the feeling config left with me.

you may have already seen a bunch of posts about config 2026. what’s new, what’s exciting, people already experimenting. so let me bring you something a bit different.

i am the one typing this in my notes app. incredible to think we now live in a time where this is not something obvious and requires to be said explicitly.

if you are new, i hope that anything you see from me here, before, now, and in the future; to believe it is written by me. imperfect, but genuine. that the process will stay messy, deeply emotional and personal, and rooted from the view of someone that is constantly grounding herself in the now.

this is what config left me with.

Farhan and I met the morning after all ended. A one-word text at 6:58am “breakfast?” summarizes our planning. He found this lil place in a very latino neighborhood at the south of downtown San Francisco. the perfect location, because i needed to catch my flight after and i was taught to get to the airport at least 2-3 hours earlier regardless of the flight. is that a puerto rican thing? it was our time to sink everything in, in the city were all happened, and to really answer the “breaking the ice” popular question of the week: “what do you think about config?” but really really this time.

while Farhan was getting amazed by trying cafe de olla for the first time, and later with a piece of concha, a moment Valeria would be proud of; i already had an idea what this config meant for him, for us.

you see, Farhan is an architect, regardless of which industry he may be in. but he is also an artist, a designer, a maker, and one day a watchmaker. his tools for sketching are pen and paper. He understand not only craft, but the joy of the imperfect journey that comes with creating it, the feeling no automated tool can provide, the human aspect that makes any design, and the story of its creation, connect with people. with the ones you love and care for, the way we tell stories.

how is this relevant to config? to figma? well, because i believe any creative endeavor is rooted in a feeling. in the tiny tweak, that last stroke, in the sensing of “this is it”, the one thing you know makes something just right. reducing design to some lines of code is removing all the senses that makes art speak to us, that allow us to see ourselves in it. and for me, feeling was the theme its spoke to me during config. i can’t never relate to an agentic host, but I relate to the guy that uses motions to explain math or the one that collects all imagery that speaks to him to guide his work, his taste, his approach to a project.

as Farhan takes another sip of cafe, that has a nice hint of cinnamon (and maybe other spices), was able to come back from this godly experience to ask: “now what?” which i took as: how we protect this?

this piece does not have the answer to his question or the answer to my interpretation of it. this is me wishing and hoping that every designer and engineer navigating this space right now, between creativity and art and craft, in the journey to protect the process that allows us to feel, to find a partnership like ours. to have someone to rely on in this new era in design. one that makes the the difficult tasks lighter, the unknown journey less scary, maybe more terrifyingly exciting, or at least curious, intriguing. the partnership that helps you keep the human experience at the center of craft. a partnership that bring the best of him and i as builders and makers, to serve those in the community who become friends, and to anyone else trying to create beautiful things that sparks a feel.

thank you figma for not loosing sight of that.

in love with numbers? check out designing math life inspiring your work? check out death of the finished state