This week’s new tools, tutorials, and resources
HubSpot: 200+ ways to make money with AI in content creation, e-commerce, gaming, and more (Free guide).*
Skej: An AI scheduling assistant that takes care of your calendar tasks like booking meetings, rescheduling, event reminders, and more (Free tool).*
Riveo: A video editor for iPhone, iPad, and Mac with AI-powered tools and creative effects.
AdQuick: Plan, launch, and measure IRL ads (e.g., billboards) for your brand as easily as digital ads.*
Descript: A free video editing tool now featuring the first AI co-editor built into a fully powered video editor (in Beta).
In partnership with
TOP STORY
🎨 Photoshop releases “Harmonize”
This week, Adobe Photoshop released "Harmonize" in beta, an AI-powered compositing feature that automatically blends objects into backgrounds with stunning realism in just a few clicks.
First previewed as "Project Perfect Blend" at Adobe MAX 2024, Harmonize uses Adobe's Firefly Image Model to intelligently analyze surrounding context and automatically adjust color, lighting, shadows, and visual tone.
This eliminates hours of tedious manual work that previously required advanced compositing skills.
The feature is a game-changer for creating realistic composite images, making professional-level blending accessible to designers of all skill levels.
With Harmonize, you can now:
Create seamless composites: Drop any object into a scene and watch as AI automatically matches lighting, shadows, and color temperature to the background environment.
Skip manual adjustments: Eliminate time-consuming color correction, shadow painting, and lighting tweaks that typically take hours to perfect.
Work across devices: Access the feature on Photoshop desktop, web, and mobile (iOS in Early Access), so you can blend images wherever inspiration strikes.
Maintain creative control: Choose from multiple AI-generated variations to find the perfect blend that matches your creative vision.
Harmonize is available now in beta for all Photoshop plans, with the feature powered by Generative Credits.
While still in beta, some users report slight resolution loss on complex subjects, making it ideal for smaller objects and social media-sized compositions.
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WEB DESIGN
🛒 Framer releases “Components” on the Marketplace
This week, Framer released "Components” on its marketplace, a new addition that allows designers to browse, purchase, and sell interactive components directly within the platform.
This launch transforms Framer's marketplace from a template-only space into a comprehensive component ecosystem, enabling designers to build faster with pre-made, interactive elements while also monetizing their own creations.
With Components on the Marketplace, you can now:
Browse live previews: View interactive component demonstrations before purchasing, ensuring they meet your project needs.
One-click integration: Copy components directly to your canvas without complex import processes or file management.
Publish and monetize: Upload your own components with full version control, setting your own licensing terms and pricing.
Access any component type: Use both code components and standard Framer components, giving creators flexibility in what they can offer.
Licensing is entirely up to individual creators, with most expected to offer multi-project usage due to the reusable nature of components.
Framer plans to add component tags, popularity rankings, install tracking, and draft functionality in upcoming updates, making discovery and management even easier for both buyers and sellers.
FROM OUR FRIENDS @ SKEJ
An AI scheduling assistant that lives up to the hype.
Skej is an AI scheduling assistant that works just like a human. You can CC Skej on any email, and watch it book all your meetings. Skej handles scheduling, rescheduling, and event reminders. Imagine life with a 24/7 assistant who responds so naturally, you’ll forget it’s AI.
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BUSINESS
🥳 Figma is officially “Public”
This week, Figma completed its initial public offering (IPO), raising $1.2 billion and beginning trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "FIG."
The design software company's stock went up more than 250% (!!!) on its debut day, jumping from its $33 IPO price to close at $115.50, outperforming every major tech debut since 2020, and signaling massive investor confidence in the platform that's become essential for design teams worldwide.
The tables have turned: Figma is now valued at $62-68B making it more than one-third the size of Adobe's $147B valuation.
📸 Saastr
The IPO valued Figma at roughly $19.3 billion initially, but its market cap soared to $47.1 billion after the first day of trading, putting it in the same league as major fintech companies.
Investor demand was reportedly oversubscribed by more than 30x, making this one of the most successful tech IPOs in recent years.
The public offering comes two years after Adobe's failed $20 billion acquisition attempt, which fell through due to regulatory concerns.
Instead of being acquired, Figma used that independence to accelerate AI innovation and expand its product lineup, a strategy that's clearly paying off.
What "oversubscribed by 30x" means: When a company goes public, there's a limited number of shares available to buy.
"Oversubscribed by 30 times" means investors wanted to purchase 30 times more shares than Figma was actually selling, showing absolutely massive demand.
If Figma offered 100 shares, investors were trying to buy 3,000 shares. This kind of overwhelming interest is rare and signals that Wall Street sees huge potential in the company.
Why this matters for the design community:
Massive validation: Figma reported $749 million in revenue in 2024 with 48% growth and a 91% gross margin, proving that design tools can be incredibly profitable businesses.
Continued innovation: CEO Dylan Field said investors should "expect us to take big swings," including through acquisitions, suggesting more tools and features are coming.
Community ownership: Field emphasized wanting "our community sharing in the ownership of Figma" to go public, potentially benefiting the entire design tools ecosystem.
With over 13 million monthly users (two-thirds of whom aren't traditional designers), Figma has successfully expanded beyond its design roots into a broader collaboration platform, and now has the public market backing to accelerate that vision even further.
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OTHER STORIES
Everything else in creative news 🗞
Webflow was down from July 28-31 due to a major disruption to the performance of its app.
Descript released “Underlord,” the first AI co-editor built directly into a fully powered video editor, now available in beta.
Framer is hosting a live event on August 6th.
Figma released new updates to Dev Mode, including: In-Depth Inspection (Dev Mode), Annotations (MCP Server), Local Images (MCP Server), and Design system rules (MCP Server).
Figma released updates to “Variable Width Stroke,” adding features like: direct edit width input, keyboard tabbing control, custom width profile previews, the ability to disable snap to pixel, and resizing multiple width points together.
Figma released updates to Grid: items swap, gap/padding variables, and column editing.
Figma released new keyboard canvas controls for panning, placement, selection, and more.
Figma released extended embed support in Figma Sites, allowing users to bring interactive content directly into their webpages using a simple URL.
Figma released new updates to the FigJam toolbar, including new iconography, a new look and feel, and the ability to comment from the toolbar.
Gamma released “Smart Diagrams,” a new way to visualize your text with drag-and-drop adaptable diagrams.
Gamma released “Pictographic Images,” a curated image library built for modern presentations.
Midjourney released “Midjourney TV,” a new experiment where users can watch trending videos live from the community.
Midjourney launched personalized image and video recommendations.
Higgsfield AI released an updated version of “Multi-Reference.”
Runway “Aleph” is now available on both the web and via API.
Descript released a new integration with HubSpot, allowing you to export video or audio from Descript directly to your HubSpot account.
Descript now allows users to upload files directly from their phone to Descript by scanning a QR code.
Jitter released “Comments,” allowing you to leave comments directly in Jitter.
Tella released “Auto Crop,” a new feature that will automatically crop out menu bars, docks, browser UI, and more.
Play released “Import Library,” allowing you to import any project’s styles, components, assets, prefabs, global variations, and custom events into any one of your other projects.
Spline’s 3D Code API for Swift UI is now available to the public.
Bezi released “Rules” for project-specific coding style and file structure, plus “Enhanced Code Intelligence” that proactively finds errors and warnings in your codebase and its own output.
Luma AI released “Modify with Instructions” in Dream Machine, allowing you to use natural language to direct changes across VFX, advertising, film, and design workflows.
Contra announced a partnership with Ideogram, allowing designers and visual creatives to apply for an expert badge on Contra.
Affogato AI released “Agent,” an AI video co-pilot that can turn ideas into fully-produced videos.
KREA AI released an open version of Krea-1, a new SOTA open-source image model with incredible realism and aesthetics.
Morphic released “3D Motion,” allowing you to turn any image into a 3D motion video.
Bolt released “Design Systems,” allowing you to use your actual design system components in Bolt.
Replit can now generate images directly in Replit.
Magnific released a new version of “Precision,” fixing an issue with tiling/bands, with improved details, and that is 40% faster.
Runway released “AI for Advertising,” a 10-part series on how to use Runway throughout the entire creative process.
Higgsfield AI added support for MiniMax “Haliuo 02 FAST,” a new AI mode that is twice the speed, half the cost, and the same quality.
Higgsfield AI released new MiniMax presets.
Leonardo.Ai released “Veo 3 Start Frame,” allowing users to start videos with any image, add styles, and animate in Veo 3.
Freepik’s Community page is now way better and faster, allowing users to get inspired by top creators.
Freepik added support for “Wan 2.2,” a new AI video model designed for precise control over every shot, lighting, color, camera, and composition.
ElevenLabs released “India Data Residency” for Enterprise customers, enabling advanced voice AI while meeting local data residency, security, and latency requirements.
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