Every year, Figma releases a new line of merch to debut at Config, our annual conference for people who build products. For Season 5, the Brand Studio team brought in eight artists from around the world—each with their own creative spin. "We wanted a collection with distinct angles and voices," says Gustavo Delgado, a brand designer at Figma. To get there, the team organized the collection around three creative themes:Play: the joy of making without overthinkingIteration: what happens when ideas build on themselvesTools: the physical act of creating by handThe Brand Studio team chose artists whose work already spoke to each theme, from Quentin Chambry’s playful, imperfect sketches and Meazo’s spontaneous, childlike characters to Ryan Carl’s iterative geometric arrangements. Together, these artists created our most eclectic collection yet.Quentin ChambryLocation: Tokyo, JapanInspiration: Skateboarding and street culture, graffiti, Japanese ceramics, Tokyo pop cultureTools: Black marker, white paperExpression: PlayApproach: “A lot of Japanese art I admire is about repeating a movement to get the perfection out of it,” he says. True to that philosophy, Quentin fills hundreds of pages per session, letting shapes surface on their own. “With a pencil, you can erase, but with marker, there's no way back,” he says. “I want the process to feel exciting. In the end, it's a work of editing and exploring.”Slide 1 of 5Quentin’s smiling figure illustration on a shirtMeazoLocation: Leicestershire, EnglandInspiration: His children's drawings, DIY illustrators, tattoo artistsTools: An old and “clunky” drawing app on his phoneExpression: PlayApproach: “When my kids draw, it’s clear that they haven't learned to be self-critical yet, so they're not trying to be ‘good,’ they're just making things,” Meazo says. To get closer to that feeling, he deliberately works with a tool he's not great at—feeling his way through rather than trying to control it. He draws familiar, everyday things like butterflies and clocks, then gives them a twist. “I'm always trying to achieve that level of abstract and familiar,” he says. “Comforting somehow, but also slightly surreal.”Slide 1 of 4Meazo's illustration of a playful tomato character on a hatRyan CarlLocation: New York, New YorkInspiration: Sol LeWitt's rule-based art, Josef Albers’ explorations of color, baseball cards, typography, information designTools: FigmaExpression: IterationApproach: Ryan studied philosophy and religion before getting into design, and it still shapes how he works. “I'm always searching for the logic behind a decision,” he says. “Having an understanding of the ‘why,’ and being able to explain it, is central to everything I do.” His practice takes simple geometric shapes—colorful rectangles, clusters of circles—and explores what happens when you arrange and rearrange them. He experiments with both structure and looseness, shifting one piece at a time. “You can feel something a little bit different with each little tweak,” he says.Slide 1 of 4Ryan's design on a tote bag for the collectionYi Hua LinLocation: Taipei, TaiwanInspiration: Hiking and diving in Taiwan, the island's mountains and sea, Indigenous culture, wildlifeTools: Figma and ProcreateExpression: IterationApproach: Yi Hua Lin compares her creative process to hiking—the best part isn't reaching the summit, it's everything that happens along the way. “I’ve always been interested in the relationships between elements,” she says. “Rather than creating a single focal image, I enjoy building visuals that feel interconnected and continuously flowing, almost like a living system.”Yi Hua’s design on a pair of socks for Season 5An early exploration mockup by Yi HuaSuzy ChanLocation: London, EnglandInspiration: Movies (especially horror films), music, comicsTools: Hand drawing and FigmaExpression: IterationApproach: Suzy is always looking for the balance: “Too digital feels less human, but too hand-drawn feels too rough.” She hand-draws elements and keeps them deliberately imperfect, then brings them into Figma. “I want my work to have the vibe of being in the process of making, rather than perfect and finished,” she says. It's a sensibility she traces back to her time in Germany, where she didn't speak the language and spent weekends at a local comic store, reading the characters’ emotions without understanding a word. Her final icon drawings for Season 5 were inspired by the '90s Windows drawing tools she grew up with.Suzy's '90s-inspired icons on a shirtAn early typographic exploration by SuzyOne of Suzy’s early mockupsMina TabeiLocation: Tokyo, JapanInspiration: Light and shadowsTools: Photography, digital toolsExpression: IterationApproach: Mina's work starts with looking at how light, materials, and surfaces interact. “I've always been interested in observing ordinary things and finding visual possibilities within them,” she says. For this project, she arranged a cluster of colorful shapes, lit them, and photographed what happened. The shadows, reflections, and color overlaps are all part of the design. She explored several directions with the team before landing on a composition that felt both simple and open-ended. The final result is a group of shapes that feel connected but leave room for interpretation—you might see something different in them every time you look.One of Mina’s explorationsMina's final design on a long sleeve teeTim BlannLocation: London, EnglandInspiration: Flea markets, pictograms, icons, street signsTools: Gouache paintExpression: ToolsApproach: Tim studied game design before switching to illustration, and the influence is still there. In games, designers build a world with rules and let players loose inside it. Tim works the same way—he sets constraints for each project, decides what elements and style he's working with, then paints within those boundaries. “I like when something precise and recognizable, like an icon, is made in a way that feels childlike and spontaneous. The contrast is what makes it interesting."Tim’s final collection of icons on a shirtSome of Tim’s initial icon explorationsAn early illustration from TimJaedoo LeeLocation: New York, New YorkInspiration: Moebius’ bold colors and angles, comic books, typography, street signageTools: Photoshop, IllustratorExpression: ToolsApproach: Jaedoo compares his process to sculpting: “You have a big chunk—in my case a simple geometric shape—and you're just chipping away until something emerges.” All of his work revolves around these shapes, each one completed with shading and angles to make them look three-dimensional. He sees shapes everywhere. While traveling, he photographs street signs in other countries. “When you can't read the language, you stop seeing words and start seeing shapes,” he says. He brings that same thinking to his illustrations. Each finished form is a shape that communicates an idea without needing words.Jaedoo's final design on a sweatshirtJaedoo’s take on the Figma logo on a crewneckAn early exploration by JaedooEach artist who contributed to Season 5 brings a unique approach and style to a collection that's wide and varied, but connected by a shared focus on how things get made. “The range is what makes it work,” says Gustavo. “No two pieces look the same, but they all belong together.”The Figma team behind Season 5:Gustavo Delgado, Brand DesignerJefferson Cheng, Brand DesignerJulia Oller, Brand CopywriterNic Lee, Ops ManagerLeandro Castelao, Design ManagerDamien Correll, VP Brand StudioJordan Scott, Manager, Community ExperiencesDmitri Palmer, Community Experiences Manager