Apply to be a 2019 Creative Resident

Adobe helps early-stage creatives push their careers forward.

2018 Creative Residents at Adobe MAX conference.

The Adobe Creative Residency is a year-long program that allows new artists and recent grads to spend a year focusing on building their dream career through a personal passion project. Each Resident is supported with a full salary, health benefits, mentorship, access to Adobe software, speaking opportunities, and other project-specific support to make their vision a reality. The ideal candidate is skilled in their field, in the beginning stages of their creative career, is passionate about building their community, and has the desire to make the Creative Residency their professional focus for one year.

We are excited to announce applications for the 2019 Adobe Creative Residency will open January 7 and close February 7. If you’re interested in growing your creative career, read on for application information, tips, and other resources to help you with your submission.

Application information

Every year we look for a variety of ideas, people, and cultures representative of the diversity of Adobe’s creative community. Applications will be accepted from candidates living in Canada, Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, and — new this year — Japan.

We are looking for future residents who have a strong area of focus in one of these categories:

• UI/UX
• Short-form online video
• Illustration: Digital drawing and painting
• Design (digital and print)
• Photography

If your area of expertise isn’t listed above, we still welcome your application. See our alumni page to get a sense of the diversity of fields and styles we have supported in the past.

Application tips

Get started

• Begin by reading through the Creative Residency site. Visit the FAQ and How to Apply pages for all the answers to your questions. Make sure you learn what the residency is about and whether you are an eligible candidate.
• Bookmark this article and the links in it that you find helpful, and refer to them as you build your application.
• Review what previous residents submitted for their applications. Watch resident Anna Daviscourt’s video of 5 tips for applying.

Form your project vision

• Take time to think through your project. What is your motivation? What will your project accomplish? What materials or support will you need? Give yourself time to prepare thoughtful answers to the application questions.

Complete the application form

• Have your project proposal and answers to other questions prepared in a separate document before you fill out the form online. Make sure you have everything written and completed before you submit online — you don’t want your Wi-Fi or browser to crash and lose your work.
• If you’re still unsure of what to include, refer to the Adobe Create magazine article for insight into what makes a good application.

Application resources

This is your opportunity to use your creative strengths to communicate your style, voice, and process. Craft a project proposal layout, storyline, and design that exemplify your creative strengths.

Refer to former resident Rosa Kammermeier’s project proposal that capitalized on her artistic and organizational strengths. Remember that every submission will be unique, so you don’t need to make your application look exactly like hers.

In addition to the project proposal, we also consider your previous creative work, flexibility in trying new things, past work experiences, and willingness to take on new challenges. You can watch 2018 resident Aaron Bernstein’s application video here to see how he uses stop motion animation, audio, and photography to communicate his project concept. This gave us a good feel for his level of skill, what style to expect from his project, and his ability to pitch his design concepts visually and succinctly. Below are the kinds of topics you should be prepared to address.

Describe:

• Your project, including your goals of what you want to accomplish
• How this project builds off of your previous work
• Which creative tools you will use
• Your work-flow for the project
• How you plan to share your project with the creative community
• What you want the creative community to learn from your project
• Your long-term career goals and how the residency will help you achieve them

In addition to answering the topics above, you’ll also be sharing three past projects and links to your online portfolio and/or Behance page. This gives us a better understanding of who you are as an artist. Behance projects from our 2018 residents — Jessica Bellamy, Aundre Larrow, and Rosa Kammermeier — are good examples to use as a guide for how to prepare your application.

Good luck! We look forward to reviewing your application and hope to meet you soon. Click here to get notified when the application opens in early January.

Read up on posts from our 2018 residents Natalie Lew, Julia Nimke and Aundre Larrow to learn more about life as an Adobe Creative Resident. If you have any other questions that were not answered above, please reference our FAQ page.