Adobe has agreed to acquire Figma for the sum of approximately $20 billion, making it one of the largest acquisitions of a private tech business in history.

There are a few big trends that Figma has both contributed to and benefitted from. The first is the generational significance of design-thinking. In the 19th century, the most significant marker of authority was spoken eloquence: your skills in oratory were how you found an audience. In the 20th century, as literacy rates increased, arguably that power migrated to the written word. Now, in the 21st century, as we dwell in an increasingly digital realm, the best proxy for public credibility is intuitive, responsive design. Thanks to the app-ification of everyday life, we’ve developed an extraordinary civilizational sophistication in appreciating good design – and a marked intolerance for the bad.

Figma saw this dramatic shift years ago, and has been the primary platform for accelerating it. For anything digital involving an output on a screen, Figma is increasingly where the most crucial work happens. Dylan and Evan have always been committed to reimagining the relationship between creativity, collaboration and productivity. They recognized – long before pretty much everyone else, in an era when designers were sending static files back and forth over email – that both consumers and creators needed faster feedback loops, as well as a space to communicate in real-time to make the best and most beautiful products possible.

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