The Roundup: The Year of Mass Acceleration
Insights from recent Design Better interviews.
As 2025 draws to a close, there is a collective feeling of having just stepped off a particularly aggressive centrifuge. We often talk about the “pace of change” in design, but this year, our guest Mark Wilson—Global Design Editor at Fast Company—described it more accurately: Mass Acceleration.
It’s not just that things are moving faster; it’s that the “Gs” are increasing every day. From Figma’s rollercoaster IPO to Nike’s desperate sprint back to its innovation roots, and the omnipresent, slightly ominous hum of the AI-fueled data center, 2025 was the year design had to decide what it wanted to be when everything became automated.
In this edition of The Roundup, we’re breaking down our conversation with Mark. We explore the “rage-bait” era of branding, why Apple might be losing its script, and the quiet, hopeful rewind toward the handcrafted world.
Listen to our conversation with Mark Wilson: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Substack
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The Figma IPO: A Tale of Two Realities
Perhaps the most significant business milestone in the design industry this year was Figma’s landmark IPO. FIG 0.00%↑ hit the markets at $115/share but quickly dropped below $80/share then settled in at ~$35/share by the end of the year. That’s a big drop.
We haven’t seen many big IPOs in recent years as many companies like SpaceX, OpenAI, and others have had no trouble raising capital from private markets. Public markets haven’t been worth the hassle lately.
So when Figma hit the markets in early 2025, investors were hungry for the investment opportunity. However, the public market has a way of stripping back the “cool factor” to reveal cold mechanics.
The Launch: The stock opened with significant fanfare at $115, peaking shortly after at $122.
The Correction: As of mid-December, it sits around $39–$40.
While some see this as a typical IPO “fall-off,” it signals a broader shift. We are no longer in a world where a design tool exists in a vacuum. Figma is now duking it out in a crowded arena with Canva and Adobe, all elbowing for space using the same AI-powered capabilities. The commoditization of features is happening so fast that “new feature” announcements no longer offer the moat they once did.
