An update to our community about creative challenges

At Adobe, we believe in creativity for all. One of our key goals is to give our community more opportunities to express themselves and share their stories with the world.

For several years, we’ve partnered with fans, artists, musicians, and creators alike to provide a platform for the ultimate expression we call, Creative Challenges. The core purpose of these challenges is to provide a space for skill-building and learning and most importantly, for our community to express themselves creatively and have fun.

Through these challenges, artists have showcased their talents and created one-of-a-kind work inspired by and using creative elements from the icons they admire most. Some examples of our challenges included: re-editing an Imagine Dragons music video, designing posters inspired by Lady Gaga’s “Rain On Me”, creating incredible iterations of Marshmello’s Helmet — all done through the love of creating.

However, during a recent Creative Challenge, we heard from you – our customers, community, and leading organizations – about the issues it presented for creators. We were also reminded that Adobe has a responsibility to actively support creators being fairly compensated for their work, and that we must avoid requesting anything that resembles spec work, which would encompass providing free custom artwork for commercial use.

We are doing our part to listen, educate ourselves, and take the necessary next steps to help evolve what the future of our community experiences and challenges will look like. We know, as a leader in our community, we have a responsibility to work together to foster creativity for all.

Here is how we will act on the issues at hand with future Creative Challenges:

• We will ensure our terms allow the artist to retain ownership of their work and that any use other than promotional use for the Creative Challenge will be with the artist’s permission.

• Challenges will not support or promote spec work of any kind and will not monetize submissions in any way. We will rethink the way we are utilizing and providing existing assets, so we aren’t requiring design work from scratch.

• Artists’ work will never be shared without permission from the artist and appropriate credit. This is a standard we consistently set for all Adobe work, programs, and community challenges.

• We will also seek to educate future partners on how to properly engage artists in a sustainable and positive way, continue to work closely and consult with our community advocates and organizational leaders.

Thank you again to our community for doing your part. We look forward to continuing to work with you to celebrate and inspire creativity in everyone, while recognizing the artists and creators behind all work.