"Sketch dates back something like 9 years already. Some of the first code still survives to this day." Pieter Omvlee reflects on an unusually long journey.

The Student Beginning

"I was just about to start my computer science studies at the University of Twente (in the Netherlands). The idea was to make a simple drawing application. The indie application scene was a lot smaller back then, and there seemed to be a void that I thought I could fill."

Launching Too Early

"I launched the app very quickly — too quickly probably. And I started charging money for it right away. Not that I had much choice though. The very low income the first versions provided me was much needed to supplement my income during my studies."

The Customer-Driven Discipline

"It did immediately give me a strong focus on what my customers wanted. I could not disappear and dream up grand new features, totally detached from reality. No, I had the constant 'bugging' of customers to keep me sane."

Depth Over Surface Area

"The first version of Sketch had way too much surface area and not enough depth. We've since added serious depth to core features and also cut some fairly significant features we felt weren't part of the core functionality."

The Adobe Moment

"The day that Adobe announced that Fireworks was officially abandoned was definitely a milestone. Many people started looking for alternatives, and we were the most obvious choice."

Building Remote

"I have never worked in a team where everybody was in the same physical space. We communicate mostly over chat and through our issue tracker. When I talk to people who've never dealt with a completely distributed team, they're amazed that it can work, but it really does work quite well."

Sketch won an Apple Design Award in 2012 and became the dominant UI design tool until Figma's rise.