Adobe MAX — The Creativity Conference

What if you could star in your own animated short by the end of this lab? Join Kris Kashtanova, Sr. Creative AI Evangelist and Community Advocate, to create a 20 to 30-second animation starring you, your pet, or someone you love, built start to finish with the Adobe Firefly platform. Beginners follow a guided path; advanced makers remix the template with their own photos, art, sketches, etc.

You'll walk away knowing how to:

• Brainstorm and storyboard your idea using Firefly AI Assistant and Firefly Boards
• Polish your assets with Generative Fill / Expand
• Generate consistent characters with multiple video and image models
• Cut your final sequence in Adobe Express or Firefly Video and add audio

AI may have removed barriers to making things, but it hasn’t replaced the demand for taste, originality, and creative courage. Join two Adobe insiders as they explore AI from different sides of the creative process. Creative technologist Tomasz Opasiński gets hands-on with Photoshop and Firefly workflows that hold up in production without sacrificing craft. Executive Creative Director Dan Fletcher brings lessons from deploying generative AI across global Adobe campaigns, and a playbook of hard-earned insights to protect creative standards. Two perspectives. One candid conversation about what AI means for designers right now.

Learn about:

• Creating commercial artwork using a hybrid creative + AI mindset
• Crafting powerful visual narratives faster with AI, without losing creative integrity
• Lessons from real Adobe campaigns to balance maintaining creative standards with generative AI at scale
• Identifying where human ideas, perspective, and taste still make the biggest difference

Explore how creatives can cut through the noise and use AI more intentionally as a genuine creative partner. Laura Jordan Bambach, Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Uncharted Studio, AI artist, and former D&AD President, shares practical ways to keep our creativity at the heart of our work while using AI to experiment with new creative approaches and bring ambitious ideas to life.

In this session, you’ll discover how to:

• Use AI to extend creative thinking, not replace it
• Build workflows between traditional and new tools to amplify taste, intuition, and originality
• Identify where human judgment matters most in the creative process
• Maintain originality in a world of infinite content
• Create work that reflects your unique perspective and voice, to feel more human, not less

Brands today are pulling from the same references, following the same trends, and using the same tools. The result is a growing wave of identities that feel polished but forgettable. Join Jolene Delisle, Creative Director at The Working Assembly, for a conversation about what causes creative sameness and how teams can push past it. This session explores the real pressures shaping modern branding and the practical ways originality can survive inside fast-moving organizations.

You’ll learn:

• Why so many brands are beginning to look and sound alike
• How to create stronger visual and verbal differentiation
• Practical ways to defend originality during the review process
• How creative teams can increase their influence across an organization

The future has a nasty habit of showing up early. Join Bill Gardner, founder of LogoLounge.comr and president of Gardner Design, for a provocative and irreverent look beyond today’s AI conversation to where brands and their identities may be headed, the glimmers already hiding in plain sight, and how to start designing for tomorrow before it becomes today.

You’ll discover how to:

• Spot emerging shifts before they become another designer’s case study
• Identify the essential brand signals that must survive increasingly adaptive identities
• Preserve human character in a world of infinite, algorithmically generated sameness
• Rethink the logo as identity moves beyond screens, static systems, and fixed experiences
• Turn some fairly wild speculation into smarter brand decisions you can make tomorrow

Explore how branding shapes what people trust, notice, understand, and choose to join. Jessie McGuire, Managing Partner of Thought Matter and 2026 National Design Award winner, will share civic, cultural, nonprofit, and commercial case studies that show how creative work can change outcomes.

In this session, you’ll learn how to:

• Recognize the influence you have as a creative
• Understand how branding shapes trust, attention, and participation
• Build brands that make ideas, institutions, and communities more visible
• Use your creative seat with courage and civic imagination

Many enterprises prioritize smoother systems for optimization, and that makes output more predictable — 76% of people surveyed globally say few brands stand out as different. In a flood of synthetic content, the ultimate creative advantage belongs to our messy, weird, unpredictable human spirit. Join Emma Chiu, Global Director, and Jason Carmel, Global Creative Data Lead, WPP Enterprise Solutions, to explore why the next leap in human creativity depends on designing workflows that amplify originality rather than conformity. It is a rallying cry for leaders to remember that what makes us uniquely human are the very things that make us stand out.

You’ll learn:

• How to structurally design creative friction into workflows to generate unique ideas
• Emerging 2027 consumer trends that help brands break through the algorithmic noise
• Ways to build organizational confidence to take bigger creative risks
• How to scale production with AI while preserving authentic brand expression and human craft

When ServiceNow set out to reposition itself from an IT service vendor to the dominant control tower for enterprise AI, they faced a massive strategic hurdle: How do you scale a new brand identity across thousands of global assets without sacrificing speed or integrity? Go behind the scenes with the brand strategy and creative team at ServiceNow and Aaron Finegold, Head of Product Marketing, Adobe, as they deconstruct the exact playbook used to agentically unlock brand integrity and quality at market speed.

You’ll walk away with the strategies to:

• Preserve brand consistency and creative intent: Prevent brand drift and maintain absolute consistency
• Accelerate time-to-market: Bypass traditional review and approval bottlenecks by automating content validation and creation workflows
• Empower the human-in-the-loop: Rally change management around AI-native processes and democratize brand understanding across teams
• Measure strategic ROI: Identify ways brand intelligence impacts cost efficiencies and ability to scale buyer engagement

Most organizations are still experimenting with AI in the creative process. Adobe went further, and discovered AI doesn't fix a fragmented operating model — it exposes it. Resh Sidhu, VP, Creative at Adobe, shares what happened when a creative team became customer zero for AI-native ways of working.

In this session, you'll discover:

• What breaks when AI is bolted onto a legacy creative structure, and how to fix it
• Which creative roles and leadership skills matter most in an AI-native model
• Why taste, judgment, and originality are now competitive differentiators, not soft skills
• How Adobe connects idea development, production, and scale in one model

Discover how art content creator and makeup artist Cindy Chen turns a single shoot day into weeks of polished, personality-driven content by running her creative process like a professional kitchen — from prep to placement. Using Adobe Premiere, Lightroom, Photoshop, and InDesign, Cindy walks you through how she plans, shoots, and edits with intention to create a workflow that's sustainable, branded, and unmistakably hers.

You’ll leave knowing:

• How to build a repeatable content system using mood boards, face charts, and batch filming
• The difference between signature content, filler, and dynamic posts, plus why you need all three
• How Premiere, Lightroom, and InDesign work together in one seamless creative workflow
• Practical ways to let your personality drive engagement without losing consistency

Platforms, algorithms, and audience expectations are constantly evolving. So how can creators stay ahead? Lauren Glaubach, Vice President of Global Content Partnerships at Pinterest, shares an insider perspective on the forces reshaping content discovery and what they mean for creators building their brands today.

Key takeaways:

• What macro trends are disrupting the creator economy right now
• How platforms like Pinterest are redefining content discovery and reach
• Which content formats and strategies are winning in today's landscape
• How to future-proof your creative output as platforms continue to evolve

The difference between good design and great design is rarely a single bold decision — it lives in the details most people rush past. In this session, graphic designer and educator Dan White, better known as Dansky, breaks down the micro-decisions around spacing, margins, alignment, and typography that quietly show whether a design feels polished or off. Learn to spot what's not quite working, understand why it isn't, and how to fix it. You’ll leave with a sharper ability to make intentional design decisions and the vocabulary to explain them.

In this session, you’ll learn:

• Why small spacing and alignment decisions have an outsized impact on how professional work feels
• How to diagnose — and fix — designs that look off
• A practical framework for making intentional typographic choices that elevate any piece
• The vocabulary to articulate design quality to clients and collaborators

This is the Illustrator session that Adobe should put in the manuals. Award-winning designer, visual strategist, author, and Adobe Senior Design Evangelist Kladi digs into the hidden gems, overlooked features, and power-user workflows that set great designers apart from good ones. Expect fast, practical, and immediately usable techniques. Whether you're deep in production or pushing creative boundaries, you'll leave as the go-to person your colleagues can't help but learn from. This session pulls back the curtain on Illustrator's most underrated features, hidden shortcuts, and AI tools that are quietly transforming how designers work.

In this session, you'll:

• Walk away with immediately usable, day-to-day shortcuts and techniques
• Discover new Illustrator features and hidden gems that most designers ignore
• Unlock AI tools that are quietly transforming how designers work
• Master pro-level workflows that make you faster without sacrificing creativity

Join award-winning logo and visual identity designer James Barnard for a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of a brand identity for one of the internet’s biggest personalities. From the very first inquiry to the final approved logo, you’ll experience the entire creative journey. Discover how this client found James, how the deal was won, and what it’s really like designing for a multi-platform creator with an audience of millions. Through real discovery call footage, sketch explorations, concept development, presentation strategies, and final deliverables, you’ll get an unfiltered look at the challenges and pivotal moments that shaped this project.

James will share:

• How to generate stronger logo concepts and creative directions
• His complete logo and visual identity design process
• Workflow and efficiency tips inside Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign
• How to confidently present and sell your work to clients

People see final images on billboards, posters, and publications, but few understand the creative and technical decision-making behind high-end productions. In this session, luxury-brand retouch artist Jan Wischermann shares how professional artists maintain creative control across complex productions involving multiple stakeholders and evolving directions. Through live demonstrations and case studies, you'll learn advanced re-touching, non-destructive file logic, cinematic color workflows, and AI-enhanced techniques for top-tier beauty, fashion, and cinematic campaigns. 

You'll learn:

• Professional layer structures and masking logic for complex productions
• Advanced retouching and cinematic color grading techniques
• Detailed technical skills for commercial production pipelines
• Non-destructive workflow organization for team collaboration
• AI-enhanced production methods that allow you to maintain creative control
• Strategies for managing evolving creative directions and stakeholder feedback

You don't have to be a serious photographer to love Adobe Lightroom. Whether you want to take your photography to the next level, make your vacation photos look their best, wrangle your camera roll, or collaborate seamlessly with your team, Lightroom meets you wherever you are. Join Benjamin Warde, Principal Product Manager on the Lightroom team, for this introductory lab covering everything you need to get started, including how to:

• Apply simple edits that make your photos stand out
• Find any photo instantly — no advance organization required
• Share with family and friends, or collaborate with your team
• Work with your photos on any device, anywhere

Note: This session covers Lightroom, not Lightroom Classic.

Push your photo-editing skills to the next level with this deep-dive lab for photographers and content creators looking to make full use of the powerful editing tools in Adobe Lightroom. Join Lightroom and Camera Raw software quality engineer and photo educator Brian Matiash to explore editing workflows across landscape, portrait, travel, and wildlife photography. This lab will equip you with the tools to craft scroll-stopping photos across any subject.

You’ll learn how to:

• Master advanced masking and local adjustments to selectively control light, color, and detail
• Refine color grading and tone curve adjustments to create subtle and dramatic edits
• Apply targeted editing strategies for landscapes, portraits, street photography, and wildlife
• Critically evaluate your edits to maintain consistency and ensure your final images match your creative vision

Great editing is about more than adjusting sliders — it’s about having a clear approach and understanding how to create images with impact. Join photographer and educator Anna Tenne as she shares her personal editing approach for building depth and dimension, combining practical tools with creative editing techniques to transform the way you edit your images. Even if you’re new to Adobe Lightroom, you’ll learn how to move beyond basic corrections and make thoughtful editing decisions that elevate your images.

Topics Anna will cover include:

• A simple approach for understanding what an image needs so you can edit with confidence
• Using color, tone, and depth to create contrast and visual impact
• Practical tools and creative editing techniques that make your images stand out

How do you create animation that earns attention before a viewer swipes away? Award-winning director, motion designer, and educator Nol Honig reframes After Effects through the specific pressures of social platforms, where timing is tight, formats multiply, and weak animation gets scrolled past in a blink. Using humor, After Effects know-how, and a number of cat photos, Nol breaks down these complex issues into digestible beats: attention capture, loop design, and building once for every format.

You will learn:

• What causes people to stop scrolling within social feeds
• Designing the first frame: a strong opening image that doubles as a seamless loop anchor
• Timing and easing techniques that generate energy within a three-second window
• Loop engineering: animations that flow without a snap or freeze
• How to create one composition that works across 9:16, 1:1, and 16:9 without rebuilding from scratch

Join Jason Druss, Principal Product Marketing Manager for Premiere, for this approachable introduction to a new color grading experience designed specifically for video editors. Jason will show you how Color Mode helps create better-looking images in minutes — using intuitive tools that prioritize speed and creative control — without leaving your edit. This session focuses on understanding the core workflow and building confidence so you can start using Color Mode.

You will learn:

• What Color Mode is and how it fits into your editing workflow
• Core concepts: adjustments, styles and modules, and operations
• How to quickly apply and customize looks across an entire sequence
• How the Clip Grid allows you to efficiently navigate and work across multiple shots
• How the HUD provides real-time visual feedback as you grade

Audio is where most edits quietly fail — and where the best ones gain their edge. Ignore audio and your cut feels flat; control it, and you dictate pacing, emotion, and how every frame lands. Join film editor Vinnie Hobbs — whose work spans award-nominated projects for Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé, and Cardi B — to examine how deliberate audio decisions made inside Adobe Premiere shape rhythm, precision, and impact across music videos, commercials, and narrative work.

You'll learn how to:

• Diagnose and fix the most common audio problems—muddy mixes, inconsistent levels, and weak transitions
• Use sound to reinforce pacing by aligning cuts and visual beats with intentional audio structure
• Build clean dialogue and music balances, and design transitions that maintain continuity and energy
• Decide when audio should lead the edit and when it should stay out of the way