This is the first in a series of blog posts where we have invited organisations from across the Drupal ecosystem to share their experiences and insights on how they are using Drupal AI in their work. If your organisation is innovating with Drupal AI, we would be delighted to feature you in a future post.
Witze Van der Straeten is a Front-End Web Development student at Arteveldehogeschool in Belgium. In this post, he shares how discovering Drupal has completely changed the way he thinks about design, development, and community.
Discovering Drupal
Before my internship, I had actually never heard of Drupal. At school, we learned about other CMSs, but Drupal was only briefly mentioned, we never explored it in depth. During my search for an internship, I connected with the owner of Calibrate, who was immediately enthusiastic and invited me to join the team.
By coincidence, my first week at Calibrate aligned with Drupal Dev Days Leuven. It is a community event full of talks, contributions, and collaboration.
From the moment I walked in, I noticed how welcoming everyone was. People came up to me, asked about my background, and shared their own stories. It was clear that this wasn’t just a CMS, it was a community of people who genuinely care.
Dries Buytaert held a Q&A, and I was impressed by how open and democratic the whole ecosystem felt. There wasn’t a “boss” giving orders — it was a team of people building something together, guided by shared passion.
The evening events were just as memorable: games, group activities, and spontaneous gatherings where 30 people ended up sharing a table full of laughter and ideas.
By the end of the week, I knew — this is where I belong.
Learning and Experimenting
Back at my internship, I started with the basics, completing the Acquia training videos and building a small site.
As a front-end developer, I quickly realized I wanted more creative freedom. That’s when a colleague introduced me to Single Directory Components (SDCs). It's a new approach that made the front-end feel more modern and modular. I immediately loved it.
Later, my mentor suggested I explore something even newer: MCP servers. MCP stands for Model Context Protocol, an emerging standard that allows AI tools to communicate with each other.
I found a Figma MCP server, and since I was already familiar with Figma from school, I started experimenting. I connected it with GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code, and the first time I saw a Figma component appear in my editor, I knew this could save a lot of time.
At first, I wasn’t sure how to make it work in Drupal and especially with Twig files and SDCs. But the more I tested, the more it made sense. Eventually, I managed to make a designed Figma component appear on a Drupal site in just minutes — something that used to take hours.
I showed it to my team at Calibrate, who found it very interesting, but since it was experimental, we decided to pause the exploration for a while.
Creating the Figma-to-Drupal Tutorial
A few months later, I had to create a tutorial for a school project on Drupal and AI. Naturally, I knew what I wanted to write about — the Figma-to-Drupal workflow.
My goal was to make something clear and practical, especially for people who had never touched Drupal or MCPs before. I wanted anyone to follow the tutorial and realize how powerful Drupal could be when combined with design tools and AI.
After finishing, I shared the tutorial in the Drupal Slack community, and the response was amazing. People commented, shared ideas, and even added me on LinkedIn to discuss it further.
You can explore Figma-to-Drupal tutorial here.
Two lead developers from UI Suite reached out with great feedback that helped me refine the workflow. Then I received a message from Paul Johnson, who encouraged me to share my story — which is why I’m writing this blog today.
Collaborating with Dries and Canvas AI
One day, I received a message from Dries Buytaert himself:
Hey Witze, the Figma-to-Drupal idea sounds cool. Do you happen to have a short demo video of it?
I sent him my demo right away. Dries replied that there was still too much manual work involved, and he wondered if we could integrate it with Canvas AI, an AI-powered development tool that’s part of the Drupal ecosystem.
Of course, when Dries asks, you experiment! We started exchanging ideas about how to automate parts of the workflow with Canvas AI, and suddenly I was collaborating with the founder of Drupal himself.
I never expected someone so busy to spend that much time helping a student. That experience showed me once again how exceptional this community is — not just technically, but personally.
By the way you can see how this work is going, it was featured on stage at DrupalCon Vienna presented by Dries himself!
So, thank you, Dries!
What We’re Working On
Right now, we’re exploring how to make this integration more stable and impactful.
The goal is to simplify the journey from design to Drupal implementation — reducing repetitive steps and empowering front-end developers to work faster and smarter.
It’s still early, and there are bugs to fix, but I truly believe this could become something big. With a strong community like Drupal’s, we can lead the way in how AI transforms web development.
I’m also in touch with Dries about whether this could be mentioned in the DriesNote, which would be an incredible opportunity.
See You in Vienna
I’m attending DrupalCon Vienna, and I’d love to connect with anyone exploring AI, Figma, or front-end innovation in Drupal.
If you’re curious or want to collaborate, feel free to reach out — I’m always open to new ideas!
Reflections on My Journey
Looking back, Drupal has changed more than just how I code — it changed how I think.
I’ve learned that open source isn’t about software alone. It’s about people — listening, sharing, and building something together that’s bigger than any one of us.
To other students or newcomers reading this
Don’t be afraid to get involved. Even if you feel inexperienced, your ideas matter. This community will welcome you, just as it welcomed me.