Jacob Olenick

Yesterday was a great weekend day. Went to a cafe in the morning. Met with someone from online to chat about building Figma plugins with Cursor. Made another coffee at home. and passed 19,000 followers on LinkedIn.

I love my space. I spend so much of my week in here that I've designed it in a way that helps me stay productive, creative, and happy.

This is one of the most fun design system projects I worked on last year for a client.

It's an AI image tool

lol

a blue hand with the name miguel cardona underneath it ALT: a blue hand with the name miguel cardona underneath it

Me and my co-worker when building our team's design system and designers are using the components properly.

Hold Dunkin coffee cup in hand

Sunday morning coffee ☕

Today I'm working a bit on some passion projects and then watching the Inter Miami game. ⚽

Is this the place to be to connect about #designsystems?

Slots in Design Systems Improving flexibility through custom composition inside components

Great article about slots in design systems by Nathan Curtis

nathanacurtis.substack.com/p/slots-in-d...

So much uncertainty in the job market. Thankfully my team wasn't affected by the 3 separate layoffs recently.

It has me thinking though, I should really start building my freelance/consulting business. Just in case.

IDK if my contract will get renewed when my project wraps up.

Thinking...

DesignSystems.com A design systems publication by Figma

Also @figma.com puts out a great one as well.

www.designsystems.com

Here's one of my favorite newsletters for #designsystems

news.design.systems

Introducing our MCP server: Bringing Figma into your workflow | Figma Blog Today we’re announcing the beta release of the Figma MCP server, which brings Figma directly into the developer workflow to help LLMs achieve design-informed code generation.

This is on my reading list for this week.

www.figma.com/blog/introdu...

I have room for one more Design Systems client for January.

This weekend, I'm going to learn the new Figma MCP and maybe Figma Make.

As a Design Systems Product Designer, I'm seeing more and more companies want to have that as a hard skill.

✨ ~ Ok some personal news ~ ✨
An early look at how we’re bringing design systems into Figma Make:

→ Export libraries and convert them to React with Make Kits (early access sign-up)
OR

→ Install public and private React npm packages (November)

A card component using 10 different modes

More Variable Modes for people on Pro and Org plans, rolling out today
Pro: 4 → 10 modes
Org: 4 → 20 modes

Some design system components I was working on a couple years back.

Might revive this soon and launch it for download.

#designsystems

I feel blessed with where I'm at career-wise.

- I work EST hours while living in PST

- My employer doesn't mind freelancing.

- I'm enjoying the work and the people I work with

- I don't feel drained at the end of the day

- I look forward to Monday's

I cannot complain. I feel super blessed.

I'm no longer working on our team's design system. I haven't been for almost a year now.

Sometimes I wish I still were.

I help get this fix by taking on freelance design systems work for startups.

The last project I worked on was one of the most enjoyable and challenging I've had in a while.

This was such a fun design system project to work on, and these input components were especially fun to build.

In need of some product design work done? 👇
contra.com/jacobolenick

I forgot how refreshing Bluesky was.

I deleted my account several months ago, but this platform is great for connecting with others whose interests align well with mine.

I love my home office. In here I get lots of work done and in here is where I'm accomplishing my dreams.

- Working my 9-5
- Building a side hustle
- Paying off debt (Student loans, Car, House)
- Working on myself
- Relaxing while watching TV

I've crafted this place in my home to feel cozy.

I feel rested and recharged. Heading into the new work week.

Just wrapped up a design systems project for an AI startup.

It was a joy to work with them, and they were one of the best clients.

Follow-up post. My username @espressodesigner.bsky.social

Stems from years ago, when I was going to switch to software development, I had the IG handle coffeeprogrammer

I had that because I love coffee and used to be a barista.

I was on here early on, but left for a bit. I'm glad to say I'm back on this wonderful platform.

I'm a Principal Product Designer at CVS Health, but I also run a freelance business on the side.

I work on feature-level work but also help build design systems.

I'm looking forward to connecting