Welcome to Adobe MAX

Design Better in Illustrator: New Features, Pro Secrets, and Hidden Gems

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

Creative Storytelling that Stands Out in a Crowded Feed

Great stories don’t always start with big ideas — they often begin with small, ordinary moments we tend to overlook. In this session, Vanessa Rivera, the artist behind The Life of AIVAX, shares how everyday moments have inspired some of her most viral and meaningful artwork. Through her Notice, Expand, Whimsify framework, Vanessa will break down her creative process and show attendees how to create stories that feel original, emotional, and impossible to scroll past. You’ll leave this session ready to: - Notice creative inspiration hiding in everyday life to build original ideas - Expand ideas using color, setting, and emotion to compose compelling stories - Whimsify your work using Photoshop to make it more memorable and unique - Create work that connects without losing yourself to the algorithm

Build Worlds Faster: A Hybrid AI Workflow in Photoshop

Learn how to use AI in Photoshop and Firefly to skip the tedious parts of asset prep so you can spend more time animating, designing, and playing. Creative technologist Don Allen III walks through how he built a modular, interactive art world, one island at a time, using a hybrid AI and Adobe pipeline. In this session, Don will show you how to: - Turn a hand sketch into a full concept art scene using Firefly and Nano Banana Pro in Photoshop - Split flat artwork into clean, named asset layers in seconds with new Photoshop AI features - Use 3D rotation to quickly set-dress a scene without rebuilding your artwork - Hand off a fully labeled file to After Effects so you can focus on motion - Use JSON prompting to get precise timing from AI tools

Asia Pacific Opening Keynote

Get a first-hand look at the ideas, imagination, and human creativity that spark fresh thinking and help you dream up what comes next. Discover the tools and techniques that give you more creative freedom, control, and possibilities. The Opening Keynote features creative pros and creators sharing workflow demos and videos, along with Adobe executives who will discuss how to advance your creativity and craft.

Beyond Content: The Art of Making Better Ads

What if your in-house team could create advertising people actually remember, not just content they scroll past? Join DGA director AJ Bleyer for this fast-paced session shaped by more than a decade of creating premium campaigns for brands like Ferrari, Riot Games, and Red Bull. AJ breaks down what separates forgettable content from advertising that cuts through. Designed for in-house creatives, this session covers what it really takes to make advertising that lands. You'll learn how to find the emotional hook, build stronger concepts, and turn safe briefs into campaigns people remember. Learn how to: - Find the emotional hook that turns brand messaging into advertising people care about - Build stronger concepts rooted in human psychology, audience behavior, and social trends - Sell bigger, bolder ideas with confidence to risk-averse stakeholders - Use generative AI to spark concepts, sharpen pitches, and polish visuals

Inspiration Keynote

Hear compelling stories from top creatives as they share their process, creative passions, and what keeps them moving forward. We’ll learn what keeps them dreaming big and creating bigger and why human creativity is at the center of everything they do. The Inspiration Keynote features creative director and designer Jonathan Anderson, creative director and co-founder at They Are Creative Siobhán Maroney, creative pioneer and viral filmmaker Drex Lee, and writer/director Omar S. Kamara

Seriously Unserious — How Play Became My Biggest Creative Strength

Ramisha Sattar built a globally recognized visual universe out of scrapbook collages, hand-drawn type, and a refusal to make anything that wasn't fun to make. As creative director for Chappell Roan, she's brought that handmade, personal aesthetic to album art, tour visuals, merch, and festival animations — at Coachella scale. She's breaking down exactly how she did it. If you’re a creative — at any stage — who feels like the fun has been squeezed out of the process, join Ramisha to explore: - How a self-taught designer with a scrapbook aesthetic ended up animating for major music festivals and designing for global brands - How to build a creative identity and personal brand so distinct that clients and collaborators come to you - How to prioritize play and focus on the parts of your creative process that bring you the most joy - How to combine analog techniques with digital tools to create immersive creative worlds

The Creative's Guide to Surviving (and Loving) Rejection

Four years ago, a single rejection sent graphic designer Liz Mosley on a side quest she never could have predicted — one that started with a DM to Chris Do, CEO and Founder of The Futur — and ended up reshaping her entire career. That rejection sparked a challenge: To collect 100 of them. What she discovered changed everything. In this session, Liz and Chris unpack why your fear of rejection is the real thing holding you back, the stories you're telling yourself about what "no" means, and why collecting rejections might be the best career move you’re not making. Together they'll share: - Why a "no" doesn't mean what you think it does - How to turn rejection into momentum - What it actually means if you're not getting rejected - How to reframe fear as a signal — not a stop sign

MAX Sneaks

One of our most popular events, Sneaks offers a first-hand look at what we’re working on in Adobe Labs. This year’s co-host is Terry Crews, an award-winning actor, author, activist, and motivational speaker.

Asia Pacific Inspiration Keynote

Hear compelling stories from top creatives as they share their process, creative passions, and what keeps them moving forward. We’ll learn what keeps them dreaming big and creating bigger and why human creativity is at the center of everything they do. The Inspiration Keynote features creative director and designer Jonathan Anderson, creative director and co-founder at They Are Creative Siobhán Maroney, creative pioneer and viral filmmaker Drex Lee, and writer/director Omar S. Kamara

Build Worlds Faster: A Hybrid AI Workflow in Photoshop

Learn how to use AI in Photoshop and Firefly to skip the tedious parts of asset prep so you can spend more time animating, designing, and playing. Creative technologist Don Allen III walks through how he built a modular, interactive art world, one island at a time, using a hybrid AI and Adobe pipeline. In this session, Don will show you how to: - Turn a hand sketch into a full concept art scene using Firefly and Nano Banana Pro in Photoshop - Split flat artwork into clean, named asset layers in seconds with new Photoshop AI features - Use 3D rotation to quickly set-dress a scene without rebuilding your artwork - Hand off a fully labeled file to After Effects so you can focus on motion - Use JSON prompting to get precise timing from AI tools