PAINTED PICNIC
PAINTED PICNIC
Figma Make collage tool
Figma Make collage tool
ROLE:
ROLE:
Designer, Vibe Coder
Designer, Vibe Coder
TIMELINE:
TIMELINE:
4 days, March 2026
4 days, March 2026
TEAM:
TEAM:
Myself
Myself
Overview
Teaching myself against a deadline
Teaching myself against a deadline
I discovered the March 2026 Figma Makeathon, a hackathon style virtual contest, with only a few days left to submit.
In four days, I taught myself how to effectively use and prompt Figma Make, curated and produced 41 visual assets, and picked up working knowledge of data structuring and backend-as-a-service tools.
Blending fine art and digital collage
Blending fine art and digital collage
I've always been fascinated by free, publicly available image archives. I was interested in combining the physical with the digital, AI-driven platforms we build with today.
The result is Painted Picnic; an interactive digital collage tool that lets people build their own picnic scenes using food and drink imagery pulled from fine art paintings.
I've always been fascinated by free, publicly available image archives. I was interested in combining the physical with the digital, AI-driven platforms we build with today.
The result is Painted Picnic; an interactive digital collage tool that lets people build their own picnic scenes using food and drink imagery pulled from fine art paintings.
Each element ties back to its origin
Each element ties back to its origin
Each element is hand-picked from fine art. Hover over any item to see the original piece, its artist, and a link back to the archive it came from.
Each element is hand-picked from fine art. Hover over any item to see the original piece, its artist, and a link back to the archive it came from.
Adjusting items on the canvas
Adjusting items on the canvas
Every element's location, size, angle, axis, and z-position can be fine-tuned from the properties panel.
Every element's location, size, angle, axis, and z-position can be fine-tuned from the properties panel.
Planning and Execution
Deciding how to build and organize
Deciding how to build and organize
App needs
App needs
List of collage items
Info about each painting
Link back to the source
Properties adjustments and filtered library
List of collage items
Info about each painting
Link back to the source
Properties adjustments and filtered library
The stack
The stack
Figma Make to build the app itself
Supabase for simple backend to host gallery submissions
Claude API for content moderation
Figma Make to build the app itself
Supabase for simple backend to host gallery submissions
Claude API for content moderation
The assets I gathered all needed to be organized, labeled, and pointed to. Rather than dragging images directly into Figma Make, I built a JSON file that paired each image with its metadata — title, artist, year, museum link — and had the app load images dynamically from there.
Claude also became my debugging partner. I'd explain an issue, walk through where I thought it was coming from, and describe what the expected behavior should be. That let Claude write prompts for Figma Make that were far more technical than what I could have written myself.
The assets I gathered all needed to be organized, labeled, and pointed to. Rather than dragging images directly into Figma Make, I built a JSON file that paired each image with its metadata — title, artist, year, museum link — and had the app load images dynamically from there.
Claude also became my debugging partner. I'd explain an issue, walk through where I thought it was coming from, and describe what the expected behavior should be. That let Claude write prompts for Figma Make that were far more technical than what I could have written myself.
Reflection
What four days taught me
What four days taught me
Painted Picnic didn't rack up big numbers, or win any awards in the makeathon, but that was never really the point. What mattered was that this was the first AI-built app I was able to take all the way to launch, in what was basically a long weekend.
Along the way I picked up real skills: effective prompting, working with AI-assisted visual design and code tools, and some front-end familiarity.
Painted Picnic didn't rack up big numbers, or win any awards in the makeathon, but that was never really the point. What mattered was that this was the first AI-built app I was able to take all the way to launch, in what was basically a long weekend.
Along the way I picked up real skills: effective prompting, working with AI-assisted visual design and code tools, and some front-end familiarity.
Ivy
Kolb