ConFig 2025 - Caplin's product team attend Figma's first European conference

Last week, members of our Product & Design team attended Config London 2025, Figma’s flagship design conference, hosted for the first time in Europe at the capital’s ExCel Centre. The day was packed with keynotes and talks from some of the most influential voices in the design world. We walked away inspired with fresh ideas for how to continue: scaling Caplin’s complex design system (Bridge), developing a deeper brand language and identity, and challenging the sense of the comfort that often surrounds the user experience of financial trading platforms.

“Sometimes the only thing conventional is the challenge of convention.”

Dylan Field, Figma (CEO & Co-Founder)

Figma’s Big Reveal: Keynote Highlights

The day kicked off with a bang as Figma’s Dylan Field (CEO & Co-Founder) and Yuhki Yamashita (CPO) revealed a series of exciting new features during their keynote. These tools promise to make our design workflows faster, more collaborative, and more expressive:

• Auto-Layout Enhancements: Smoother, more flexible layout options that will streamline responsive design even further, and build grid systems that more accurately reflect our codebase.

• Figma Make: Embracing the power of AI, this feature empowers designers to rapidly test and build design patterns, review and flag accessibility issues, produce testable prototypes, and even auto-generate design components based on a prompt.

• Figma Buzz: A new tool that enables streamlined brand communication and tooling inside of Figma, allowing teams to collaborate with internal and external stakeholders, share updates and tone-of-voice guidelines all in one place.

• Figma Sites: A no-code site builder integrated directly into Figma—ideal for internal tools, micro-sites, and design documentation. Expect to see some fun ideas soon!

Notable highlights from the industry’s best in show

Lloyds Bank’s Digital Rebrand

One talk that really resonated with our team was “Lloyds Reimagined: The Future of Digital-First Rebrands” by Vishal Kapoor and Kishan Koriya. The Lloyds team unpacked the complexities of the bank’s recent digital-first rebrand in partnership with Wolf Olins, refreshing a 250+ year old brand with vibrant colour, renewed typography, and motion design. They dived into the challenges of integrating their new brand language and identity within their design systems and consumer or business products for mobile and web.

Their insights into how design systems must be both scalable by design and accessible by default were a call to arms for anyone dealing with legacy platforms. We particularly loved this perspective:

“Design language is where brand design meets system design […] Brand language is for expression, design systems are for execution.”

Kishan Koriya, Lloyds Bank (Native Design Systems Manager)

Bravery, Legacy, and the Edges of Innovation

Another standout moment came from the panel on Driving Industry Innovation, featuring Giuseppe Perri, Adam Moris, and Ellen McGirt. The quote that lingered with us long after was:

“When you attempt innovation in a legacy environment, the organisation’s immune system attacks you.”

Ellen McGirt, Design Observer (Editor in Chief)

It’s a powerful metaphor for the resistance that innovative teams often face—and a reminder that bravery is a critical skill in modern design leadership. Unfortunately, an attitude we often face in the FinTech space is, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” So, as a result, design teams are often faced with the dilemma of upsetting the users existing world view, or trying to usher them towards a new and fresh online experience. There are definitely benefits (and pitfalls) to both.

Restoring Trust in UX

In “Stop with the Dirty Tricks: Confessions of a UX Skeptic”, Ningfei Ou from Google tackled the darker side of UX—dark patterns, manipulative flows, and user fatigue.

“We are the magicians, and we have revealed our own tricks.”

Ningfei Ou, Google (UX writer and content designer)

His message? Let’s rebuild trust through honesty and craftsmanship. It was a call for transparent, respectful user experiences—an ethos we fully embrace at Caplin.

Other Notable Highlights

• Timothy Achumba (Microsoft): How Figma became my gateway to physical product design

  If you’re interested in physical product and hardware design, as well as geeking out on keyboards and keycap specs, this is a talk for you

• Dan Hollick (Tailwind): Building colour palettes for the modern web

  There’s an ongoing industry joke that says designers only care about colour. As much as I’d like to refute it, there may be some truth to it. Dan’s talk was a fascinating breakdown of colour systems, displays, and how Tailwind has begun future proofing their colour palettes for web based applications.

• Nick Jones & Devin Jacoviello (Stripe): The web hasn’t happened yet

  An hilarious and insightful look into the untapped potential of web design. Nick and Devin have been creating beautiful websites for a while now. It turns out they are also great at giving improvised keynotes …

Our Takeaways: Ideas to Power Our Future

Config wasn’t just inspiring – it was actionable. Here are a couple of ways we think it can immediately impact how we work at Caplin:

1. Figma Clinics for Designers & Developers

   We want to set up regular Figma clinics—open sessions where design leads and system managers can answer questions, demo new features, and help engineers and designers collaborate more fluidly. These sessions will be an essential bridge between design and code, ensuring our prototypes and animations are translated seamlessly into real-world applications.

2. Evolving Caplin’s Brand with Figma Buzz

   With the launch of Figma Buzz, we see a new opportunity to centralise and communicate our brand language within Figma. This will reduce overhead, prevent context-switching, and keep our designers focused on what matters most—delivering exceptional user experiences to our clients and users.

Config London 2025 was more than a conference—it was a celebration of design’s potential to drive change, spark joy, and reimagine what’s possible. As we return to our desks and dive back into product work, we do so with a renewed passion for building tools and experiences that are not just functional, but delightful. Design isn’t just how our products look—it’s how they work, and most importantly, how they feel.

Here’s to challenging convention, embracing innovation, and continuing to lead the way in FinTech design.