Why I Ditched Figma (Temporarily) for Illustrator

So, for a recent project, I made myself use only Figma to create a set of isometric illustrations. And look, it worked. Kind of like riding a bike to a dinner party: sure, you'll arrive eventually, but you might be a little sweaty and slightly regretful.

Now, I know what you're thinking. “Why are you talking about hand-made illustrations in the year of AI-does-everything?” Fair! But I've been thinking a lot about this idea of a post-labor creative economy (shoutout to David Shapiro for the term), and I think how we choose to create is about to matter a lot more than we think.

My TL;DR? I don't think an “all-in-one” tool like what Figma is trying to become is actually good for designers (re: Config 2025 release notes). We should be reaching for more robust specialized tools like Illustrator if we want to maintain and grow our creative dexterity. Figma is great for speed and collaboration, but Illustrator gives you depth. And depth is where the weird, wonderful ideas live.

AI tools like Relume or Loveable are already handling a lot of the generic, box-and-arrow UI work. That leaves illustrations, icons, and type as some of the few areas where products can still feel differentiated and elevated. Just look at the buzz around Airbnb's newly released motion icons. (reddit thread on Airbnb new icons)

Illustrator offers a much deeper toolbox for vector manipulation. And when you're intimately aware of what your tools can do, you start to see more possibilities and make more inventive decisions. That kind of fluency leads to more original, more interesting work.