Today we shared more insights on the transformation of MAX, The Creativity Conference (May 4-8, 2013, Los Angeles Convention Center & Nokia Theatre) and announced a packed lineup of keynotes, luminary sessions, training workshops and sneaks presented by the best in the industry: graphic designer and illustrator Paula Scher, multimedia artist Phil Hansen, designer and writer Rob Legato, photographer Erik Johanssonand EA chief creative officer Richard Hilleman.

MAX will convene more than 5,000 industry leaders to exchange ideas, get inspired and explore how creativity is changing the world. The conference will feature highly anticipated MAX keynotes hosted by senior vice president and general manager of Digital Media, David Wadhwani that will explore the dramatically changing creative process and major advancements in technology. Adobe is expected to unveil a milestone update to Adobe® Creative Cloud™ at the event.

Luminary sessions will expose attendees to new ways of thinking about creative projects and some of most innovative, boundary-pushing, experimental work out there. Highlighted luminary sessions include:  Jessica Walsh (design): The Importance of Play in Innovation; Greg Gorman (photography): Celebrity Portraiture: Behind the Scenes with Greg Gorman; Jeffrey Zeldman (Web): Ten Commandments of Modern Web Design; karlssonwilker (design): Creativity, Technology, and karlssonwilker; Jacob Rosenberg (video): Dust to Lightning: The Unique Storytelling of Bandito Brothers; Scott Belsky (Web): Behance: Connecting the Creative World  and more!

In reimagining every aspect of Adobe MAX, the company challenged designers to rethink the MAX brand and design a new logo that embodied the new creative spirit of MAX. Top design firms and studios, including Sagmeister and Walsh, karlssonwilker, and Vasava applied their unique vision to the challenge. Design enthusiasts were invited to watch the creative process in action as Jessica Walsh of Sagmeister and Walsh hosted a live 24-hour redesign session featuring a single design material. The redesigned logos can be viewed here.

For more details on what we have in store for Adobe MAX this year, check out today’s press release, here.

Follow us on the MAX blog and @AdobeMAX leading up to and during the conference and join the conversation with #AdobeMAX.

See you there!

Courtney

In anticipation of the marquee Adobe event for designers, MAX, The Creativity Conference, May 4-8 in Los Angeles, Adobe shared a few project updates today that have been in the works for the last several months.

Adobe released a second preview of the responsive web design tool, Edge Reflow, that is now available to Creative Cloud members. The new features add more styling and layout capabilities and are user-driven, based on initial feedback to the first preview. Edge Reflow Preview 2 is the most recent example of how Adobe is using an open development model to create the next generation of innovative web design tools to support today’s new workflows. Learn more in this blog post.

The Dreamweaver team revealed an exciting sneak peek into the new CSS Designer feature that provides a visual interface to let users quickly and intuitively work with CSS properties like gradients, box shadows, and media queries. It gives users the ability to visually apply and set different media queries for web content to be presented in different sized media. This feature will be available later this year and you can find out more information in this blog post.

Make sure you check out MAX to learn what’s coming next for Adobe’s creative tools.

People know Adobe for many reasons, many of which revolve around our technologies that help creative professionals bring their ideas to reality and that enable marketers to create and drive industry-leading campaigns based in smart math. At Adobe Summit this week in Salt Lake City, we are talking about our technologies and the future of the industry, and we have specials guests sharing some incredible stories of overcoming tremendous personal and professional challenges to do something amazing. But we also had the opportunity to share a side of Adobe that isn’t talked about as often as our technology.

Today, at our Digital Marketing Summit, we heard from a great mind – Sal Khan about the idea of breaking down barriers to revolutionize whatever you are passionate about. His work and the vision for the Khan Academy, a not-for-profit with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education for anyone anywhere, inspired us and evoked a standing ovation from the Summit crowd. In one of those rare moments where I had the opportunity to proudly represent all Adobe employees, I announced that Adobe is donating $50,000 to the Khan Academy to further its groundbreaking approach to education and community change.

That was an incredibly special moment to be able to share with our customers and partners. Beyond our technologies, Adobe has a philanthropic side that does meaningful and inspirational work, but that at times takes a backstage to Adobe’s business initiatives. Adobe Youth Voices represents this side of Adobe, and was created to ignite creative confidence in youth, empowering them to find their voice and make it heard. To date, Adobe Youth Voices has created opportunities for over 120,000 youth. We have a vision of a world where the future creative and mathematical minds of tomorrow are not hindered by circumstance but have endless opportunities to succeed.

Beyond Adobe Youth Voices, our broadly reaching Adobe Foundation is funded by Adobe to leverage human, technological, and financial resources to drive social change and improve the communities in which we live and work. The Adobe Foundation supports innovative programs that further its mission and goals, and we are proud to support Khan Academy as a partner in creating opportunities for the world’s youth. I’m pretty excited about it and speak for all 11,000 Adobe employees in saying that we believe the work we do to better humanity is the most important work we can do.

This past Tuesday, we coordinated a worldwide takeover of the Adobe Instagram channel with our employees. Offices from Asia, Europe, and the U.S., all took shifts managing the Instagram channel to share a glimpse of #AdobeLife with all of you – our days at the office, commutes to work, the teams behind your favorite products, and more.

If you haven’t already, take a look at the collection of pictures on our Instagram channel. You’ll get an inside peek at our sites in Japan, Singapore, India, France, United Kingdom, Dublin, Utah, San Jose, and San Francisco.

Follow us on Instagram for more inside peeks from upcoming events like Adobe at SXSW and Adobe Summit.

Ever wondered what it would feel like to make art history? Well now’s your chance to find out! Today we’re announcing an exciting new collective art project with Red Bull that will give creative talent from across the globe – including everyone from designers and artists, to photographers and publicists – the chance to take part in creating the biggest and most original piece of artwork the world has ever seen. The only ask is that contributors share a common interest – to create something and share it with the world!

Together with Red Bull, we’re inviting budding artists from 85 countries to take part in Red Bull Collective Art, which brings ‘Cadavre Exquís’ into the digital age by layering multiple pieces of art created by different people to make one collective piece. Each contributor has one hour to put their artistic stamp on the final piece of artwork, which will be exhibited in art galleries across the world from May.

To get the creative process started, Red Bull and Adobe have invited dozens of artists from around the world, who have created the first images for the piece of collective art. Among them are some real superstars, including creatives Alberto Seveso, designer and illustrator Brian Yap, adventure illustrator Michael Startzman, art director Ryan Boyle and Adobe’s very own Russell Preston Brown. You can see each of their contributions, as well as those from other participating artists, here.

To take part, anyone interested in contributing can register online from today and will be asked to choose a one-hour timeslot to make their contribution between 11th and 24th March. Anyone who registers can also get a free trial of Adobe Creative Cloud, so they can create their piece of art using the very best industry-standard digital tools and give it a professional edge. They then simply download the template and use any style from photo imagery, to painting, to graphic art, to work on the image. Once complete, this is then uploaded and added to the entire artwork, with exhibitions of the final collective artwork taking place in cities across the globe from 13th May.

So what are you waiting for? Become part of art history today by registering here. You can also follow the social journey using #CreateNow and #RedBullCollectiveArt.

Our employees worldwide are all set to give you a glimpse of what it is like to work at Adobe. For 24 hours on Tuesday February 19th, employees from offices in Europe, Asia, and North America will take over the Adobe Instagram account to share behind the scenes images of their typical workday at Adobe using #AdobeLife. Employees will share any image that represents their workdays, including but not limited to their commutes to work, meetings with colleagues, lunches, pictures of their office space, and more. Follow us on Instagram and stay tuned for Tuesday’s takeover!

Think you have what it takes to handle a little trivia, go on a digital scavenger hunt, and piece together a puzzle for a chance to win some cool prizes? Well, we’ve got the perfect challenge for you. In honor of National Puzzle Day and our San Jose Semaphore, we’re challenging you to solve our San Jose Semaphore Scavenger Hunt.

First, review the information on our San Jose Semaphore Project website to find the answers to the six questions below. Once you determine those answers (all answers are dates), head to our Facebook Page and search for those dates within our Timeline (see snapshot of Facebook Timeline navigation below) to locate six puzzle pieces.

Once you’ve gathered all six pieces, put them together in the correct order to reveal a secret message. Finally, enter the final answer here for a chance to win US$50 worth of Adobe branded merchandise! For full details, review our Adobe San Jose Semaphore Scavenger Hunt official rules.

Also, be sure to take a pass at our bigger challenge, the San Jose Semaphore contest. Crack the code for a chance to win a one-year Creative Cloud membership! Get all of the details on the “Crack the Code” of our Semaphore website.

Good luck to all and Happy National Puzzle Day!

Six Questions – San Jose Semaphore Scavenger Hunt:

Q: When did the first San Jose Semaphore begin its code transmission?

Q: In what month and year was Ben Rubin chosen as the artist for the San Jose Semaphore?

Q: In what year was the San Jose Arts Commission established by a municipal ordinance?

Q: When was the solution to the first San Jose Semaphore code announced?

Q: When was the most recent San Jose Semaphore code released?

Q: Solve for the month, day and year in the image below utilizing the semaphore code legend here to decipher the date. (Hint: Also the date that Adobe was Founded)

Did you know that January is National Thank You Month? We are fortunate to have a big thank you in order. Recently, we hit 10 million fans across all of our social media channels, and we owe a huge vote of gratitude to all of you – our fans. Your engagement, feedback, and general love and support is the reason we strive to deliver the best experience on social media to you.

All of you know how much we love data and creativity, so to celebrate this milestone, we created an infographic that has a little fun with a big number. Enjoy! (Note – when you click on the infographic, please give it a minute to load).

From all of us here at team Adobe, thank you. We look forward to continued conversations with all of you.

Our top 12 moments of 2012 countdown continues. We’re closing out the year with the final 6. If you missed part one, you can catch up here.

Moment No. 5 – Cannes Lions

Our team was back at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival this year. We centered the conversation around data and creativity, and a look at creativity ‘Then & Now.’ We had the chance to connect with leading creative professionals and marketers, and even an inspiring entrepreneur, Jordan Casey – Europe’s youngest developer.

Moment No. 4 – Digital Marketing Summit

We hosted two Summits this year – one in Salt Lake City, Utah and another in London, England. Both Summits focused on ways customers can better measure, manage and optimize their digital marketing investments. Our Salt Lake City event boasted speakers such as Biz Stone, Arianna Huffington, and the Grammy-winning band, Foster the People. Check out a recap of our favorite moments on our Digital Marketing Summit blog.

Moment No. 3 – Social Media Week

Our CMO, Ann Lewnes, kicked off Social Media Week at Adobe with her keynote, “Confessions of a Digital Marketer.” Throughout the day, we hosted great conversations about the impact of big data on social media with guest speakers Jeremiah Owyang and Susan Etlinger from Altimeter Group, as well as other social practitioners from across the Silicon Valley. Check out our image ‘Bird’s Eye View of Social Media Week,’ and revisit some of the event panels and presentations on our Adobe TV channel.

Moment No. 2 – Sundance Film Festival

At this year’s festival, we had a digital reporting team on the ground capturing all of our favorite moments during Sundance. From our panel, ‘How Technology is Influencing Storytelling and Film,’ to movie premieres and even bus rides around town, Matt Rozen and Meagan Keane reported on the sights and sounds of the festival for all of us who could not be there in person in their ‘Adobe at Sundance’ series.

Moment No. 1 – Connecting With You

Our favorite moments every year revolve around connecting with you, our fans. This year, we’ve expanded the ways we can communicate with you where you are. We’ve introduced our presence on Pinterest and Instagram, and expanded our footprint on LinkedIn.

Thank you all for a great 2012. Here’s to an exciting 2013! From all of us here at Adobe, we wish you the very best in 2013.

2012 was quite the year, and we owe all of it to our customers and community members like you. As we head into the holidays, we wanted to take a look back at all the great memories from this year. Here is our top 12 of 2012 moments as we countdown into the New Year.

From all of us here at Adobe, we wish you a very happy holiday.

No. 12 – Create Now Event

One of our most recent events, Create Now introduced a number of new features to the Creative Cloud. Jeff Veen sat down with our creative evangelists and customers to talk about new releases to Photoshop, including Smart Object support for Blur Gallery and Liquid Layout, the introduction of Creative Cloud training, Muse for mobile websites and more. The most pivotal memory for us during the event: Terry White’s conversation with student filmmakers, who were awe inspiring.

No. 11 – We’re 30 Years Young

This year marked a milestone anniversary for our company – we turned 30! Shantanu recently shared a few words in his ‘Happy Anniversary, Adobe!’ tribute. This closed out a weeklong celebration of the milestone with our 10,000 strong employee base. Catch a glimpse of our festivities in our Facebook album, Adobe Turns 30.

No. 10 – Solve the New Semaphore Code Challenge

We launched a new code in our public art display atop one of our buildings at headquarters – the San Jose Semaphore, and we’re challenging you to try decoding the secret message in our new transmission. While we’re still waiting for the first winner, our little warm up back in November (below) was QUICKLY deciphered! Here’s wishing all you puzzle solvers out there luck on decoding the San Jose Semaphore transmission. The lucky winner will receive a one-year Creative Cloud membership.

No. 9 – Adobe Stories

Our customers create amazing work, and we wanted to provide a forum for them to show and tell via Adobe Stories. The end result was a wonderful series of heartfelt stories.

No. 8 – Metrics Not Myths

We all have our thoughts on marketing, and many are misperceptions. A recent study by The Fournaise Marketing Group, uncovered how devalued marketers are, and our ‘Metrics Not Myths’ campaign is set to correct the course. Our CMO, Ann Lewnes, kicked off our campaign with her blog post, “In Defense of Marketing,” and we’re developing the ultimate case study to debunk common marketing myths.  

No. 7 – Adobe Social Launch

Social is growing up, and we’re right there with you through the growing pains with our end-to-end solution, Adobe Social. SVP and General Manager, Brad Rencher, introduced Adobe Social in his blog post, “From Braces to its First Business Suit: Social Grows Up.”

No. 6 – Creative Cloud Introduction

Kevin Lynch first talked about Creative Cloud during his Adobe MAX 2011 keynote, and we followed that up this year with the release of Creative Cloud, including Creative Suite 6. This, coupled with our use of Adobe Social, turned out to be our most socially active launch to date. Our scavenger hunt in San Francisco offered up $10,000 plus a lifetime Creative Cloud membership.