The latest version of Adobe Creative Cloud is now available! We’re pleased to be able to release our new family of Creative Cloud desktop apps and many of the publishing and collaborative features first unveiled at Adobe MAX last month. As a paid member, you now have access to hundreds of new features in across 15 of our brand new desktop apps – including Photoshop CC and Illustrator CC, along with easy integration with Behance, making it easy to publish your work to its global network of 1.4 million creative professionals. Grab all the details on our Creative Cloud team blog. And today’s release is just the tip of the iceberg.

Our creative pro community (yes, that’s you!) creates some of the most innovative, imaginative work out there, and we simply want celebrate the creativity that exists. With that, we’re so excited to kickoff, Create Now: Celebrating Creativity – a series of activities where we can highlight what you do.

First up – Create Now: Remix. In honor of the release, we’re asking you to digitally remix Eames’ famous chair. Show us your remix on Behance (tag your work with “createnow”) for the chance to win an Eames molded plastic armchair, a limited-edition Eames Foundation print and a one-year Creative Cloud membership. Find out how to remix and win in this Behance blog post.

This is just the start of our new Create Now: Celebrating Creativity Series! Stay tuned for a chance to be a part of an upcoming music video, which will be shown in Times Square in “Claim Your Frame”, kicking off next Tuesday, June 25. Heads up that this project will only be open for participation for a 24-hour period, so be sure to mark your calendar and remember to take part! Stay tuned to our Creative Cloud Facebook page and/or @CreativeCloud for all the latest details. It’ll be a summer of fun!

“I work without seeing what I’m creating. Programming is like writing words.”

– Artist and web designer, Kazumasa Teshigawara aka “qubibi”

If qubibi’s words rings true for you, you might want to dive a bit deeper into his story. qubibi’s inspiration spurs from his observations around his home city Tokyo, Japan. He uses the city’s energy to craft his designs, emphasizing in animation. When asked how he turns an idea into art, he reveals, “I begin by writing and then I imagine music. After that, I start using digital tools like Photoshop without making any sketches, I just work directly on the computer and see how it evolves… In my case I can’t create art without Creative Cloud.” Check out his recent redesign of the Creative Cloud logo and more background on his work in the video below:

The Creative Cloud provides designers like qubibi with built-in shortcuts for everything from debugging to simple animations so they can spend less time on tedious tasks and focus on what makes web design fun, creativity. qubibi uses Creative Cloud to access his work from any computer at any time and benefits from sharing his work with fellow designers on Behance. Find out more about Creative Cloud and the future for web designers like you.

Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more web design news, tutorials, inspiration and more.

Adobe Creative Cloud for teams allows you and your team to get the entire collection of latest and greatest CS6 tools, along with lots of team-specific features that make working together easier than ever. So the question is; is it right for you? This series helps Adobe customers, such as creative directors and IT professionals, understand if Creative Cloud for teams is a good fit…

• Size Doesn’t Matter – Design agency? Growing startup? Regardless of your workgroup situation, Creative Cloud for teams fits.

• Cloud collaboration + latest creative tools = staying ahead of the curve – Creative Cloud for teams makes it happen. That’s right –you and your team receive the latest updates as soon as they’re available.

• Changing needs = changing team –  With Creative Cloud for teams, adding and removing licenses for team members is a walk in the park.

• HELP! – Creative Cloud for teams provides you with help when you need it. Enjoy two deep-dive expert support instances (per seat per year).

Interested in hearing how Creative Cloud for teams is benefiting Scott Kelby’s own Kelby Media Group? Check out this video to see how Creative Cloud for teams allows them to reach millions of people all over the world through websites, podcasts, online training, magazines, and more:

Got questions? Let us know in the comments below or visit us on Adobe.com. Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for more information about Creative Cloud for teams.

Adobe MAX -The Creativity Conference, is less than a week away! While you’re planning your sessions at MAX, be sure to add Denise Jacobs to your schedule. She’s the ultimate modern creative web speaker, an expert on both CSS, web design and all things creative. With publications such as The CSS Detective Guide to her most recent work on creativity, we can’t wait to hear Denise speak on “The Importance of Storytelling in Web Design” and “Unfolding Your Brain: Catapult Your Creative Productivity” at Adobe MAX next week. So dive in and get to know Denise a little better in the below Q&A, she’s pretty amazing!

Adobe: You’ve recently announced that just delivered your last article on front-end development: no more CSS for Denise. Could you expand on this professional transition you’ve undertaken?

Denise Jacobs: This transition has been a long time in the making, but my efforts over the past 2 years have finally come to fruition. Right after I finished my book, The CSS Detective Guide, in later February of 2010, I had a major epiphany that what I truly wanted to focus my work on is around creativity. It was at that time that I came up with the title “Creativity Evangelist” (and promptly bought the domain). However, my plan was also to really get established as a speaker at web design conferences, and the topics in my book were a perfect vehicle for that. Once I started to become known as a speaker, then I started shifting my content more towards my true area of interest: Creativity. So, while it looks like somewhat of a dramatic change, for me, that has been the goal all along.

When you think of creativity and gaming, Richard Hilleman is a name on the top of any list. He’s an American computer game and video game producer best known for his work creating the original Madden Football game for video game consoles for Electronic Arts. Today, Rich Hilleman works for Electronic Arts as Chief Creative Officer, and currently works in the internal University at Electronic Arts on specialized education for Producers and Development Directors. We are excited for Richard to speak on “The Magic Bullet of Web Gaming” at Adobe MAX, sharing his unique insider knowledge covering over 30 years in the industry. Check out our Q&A with him below to get a better sense of how Richard came into his great gaming success.

Adobe: As a kid what did you want to be when you grew up and did you ever imagine that you would be making video games that are so ingrained in American culture? 

Richard Hilleman: Videogames showed up for me in High School.  My exposure was more to computers.  I was lucky enough to get to spend time on computers at a very early age in a very early time.  I was pretty sure computers would change the world, but not in the ways I have seen.  How quickly computers have become situationally aware has been a big surprise.

How did you get started in gaming?  Was it be accident or by design? 

It depends on what you call games.  Unlike a lot of people in my industry, I played sports, and my grandfather raced cars.  We played a lot of board games, and I took Chess very seriously.  I never really got the war game or D&D bug, and my interest in Videogames was mostly centered on simulations.  When I came to Electronic Arts, I came to focus on computer science.  Over a couple of years, I discovered I was pretty good at game design and production.  Probably because I wasn’t making games for just myself.

Obviously the tools you use to create games are different from when you first started but is there something about game creation that hasn’t changed? 

People.  The most surprising thing about the last thirty years is how much people’s taste and interest has endured.  I talk all the time with kids in school for our business, and the most important advice I give them is to fall in love with people, not machines.  The technology moves so fast, that educational investments in specific tech almost always has less short term value than you think.  By comparison, understanding people, and the culture they occupy, will transcend the technology and give you a lifetime of returns.

What keeps you up at night or what drives you to keep making games? 

Mostly my kids.  I have been lucky enough to spend most of my career at the bleeding edge.  I still can’t wait for the future and what we can do next.

To be successful sometimes you need to fail.  Can you recall a project you worked on that did not turn out as planned and what did you learn from that process? 

I think I have failed a lot.  I remember a few years ago there was an Edge magazine article about the 500 best Videogames of all time, and the Worse 100.  I had enough entries in both lists to keep me humble.  Most of the time, when things go wrong, it was because something I knew was a risk, didn’t work out. Usually, it reminds me about taking appropriate and balanced risk. There are a far number of happy accidents, including some of my most successful titles.

What’s the best part of your job? 

The kids that are doing the job for the first time.  They reinvigorate me every day.

You grew up playing hockey so is that your favorite sport?  What’s your favorite team? 

Hockey is one of my favorites, and I still play it.  I also played a lot of Baseball  (Hockey and Baseball are perfect season compliments), and I love motor sports.  I grew up a North Star and Twins fan, and then the NStars moved.  I have been a Sharks season ticket holder since they were founded, and I had Giants Season tickets for a decade.

If you could start over again, what sport would you like to try or master and why? 

Might have started motorsports earlier.  Might have tried harder at Golf.  I think I made pretty good choices.

Do you play any non-sports related video games? Which ones or do you go old school and play board games? 

I play everything.  I truly love Chess.  I still think it is the best game ever invented, and I find the games of Morphy, Fischer and Kasporov to be as interesting and wonderful as any game I have ever made.

This will be your first time attending Adobe MAX as a speaker or attendee.  Can you tell us what inspired you to talk about this particular topic at MAX?

I think I wanted to talk about how different game play expectations are inherited from the platform and gaming context, and how those expectations are increasingly a part of the design of Mobile and Web games.  We have a lot of new customers on new platforms.  Getting these experiences to match their expectations will decide how long we keep these new players.

Is gaming your thing? If so, it’s not too late to register for Adobe MAX to attend Richard’s session titled, “The Magic Bullet of Gaming” and so much more. Don’t forget to use promo code MXSM13 during registration for $300 off!

Stephen Gates, Vice President and Creative Director for Global Brand Design at Starwood Hotels & Resorts will be joining us at Adobe MAX this year to share design and development secrets behind building Starwood’s mobile roadmap. Prior to MAX, he sat down with our Adobe Edge Inspect team to discuss how the tool has been helping his team come up with new ways to best show off their nine hotel brands. They’ve managed to accelerate their production and gain buy-in from a dispersed global team of designers, developers, strategists and stakeholders. Pretty impressive, right? Learn more about their success and get to know Stephen in our Adobe Edge Inspect Team Blog Q&A.

Want to hear more from Stephen Gates? Attend Adobe MAX and hear him talk about the “Secrets to Creating a Successful Mobile Roadmap, Apps, and Mobile Websites.” Don’t forget to enter promo code MXSM13 when you register to receive $300 off.

Interested in winning a full Adobe MAX conference pass, a complimentary annual subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud and VIP seating at our MAX Bash? Here’s your chance! Join our Adobe MAX Speaker Challenge on Twitter and weigh in on which one of these two sessions you’d prefer to attend at MAX this year; Terry White’s session Creating an Engaging Web Design with Adobe Muse or Kevin Hoyt’s session, Animating the Web with HTML – to vote for Terry’s session use #TerryandMuse and to vote or Kevin’s session use #KevinandWeb. For more information on how to enter, check out our full MAX Speaker Challenge Sweepstakes official rules.

For details on our Adobe MAX conference, visit MAX.Adobe.com and be sure to use promo code MXSM13 to get a $300 discount when you register.

Like Marvel’s Avengers, you’ve put together a stellar team. So now what? Creative Cloud for teams not only puts the best tools in the hands of your team, but also enables them to seamlessly share files from any device. Since this offer is still new, we wanted to educate you all on the benefits of joining. We’ve recapped five educational updates about Creative Cloud for teams that we’ve shared on the Creative Cloud Facebook page and Twitter channels. Check them out and embrace the learning.

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• Enables better collaboration

You can share files with colleagues inside and outside of your organization.

• Low TCO, best way to stay current

 Keep your members up-to-date with the latest software at a low cost

• Members have 1:1 access  to Adobe product experts

As a member, you have 1:1 access to Adobe product experts to ensure workflow support.

• Centralized purchasing and license management tools

Creative Cloud for teams makes it easy for your IT department to centrally purchase and manage Creative Cloud

• Users get 100GB cloud-based storage

Don’t let storage limits keep you up at night. Enjoy 100GB of cloud-based storage per team member

We’re making Adobe MAX (May 4-8) bigger and better this year. For those who are wondering, “What’s MAX?” – it is THE conference for creative pros. It’s an opportunity for designers, developers, video professionals, photographers, and more to come together to learn about the latest technologies, techniques, and strategies for delivering your best creative work – not to mention the idea exchange and networking opportunities that exist. And it doesn’t stop there.

We have an agenda packed full of amazing speakers, tracks, sneak peeks (yes – you don’t want to miss this!) and more. Choose from over 300 sessions and labs taught by industry leaders and Adobe experts to maximize your creative experience, and even customize your MAX agenda by mixing and matching sessions from all five MAX tracks:

• Design and Creativity
• Web Experiences
• Digital Publishing
• Gaming
• Video

If that’s not enticing enough, we’re throwing a cherry (or two) on top to get you to L.A. Register today using this special promo code: MXSM13, to receive $300 off AND get your hands on a free 1-year Creative Cloud membership.

Be sure to follow Adobe MAX on Facebook and Twitter as we’ll be announcing keynote speakers and other exciting information soon.  We hope to see you there!

Last week we were excited to launch the first Edge Reflow Preview and several other key releases of our Edge Tools and Services into the Adobe Creative Cloud. Now, we’re happy to showcase Reflow and many other web tools at SXSW Interactive at our Creative Camp on Sunday, March 10, 2013!

The day will feature five sessions and panels where you can see the Adobe Creative Cloud in action with the latest tools and services that let you create content for the modern web. And specific to Reflow, don’t miss session number two with Product Manager Jacob Surber on “Concept to reality: Creating Adobe Edge Reflow.” Jacob will share his insights on how we created the first comprehensive tool to help designers create responsive comps.

Follow us on Twitter @Adobe and @Reflow leading up to and during the Interactive festival to catch all the Adobe SXSW news – and don’t forget to join the conversation with #AdobeSXSW. Hope to see you there!