Brilliant Design (prev. Bananotate) is now Free | Annotate & Explain Without Switching Apps

Brilliant Design is now a free macOS application that revolutionizes how you create and communicate visually. It offers a transparent canvas that floats above any application on your screen, letting you annotate, design, and explain ideas without leaving your current workflow. Whether you’re teaching, presenting, or creating content, Brilliant Design eliminates the need to switch apps by allowing direct interaction with underlying content through its passthrough mode. This means you can highlight, draw, and explain while still seeing your reference materials, videos, or documents clearly beneath your work.

Key Features:

• Studio-Quality Workspace: Use professional design tools in a dedicated environment for detailed visual creations.
• Overlay Mode: Annotate directly on top of any app or content with adjustable transparency and background effects.
• Infinite Canvases: Work on unlimited boards organized like files and folders, making navigation and management fast and intuitive.
• Powerful Search & Switching: Use fuzzy search and recent canvas tracking to jump between projects instantly.
• Copy & Share Assets: Copy your designs as high-quality PNGs to paste into other applications easily.
• Passthrough Mode: Temporarily interact with underlying apps without closing your workspace, avoiding disruptive context switching.
• Customization: Fully customizable keyboard shortcuts and combos let you tailor the app to your workflow.
• Privacy First: All data stays on your device; no cloud uploads or data collection occur without your permission.
• Founding Member Benefits: Early users receive lifetime perks including direct founder access and discounts on future premium services.

Use Cases:

• Content Creators: Annotate scripts, storyboards, and videos without switching apps, speeding up production and improving clarity.
• Educators: Teach online by highlighting and illustrating directly on presentations, documents, or videos to keep students engaged.
• Presenters: Enhance live streams and meetings with real-time visual explanations that float above shared screens.
• Remote Collaboration: Use visual summaries and annotations to clarify complex ideas during video calls and team discussions.
• Tutorial Makers: Create professional instructional videos by drawing attention to key features on software or websites.

Brilliant, previously a paid software, is now completely free to use for everyone. This change is part of a new monetization strategy aimed at expanding the user base and building a future cloud-based enterprise platform. Founding members retain their benefits, including lifetime updates and exclusive perks.

Key Points

• Brilliant is now free with no license required and unlimited Mac activations.
• Future revenue will come from a separate cloud platform offering enterprise collaboration features.
• Founding members keep lifetime updates, upgrades, and bug fixes. They can directly email amichai@brilliant.design for feature requests.
• Bought Brilliant in the past 90 days? Get a complete refund, no questions asked. Email support@brilliant.design with “REFUND” in the subject.
• Exclusive founding member benefits include direct contact with the founder, 90-days refund options, special recognition, free private repositories, and 50% discounts on future premium services.
• The company expresses deep gratitude to founding members for their early support and investment in the vision.

Read more about Early Supports and their benefits here