The Future of Creativity & A New Challenge

At this point, “design is a competitive advantage” is an understatement. As new interfaces transform the way we work and live, designers, and creatives of all kind, have become central to companies and movements, big and small, across all industries. We take for granted that, just a few decades ago, very little of today’s creativity was possible. As an active investor and advisor to early-stage companies, the most common question I get from founders and boards is to help them source great design talent and build a product organization that is design-driven. After many years in the industry, it’s clear to me that Creativity is the world’s most human craft and, despite countless new devices and mediums, creative people remain at the center. The more the world changes, the more important creativity becomes.

I’ve spent the last twelve years of my life building networks, applications, conferences, and services for creative people, alongside writing books about creative careers and advising and investing in design-driven companies. And I’m thrilled to be taking my experience, curiosity and passion to a new adventure here at Adobe as Chief Product Officer and Executive Vice President for Creative Cloud. I hope my new role at Adobe helps me advance the impact creative people make in their companies and communities. I hope to better understand how new mediums of design will shape the future of commerce, virtual and augmented experiences, gaming, and marketing. And more than anything else, I hope to help creative people – all the designers, illustrators, photographers and video creators – around the world make a greater impact with their ideas.

I share a few of my thoughts and assessment of the opportunities for creative and design industry in this Medium article.

What excites me most about returning to Adobe is the people. Some of the most talented designers and technologists are at Adobe. They are at Adobe because they love creating for creators, and they value the role of creativity in a world that optimizes towards the status-quo. It’s not often in life that you get the opportunity to shift the direction of a world you care so much about. Alright, back to work.