Design Tools Are Changing—So Should We
I just finished watching the Figma Config 2025 keynote, and it hit me hard: the tools of the future don’t look much like the tools we’ve been teaching for the past 20 years.
For decades, Adobe Creative Cloud has been the default in design classrooms, Photoshop for images, Illustrator for vectors, After Effects for motion, XD for prototyping (when we got around to it). We taught these apps in isolation, one semester at a time, treating them like separate disciplines rather than parts of a larger conversation. That approach made sense then. But now? I’m not so sure.
At Config, Figma unveiled a different vision. Tools like Draw, Make, Sites, and Buzz aren’t just features, they’re signals. Figma Draw, for instance, brings pressure-sensitive brushes and textured fills into the canvas where UI design happens. You don’t need to export to Illustrator to sketch an idea. You don’t need After Effects to explore motion. And with Buzz, you have AI generating brand assets on the fly. It’s all integrated. All collaborative. And frankly, it’s fast.
This isn’t just about productivity, it’s about a different way of thinking.
Designers aren’t working in silos anymore. They’re jumping between roles, collaborating live, iterating faster than ever, and now, they’re doing all of that in tools built for this new speed and scale. Tools that assume design is multi-modal, iterative, and supported by AI.
So what does that mean for us as educators?
It means we need to take a hard look at the tool stack we’re asking students to master. If we’re still treating Creative Cloud like a sacred text, we risk training students for jobs that are vanishing, or worse, jobs that never existed. The creative industry is moving fast, and the classroom needs to move with it.
This doesn’t mean throwing everything out. It means reevaluating our priorities. It means asking whether our tools are preparing students for where design is going, not just where it’s been.
Config 2025 made one thing clear: the tools have changed. Now it’s our turn.
