Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen welcomes 15,000 creative professionals to Adobe MAX on Monday, November ... [+]
“I think his brain looks like what he’s wearing.” —pop idol Billie Eilish on pop culture icon Takashi Murakami.
As a first-time attendee of Adobe MAX, also known as the largest “creativity conference” in the U.S.A., I was blown away by the amount of creative storytelling and learning that was occurring over the course of four jam-packed days.
As an #AdobeInsider this year, I was able to attend the Insider Summit and learn about the fun new products like Photoshop for iPad and Adobe Aero that are coming out. It gave me access to 115 of some of the most creative people at Adobe MAX, who also shared their thoughts on what is “creativity.”
Here are five great lessons on creativity and storytelling from Adobe MAX.
Author Goldie Chan and Sheryl Kingstone discuss creativity and data at Adobe MAX.
1) Creativity And Data Increase Scale.
When creativity is combined with data, especially insightful research, creative personalization is able to scale. With machine-learning AI programs like Adobe Sensei, brands can increase the productivity of teams by having their video footage automatically find the main person in it or creating animation from a still image and a sound file (as was demoed during Adobe Sneaks).
“There’s a huge role that data plays in the creative process. Because when you talk about creativity today, it’s about storytelling. And storytelling has changed from telling one message to millions of people to millions of messages to an audience of one. And you can’t do that without insight or else you’ll mess up the content you’re trying to incorporate into that story,” shared Sheryl Kingstone, research vice president for 451 Research.
Singer-songwriter Billie Eilish joins Japanese artist Takashi Murakami to talk about their ... [+]
2) Creatives Need A Personal Brand.
There were two amazing talks that eloquently discussed personal branding. One was with Shantell Martin, a creative artist based out of Brooklyn who focused on the why of a brand.
“Who are you at your core? How would you answer?” offered Shantell Martin as part of a creative exercise onstage. Her belief is that all parts of the personal journey are valid. “Inspiration can come from pain, from loss, from solitude,” Martin continues. It is these pieces that create a memorable brand and tell the story of an artist.
The second talk was a fireside chat with Billie Eilish, a popular American singer-songwriter and Takashi Murakami, who is considered a living-legend artist in Japan. They discussed their collaboration but also touched on the creative look that both parties have. There is a distinct (brightly toned) aesthetic that both chose to carry.
Compiled art from Adobe Insiders: Archan Nair, Kurt Tilse, Demas Rusli, Caroline Kjellberg, Anna ... [+]
3) Creatives Love Collaboration.
While surveying the 115 Adobe MAX Insiders, I found that most defined creativity as “fun, freedom or passion.” Other definitions included sporadic, design, personal expression, electrifying, madness, superpower, natural and innovation. Watch the full video here. Most of the Adobe Insiders also paired off to create content from still images or video to content created in Adobe Spark, Fresco, Rush, Aero and XD.
Each of the Adobe Insiders brought a unique perspective to the conference and shared their artwork and creative wisdom through workshops, speaking engagements and livestreams. Using Adobe Creative Cloud, they told a story through the lens of their life experiences and creative expressions.
The workflow for Adobe Aero.
4) Creative Storytelling Is Expanding.
Augmented reality was a large portion of the announcements at Adobe MAX. “Storytelling is expanding. It’s expanding beyond the 2D flat surfaces to telling stories with 3D and Augmented Reality,” offers Cathy Hackl, futurist, AR expert and author of the Augmented Workforce. It is the ability to create on new surfaces and dimensions that is expanding the ability for storytelling.
“From the massively important announcements of how Adobe is embracing AR as part of their future roadmap and part of the future of creativity all the way to the giant Nike ad in front of the convention center that used a 3D Nike shoe asset on a flat screen, content and creativity are aching to break free from the confines of flat screens. The launch of Aero will usher in a new era of storytelling for creatives that want to break free of screens and bring their stories to life in our reality,” continues Hackl.
Author Goldie Chan draws on a communal art wall at AdobeMAX while fellow Adobe Insider Brandon Groce ... [+]
5) Creativity Is All About Perspective.
How you define creativity often comes from personal experience and creative work. Brandon Groce, Adobe XD evangelist, offers: “I learned perspective is everything. We have to take into account where our audience’s mind is as we’re speaking to them, and from there, how we can build off of their perspective and create the story we want them to see.” As with all branding, knowing the audience demographic is half the battle. Being able to speak to them and relate to them is the other half.
Adobe MAX brought the best creatives in the world to one place for the largest creative conference in America and taught several lessons. Creative storytelling is best with collaboration, perspective, insightful data, a strong brand and a little fun.
I attended Adobe MAX for free but all opinions are my own/the opinions of the above mentioned.
