Baseline #1 – My Goals for 2022

Hello and welcome! 👋

Jan 3, 2022

Ahh, hello! Thanks for being here and for giving this little new newsletter of mine a read. Admittedly, I’m a little nervous about this as it’s a brand new medium for me, but I’m also just as excited, too! I’ll be sharing a little bit more about what’s happening in my personal life, what I’m up to on and learning about in my working life, to include all of my favorite Figma tips, and to share any interesting or inspiring resources I’ve bookmarked myself, especially as they relate to design.

2022

2021 wasn’t quite the year that I think many of us were expecting. While it was a year that remained filled with much anxiety, uncertainty, and fear, thinking back, there still were moments from the last twelve months that I was thankful for. The top moment, without a doubt, was being able to become vaccinated and to give my family a long-awaited hug after nearly 18 months of being apart.

Perhaps like many of you reading, I’m still feeling really unsure of what this next year holds. But as I try to think ahead and remain optimistic, there are a number of things I’m already looking forward to. Here’s what I hope to do in 2022:

Get married! After nearly three years of being engaged, my fiancée and I feel hopeful that the special day we’ve had our hearts set on will finally and safely be able to happen.
The opportunity to continue to learn and grow within my role at Twitter as a member of the Design Systems team. I recently came upon my 1 year mark and there are a number of new challenges and projects ahead to take on. I feel so fortunate to be here with this team and I’m really looking forward to continuing to share and build in public, as is the Twitter way.
I formed my first company in 2021, Baseline Design LLC, as a way to begin to provide Figma training to designers. My goal is to help anyone feel more comfortable and confident with the design tool and the opportunity to help others in our industry by teaching is something I both so thoroughly enjoy and feel especially humbled by. I can’t wait to continue these training sessions this year and if you’re at all interested, please reach out! (Thanks to David Hoang for sparking this idea).
Last year I wanted to take on the challenge of starting a Figma-focused YouTube channel, and even though I technically did start one, I didn’t get very far. In total, I uploaded three videos and really enjoyed the process of making them, but I didn’t have a plan for the channel that I was excited about and things, uh, quickly fizzled out. After a little bit of time away from it and now with a shiny new Notion database (isn’t that how all fun side projects start?), I’m really ready to begin recording and publishing again!
By far, one of the most rewarding experiences of this past year was being able to become a mentor on ADPL. In total, I mentored for over 600 minutes and met with dozens of incredibly talented and inspiring designers who were just beginning their own journeys into design. I feel so fortunate to have been a part of those many conversations and I have every intention to continue the path of mentorship this year.
Finally, I want to continue to not only prioritize my mental and physical health and wellness, but to fully appreciate the days where I do feel at 100%. There’s a lot for myself to unpack here that I haven’t yet figured out, but I know that for myself the past two years have been a near-constant reminder for just how fragile the state of good health can be.

In case you missed it...

Before the holidays I shared out a new Figma Community template I had been working on to help make organizing Figma files a bit easier, through way of creating file thumbnails. Within the file, there are dozens of component variants and options for customization to make the thumbnails yours. If this sort of thing could be helpful to you or your team, duplicate it for yourself here.

Recent bookmarks

A gorgeous gradient blur wallpaper pack from Oliur. Also, Oliur’s wonderful newsletter The Manual, is what inspired me to go and create this one. If you haven’t already, give it a follow!
Gavin Nelson created a wonderful Zoom replacement icon for the Mac.

Say hello!

I always love hearing from people and if you enjoyed this, please reach out! You can find me on Twitter @joeyabanks.

Baseline