Adobe MAX: Innovation, Ideas, and Inspiration
The 2014 Adobe MAX conference brought the creative community to L.A. this week to share ideas, inspiration, and to simply learn. Over 6,000 creatives gathered in person and another half a million are estimated to have joined them in the conversations online. The conference had six tracks and over one hundred sessions, trainings, and workshops. Through all the session there were 3 underlining themes stood out and drove conversations – technology, lateral thinking, and passion.
Innovations in technology built for the creative process – like 3D printing and touch computing – have become creatives biggest enablers. Now the question is what are they going to do with it all?
New technologies are pushing creatives to challenge themselves to work in new ways. During his session, Think Like a Hacker: How Creative Overachievers Smash the Norm, Shane Snow introduces the idea of lateral thinking. Lateral thinking takes an indirect approach by using reasoning that is not always the most obvious instead of only looking a problem or creative project with traditional step-by-step logic. He goes on to describe that the most successful breakthroughs, people, and even animals (cue the cute pictures of baby cheetahs) can all be attributed to lateral movements. New innovated technologies are giving creatives the tools to challenge themselves to think laterally when approaching new projects and initiatives.
Companies, both big and small, are starting to realize that good design and creative approaches aren’t just nice to look at but are also good for business. Having a solid design aesthetic and brand standards allows creatives within any company to take risks and push the boundaries with their designs. Edgy designs coupled with brand standards engages customers and gives them the feeling of a cohesive experience across their interactions with a single company. This consistency in turn allows a customer to connect to the brand, which is reflected in the pipeline.
It is one thing to have fancy new technology and push yourself to think outside of the box, but authenticity means a lot to people. James Victore used his session, How to Tap into Your Creative Voice and Make Work that Matters to encourage people to draw from their life, experiences, and passions to drive their work. He claimed that you can’t try to please everyone because you will only fail; instead figure out what means the most to you and work on those. If you believe in the project or company you are designing for, that it will be reflective in your work.
As the conference concluded on Wednesday there seemed to be the collective agreement that Adobe MAX really pushed a new age of creative education. It will be exciting to see how the sharing of ideas and inspirations translates into new creative projects across multiple channels. We can’t wait until next year!