Creating “Rad” stories with Adobe Firefly

Radoslav Bali (AKA Rad) doesn’t love today’s hustle culture. In fact, he actively rejects it, which is why the videos he creates for his hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers are all about helping them pursue their passions and improve their lives. From tutorials on how to use Adobe’s design technologies to unbiased reviews of the latest Bluetooth headphones, Rad’s storytelling approach is honest, transparent, and sincere.

“As someone who learned my skills from others, I firmly believe that if you can get something you should give back,” he says. “That’s why I don’t just create content for content’s sake. My goal is to educate and encourage people to be creative in ways that make them feel positive.”

To that end, Rad is a huge proponent of technologies like generative AI that lower the barrier to entry to creative fields like design, photography, and video production. And as a long time Adobe user, the addition of Adobe Firefly — Adobe's family of creative generative AI models designed for safe commercial use — to industry-leading solutions like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, as well as new AI capabilities in Adobe Premiere Pro, have been game-changers in that regard.

Consistency, quality, and speed

Rad’s relationship with Adobe began in high school. When he moved from his native Slovakia to Copenhagen, Denmark to study design, he dove deeper into Photoshop, Illustrator, and the now-retired Flash as he built his skills in print, web, application, and eventually UI and UX design.

As for Rad’s personal brand, the turning point came in 2021 when he began filming and editing his own Instagram videos with Adobe Premiere Pro. After nearly a month of posting new content on Instagram each day with virtually no pickup, Rad shared the video that would put him on the map. Inspired by Iron Man, he programmed his home office, including his standing desk, chair, and lights, to automatically adjust to his preferred setup with the click of a button on his smartwatch.

“I had this silly idea for a video that took me an hour to create, and somehow it got over 11 million views,” he recalls. “That experience taught me two things. First, the key to success is to be consistent and keep refining your craft. And secondly, the ability to create quality content quickly is the key to bringing your creative flashes to life.”

That combination of quality and speed is also what drew Rad to generative AI. When Firefly-powered capabilities were first added to Adobe’s family of Creative Cloud apps, he immediately began experimenting with features like Text to Image prompts in Adobe Photoshop. Eager to make the most of AI to improve his workflows, Rad began to use the technology to develop subtitles in Adobe Premiere Pro, allowing him to create and edit his content faster. Or, as he bluntly puts it, “skip the boring stuff.”

For instance, Rad uses Generative Fill for his brand partnership content. After editing and color-grading photos in Adobe Premiere Pro, he uses Generative Fill to edit and clean up images in Photoshop 10 times faster than he could previously, without sacrificing creativity. As for his personal Instagram posts, generative AI allows him to create, edit, and add subtitles to his video content in minutes instead of hours.

“I have my 9 to 5 job working for an AI start-up, and I have my 5 to 9 job designing and sharing content for my digital audience. Adobe Firefly allows me to make the most out of that time so I can be productive while keeping my content fresh and compelling,” says Rad.

A creative sparring partner

While he understands many in the creative community are still adjusting to the disruption caused by generative AI, Rad regularly uses generative AI-powered prompts to get unstuck in his creative process.

“The cool thing about generative AI is that it expands your mind. If you give it a vague prompt, it will give you loads of ideas that you would never have considered, and it’s in those left-field outputs that you can find gold,” says Rad. “Firefly is like a sparring partner, and it’s my job as a designer to know when to duck and when to strike.”

In fact, Rad typically spends more time on the videos he creates with generative AI than on his other work, not because the technology is difficult to use but because it inspires him to flex his creative muscle. By taking painstaking work off his plate, Adobe Firefly allows Rad to focus on the details of his design and deliver aesthetic stories that resonate with his audience. And, like Rad, the generative AI community is learning and growing together in real time. Creators seek inspiration from each other and are pushing themselves forward in the process. See the range of work made possible by Firefly at the new Adobe community tab.

“We all need to evolve”

Rad is as much an advocate for change as he is an artist. Through the Instagram reels he shares showing Adobe Firefly in action, he hopes to pique the interest of fellow designers and show them how generative AI can help them break new creative ground.

“As people, we never stop evolving. You can’t be the same person for decades,” says Rad. “The same rule applies to designers. You need to keep growing and adapting to stay valuable on the market, and generative AI has made that easier than ever.”

More importantly for Rad, the generative AI-powered capabilities of Adobe Firefly have made him more fearless. Never before has he had more time to experiment with his designs, or more confidence to push the boundaries of his storytelling.

“I don’t categorize or restrict myself to a niche topic. I’ll talk about anything that excites me,” he says. “Adobe Firefly is a kindred spirit in that way. It keeps me from getting too comfortable in my instincts and pushes me to keep pushing myself and my craft.”

Learn more about Rad, his work, and his brand partnerships on Instagram.

Ready to get started with Adobe Firefly? Visit the new Firefly community tab to see what others are up to, get inspired, or use their work as a starting point to remix your own creations.