Aisle Rocket Studios, the agency behind Whirlpool, masters collaboration | Figma Blog

Aisle Rocket Studios (ARS), a multi-office agency serving brands such as Whirlpool and Maytag, adopted Figma to solve the challenges of remote collaboration and fragmented workflows. By making Figma the shared source of truth, ARS brought designers, writers, developers, and clients into the same browser-based workspace. The result was faster iteration, more inclusive collaboration, and a more efficient creative process.

Fragmented Files and Remote Collaboration

• ARS had more than 250 employees, four offices, and remote associates supporting over 25 brands.
• Creative work was scattered across native files in Sketch, Photoshop, and other tools.
• When Creative Director Matt Carson joined the Whirlpool account remotely under a tight deadline, the lack of a centralized process became especially apparent.
• Figma’s multiplayer functionality offered a real-time workspace for collaboration across locations and time zones.

Figma as the Shared Source of Truth

• The Whirlpool team quickly replaced disconnected workflows with a centralized Figma process.
• Team members designed and iterated together in a single file.
• They used Figma for internal meetings, stakeholder feedback, and client prototypes.
• Clients could review interactive concepts without logging in or waiting for developers to build the experience, shortening review cycles.

More Inclusive Creative Work

• Figma enabled ARS to conduct roughly 80% of its creative process in the browser.
• Writers could edit copy directly within designs instead of working separately and handing it off later.
• This made copy an active design element and gave non-designers more influence over the final product.
• Developers could review designs early, helping identify technical constraints before handoff and reducing back-and-forth.

A Leaner, More Effective Team

• The Whirlpool account team became faster and more collaborative after consolidating its tools and files.
• Its success attracted attention across ARS, prompting other teams to adopt the same workflow.
• Both ARS and Whirlpool reported savings in time and money without sacrificing creativity.
• Open, collaborative design became a standard the agency wanted to apply more broadly.

Building a Shared Design System

• ARS’s next step was to create greater consistency across Whirlpool’s digital brand.
• Following atomic design principles, the team planned to build standardized “atoms” in Figma.
• These components would be stored in a team library as a central source of truth.

ARS’s experience suggests that browser-based collaborative tools can unify distributed teams and make the creative process more democratic. Centralizing design, copy, development input, prototypes, and reusable components in one shared workspace can improve speed, communication, and consistency.