry pretty heavily. It inspired designers to be more open in their process.”

[00:12:57] “But, in the future I think it will be even more about collaboration and openness of the design process.”

[00:14:22] “We usually have these conversations around when to use open source tools and how to balance your life with your stack of tools and say that you support open source, but we actually use tools that are not open source by definition.”

[00:23:51] “But Gleb is right, there should be like a lot more other players out there thinking with the same rules or even, but you know, maybe a different set of rules of just how to create ways of designing more in the open.”

[00:24:08] “I think that would be a really nice design prompt, to think about ideas of tools and projects that help designers and non-designers which is really important for designer teams all over, you know, how to include non-designers into the design process.”

[00:27:44] “But also if somebody is interested in design, in like visual aspect of it, people can of course learn from the designers and from their decisions and maybe help contribute to the project as well.”

[00:31:04] “I just love how Figma is seizing all of the situation to, like gather more people around the design team because this tool for me is to include more people of the team that are not designers, which I think is great.”

Spotlight

[00:28:53] Richard’s spotlight is a post by Justin Jackson called, “This is a web page.”
[00:29:37] Gleb’s spotlight is VK Project on Figma community.
[00:30:28] Memo’s spotlight is a new Figma product called FigJam.

Credits

Produced by Richard Littauer
Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound
Show notes by DeAnn Bahr at Peachtree Sound

Special Guest: Gleb Sabirzyanov.