Creativity and Innovation Take Center Stage at the Adobe MAX 2016 Conference
Adobe MAX is known as the world’s leading creativity conference and for good reason – where else can more than 10 thousand illustrators, graphic designers, photographers, artists and videographers converge to learn about the latest advancements in the software that has become the industry standard?
This year’s conference was held in San Diego on November 2-4, and attendees had their share of hands-on labs, creativity workshops and networking opportunities. Sessions included 7 Things Every Designer Should Know Before Becoming a Creative Director, Achieving Content Velocity for Cross-Channel Marketing and Crafting the Story: Storytelling Techniques that Capture the Audience. In addition, creatives at all skills levels had ample opportunity to learn from industry leaders and working professionals. Guest speakers included Fashion Designer Zac Posen, Experiential Sculptor Janet Echelman and Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, who confirmed his plan to retire after making two more feature films.
Jonathan Hurtarte, a graphic designer, artist and photographer in metro Washington, DC, went to the conference to meet like-minded people and to enhance his skill set. Some of his key takeaways include how to improve his work processes, how to work better as part of a team and how to be a successful creative director. If you weren’t able to make it to Adobe Max, take a moment to check out Jonathan’s compilation video of the event. It will feel like you were there!
Jonathan uses Creative Cloud applications in his personal work as well as for his day job in corporate branding and visual design. Adobe Creative Cloud is a subscription-based service that includes access to any or all the company’s suite of products such as Acrobat for PDFs, Photoshop for photo editing, InDesign for desktop publishing, After Effects for digital motion graphics, Illustrator for vector graphics and Premiere Pro for video editing. His most-used applications are Photoshop and Illustrator, followed by InDesign for print projects. While he works on a Mac he credits Adobe with making software that works equally well on Windows-based systems.
The Conference showcased innovations in Creative Cloud applications, including a new Mac release of Adobe Experience Design CC (XD), which is the first all-in-one tool for designing, prototyping and sharing user experiences for web and mobile apps. Advancements in layers and symbols specifically address the needs of User Experience (UX) designers. Project Felix helps graphic designers create high-quality photo-realistic images by combining 2D and 3D assets for their projects. Adobe Sensei leverages Adobe’s content to help customers work smarter and faster by automating mundane tasks. There are also updates in Adobe Premiere Pro CC to include virtual-reality settings and in After Effects that will speed up efficiency. The company also announced a partnership with Reuters, the global multimedia news provider, that will bring its video and photography assets to Adobe Stock’s editorial collection.
There’s no doubt Adobe MAX has become the place to be for creatives. If it sounds like something you can’t miss, pre-registration for the 2017 conference in Las Vegas is already open.
If you are a graphic designer or other creative professional in New York, DC, Dallas or Houston check out our current job postings and create a talent community profile today. We’re always looking for talented people to join our roster.
