MAX Please welcome Stacy Martinet.

What an incredible 24 hours we've had. To the hundreds of thousand watching online, thank you for joining us. Yes.

To all of you here in LA in the Peacock Theater, good morning. One of the most important things about Adobe MAX is spending time getting to know each other and being inspired by each other. So let's take a minute to get reacquainted. If you're in the room, I want to hear from you. Now, I know many of you were at the reception last night, so I'm going to give you a minute to warm up. And if you're online, share out with #AdobeMAX. Okay. How many of you have been to MAX before? Yeah. Amazing. Welcome back and thank you for being part of our community. And for how many of you is this your first Adobe MAX? All right. Good. Welcome to the family. At MAX, we have people from all creative disciplines and that's the beauty of it. So I want to know, where are the graphic designers in the room? Hey. Okay.

Let me hear from the illustrators. Yeah.

Yesterday with Dacia, the video crew was loud and proud. So let me hear from you. All right.

Where are my incredible photographers? Okay. What about the impressive 3D designers? Okay. Charting the future. Charting the future.

Now, holler at me if you're living that Adobe Express life.

Okay. Now, that we've got warmed up, we can dive in. Let's recap first. Yesterday was a day of innovation where we unveiled groundbreaking product features that are set to revolutionize how we create, collaborate and activate our content. In fact, there are over 100 new major updates ready for you across Creative Cloud and Adobe Express, and three new Firefly models for you to play with. So make sure you update your apps and start creating.

Day two is not just about the incredible tools you have at your disposal. It's about the limitless possibilities they represent. It's about exploring uncharted territories and pushing the boundaries. It's about making space for the craft and the process... because beyond the pixels and code... beyond the features and functionality, there lies a deeper essence to what we do at Adobe. We bring together the fusion of passion and technology, the alchemy where innovation meets your imagination. Because, ultimately, our products and their impact come to life through you, our creative community and the stories you tell.

It has been an exhilarating, yet sometimes exhausting, year of innovation. So for Day two, we wanted to showcase some of the incredible artists in our own community, artists who are charting new paths and leading their respective fields. You'll hear directly from them about their passions, their plights and their innate desire to keep pushing the boundaries. We have an extraordinary line-up in store.

Audio. Such a powerful medium and music, whether you're creating music or adding music or listening to music along your creative process, we feel it deeply in our soul. We have with us Oak Felder. He's a record producer, a songwriter and entrepreneur whose musical genius will help unleash the emotive possibilities of music. Walker Noble, a co-founder, creative director and artist who tapped into the opportunities of the creator economy to build his business from the ground up and bring a distinct esthetic to a wider audience all over the world.

Karen X Cheng is a creative director whose innovative spirit knows no bounds. You know that. Her work not only challenges the status quo, but sets a new standard for creativity with mixed media. And Aaron Draplin, who we all know and love from the world of Adobe MAX. He is a luminary in the world of graphic design and entrepreneurship. His creations are not just visually striking, they are a testament to the power of design.

So sit back and get ready for what will be an incredible show. I have only one asks for you and that is that you give each of these incredible artists the Adobe MAX love they deserve. So now, please join me and show that love to Aaron Draplin.

I wasn't allowed to use the podium today, so I just brought my own shit. It's a little bit off. Thanks, Dan. Thank you. Well. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Thanks, Dan. Thanks. Thanks.

Sorry. Let's get my shit together here. Okay, everybody. All right. Here we go, everybody. Here we go. All right. All right.

APPLAUSE!!! Hello, everybody. My name is Aaron James Draplin. I am 49 years old. I am four days out from 50.

I'm a graphic designer and I am coming from the mean streets of Portland, Oregon, but really from Traverse City, Michigan. I come from a mom and a dad and a family and my little Moonbeam Leigh.

Where's Leigh? Yeah. Okay.

Okay. So, here's what they told me, okay.

This is the sort of stuff I heard when I was 20 and 19 and 22 and hell, 48.

So you can pick a couple up here and play with them.

But anyhoo...

these are things I didn't see coming in graphic design. Okay. Some fast history. Here I go. Quick. I was born in Detroit.

I was raised in Northern Michigan with a mom and a dad and BMX bikes and LEGOs and Star Wars and shit. I went to community college for my first two years.

I moved out, I threw it all away and I went West when I was 19 with all my buddies all the way to Oregon to be snowboarders out in the West. And we went all over the West together with no budget, no nothing, no license and kicked ass up and down the big hills of the West, right? I was a hayseed from Michigan and got to go all the way out there. Everything at this time was analog. I didn't have a computer. I had pen and pencil and paper and iron will, right? So, I was drawing, I was painting, I was lettering futon covers. I did my first snowboard graphic in '93 and that was that first taste of like, commercial. By the way, guys, my good angle's from here out, okay. My good angle's from here out. Thanks. Okay. I didn't have a computer, so I had to go to Alaska, all the way to Alaska, to wash dishes for five months up there. And if you look here, while I was sleeping in between shifts, look it, look it, some dick put a mosquito on my lip.

Four summers of that shit to get computers and college funds and pay off credit cards. Design was a hobby first, right? Just first. Before I learned to not like your boss and have creative block and all that shit, I just felt privileged to make things digitally and not have to do pen and ink. Right? I had to go back to school. I went to the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in Minneapolis.

I learned how to weld. I learned how to screen print. I learned how to... You guys remember the raging '90s? I went there in '98. All that bullshit where you puke on a page and it goes down the corner and you call it postmodern graphic design, I wasn't interested in that fashion. There's an F word for you, that fashion. I wanted to learn how to make things that people could use, right? So, I moved to SoCal, with all the beautiful people, but I got to work with a bunch of crusty animals. And I was the art director or art person for Snowboarder magazine for two years. That was that first time you get to work with your friends. But then I got the hell out of SoCal and I got myself back to Portland, Oregon. I got my first real design job at Cinco, where I worked on Nixon watches, I worked on Gravis shoes, and really that's when I did that for two years, and I got on my own in 2004 and I got myself free. So that first year on my own, that summer of 2004 into 2005... I know you're not supposed to talk about numbers, but no one told me that you could make 65 grand and think you're doing good and then triple your wage in your basement. So this can happen. I was slowly building reliable retainers. We started coal headwear out of Seattle. We did Union Binding Company, snowboarding bindings out of Seattle. Also they were told not to make their own things for themselves by the bigger ones. And yet they did. We started a magazine called Snowboarder with my closest buddies from the snowboard world and we did seven years of this stuff and they told us they'd never do it. And at the end of it, everyone got paid back, right? That was successful for us. And it happened. We made it happen. You can work with your buddies. I didn't see that coming. Okay? How I do it? Very simple. I get my Field Notes, I draw and I sketch and then I iterate and I iterate inside Illustrator and I iterate. See, this thing isn't one to one? It's not. But I try to be as elegant there as I am on the page, as I am off the page with my email saying, "Thank you." I just thank everybody in the backstage for helping me with all this shit. So, be lethal with your process on the page, off the page, right.

So, here's some process where it's actually working. I got to go to South by Southwest and be in the poster zone, and I'm not a rock poster guy. I'm not a rock poster guy. When you get to work for Jack White and you start in the Field Notes, you go into Fresco. You go see all those software nods. And then you make the poster for Jack White. This is the process. When you get to work for your favorite band, your very, very favorite band from 1987-88 Dinosaur Jr... you start sketching, you get into Fresco, and then you create that thing inside Illustrator, right? Your favorite band. And finally, kind of a poetic act from Los Angeles here, a little band. Look at Murph on there on the old hedge clippers playing the drums. Tenacious D.

And I worked for Jack White and then I worked for Jack Black. And next summer, I'm working for Jack Pantone 430. Where is [inaudible] Pantone Gray? Pantone Cool Gray five. Industry joke, but. Sketching. When they ask you, the boys want to be naked on the bell.

You do what you're told, okay, and you work for Tenacious D, so.

SOMETIMES YOU GET TO WORK WITH YOUR HEROES Sometimes you get to work with your heroes, right? So, here's a big one. Make your own stuff. I made merch before I knew that it was going to become a thing. When we started Field Notes, it was simply because I couldn't find ones that were un designed. Everything had bitch soap on it and 666 and all this stuff. I just made something simple, right? No one told me you could make your own typeface and have it show up on a Duluth trading company now, right? Incredible. Don't forget to do what we do for ourselves because clients hire us for the big buck or the little buck. But we forget we can make our own shit and then make a little buck for ourselves. That's the best buck you'll make. These are landmarks in my quest for independence. When I went into my basement in 2004, I started to get a little bit more free. By 2007, I was making money. I paid off my school loan. I paid off my HELOC. I paid off the house. I paid off the house.

You know, what's the stock report to give you guys today? I've been debt free ever since with graphic design. I got to build my own studio in my backyard with my friend Robby Hottois. Look at my record wall. You know, there is no Maroon 5 anywhere on that wall. I'm just going to say it.

You've got to get free. And those were landmarks where I'm not paying rent to pay someone's big payment on their Range Rover or something. When I pay rent for my ten-step commute, I own it. Get yourself free. Okay? You've got to do it yourself and especially, when they give you a book deal, okay? Because you've got to understand, you go to New York City and they're telling you this or telling you that. But here's the deal. Abrams offered to lay out the book. "No, no, no, I'm a designer, I think I'll lay out the book." And they said, something about ghostwriters. "No, no, no, I got it." And then, of course, they do all the production. I shot everything. I laid it all out. I tuned it up and I handed it off to print with no errors, every single page. Because when would I ever get to make another book? What a privilege to do that. But yet, you make the book and you've got to make think about all the pages and how to celebrate every kid who messed with my face to make a poster to go to their show in Dubuque, Iowa or something.

The little kit that we made, I'm not supposed to say this, but John Gall, my editor, was like, "Don't tell Abrams because they're going to want a piece of it," or whatever. Sorry to let it out, but the book designers and book graphic designers, do they go on book tours? Well, I did. And look at that gas pig. Leigh and I. Look at the gas pig. Leigh and I went across the nation three different times. We built all the posters. She set up all those merch tables. We tore each one down. We thanked every single person. We signed every book. I gave out so much shit. Who cares? We would do merch from sketchy parking lots across America. So if you bought a poster in 2017, it probably came from a Motel five somewhere or whatever that was.

See, when New York City tells you... with your height, weight, face and whatever social meets. You might be lucky to sell 4,500. You guys, it sounded good to me because I'm not playing some game of domination and who's number one and who's number 414. By the way, I'm Portland, Oregon's fastest graphic designer at number 415 right behind [inaudible] and Partners. But you go in there, you listen to them. It's in its 12th printing. We're at 70,000.

No. Can you go with your girl and go sell the book? You can. So, just because... just because we're here today, look at that.

Yeah. Yeah. It's just. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just a girlfriend. LUCKY GIRL Lucky girl? Oh, shit. So, it turns out you can spend your precious moments out of what little time you have in this big damn stage messing with your lovely little smoochie. So, thank you, Leigh. Yeah. NOT EVERY JOB IS ABOUT A PAYCHECK Not every job is about a paycheck. I got to work for Adobe. Remember, in the pandem... you go in and they bag your groceries and help you check out? I thank those guys every time. I know it's corny, but I thank those people every time because it was scary. It was scary.

Eric in Denver, thank you.

I started making clip art. It wasn't about money. I just said, "We're in Portland, Oregon. We're curiously compliant. No one's storming the WalMart, you know, wash your hands, okay?" So, I'd make these things and people would say, "Can I hire you?" "Just take it. Use it." We have that capacity. When I got to work for Bernie Sanders, I couldn't just do one poster, I did three.

That's Bernie? These posters help out Trans Lifeline to help kids in Portland...

for trans kids.

You gotta clap that shit.

They need help.

Worked for Phish, but they bailed out a bunch of folks who needed help with all that Vermont flooding. Right. I got to work for Phish a couple of times. This isn't my kind of jam if you will, but I appreciate them. I respect what they do to help people. Right. And they're good to their fans. That's enough for me. You can use your mouse finger to help people. This is not about clicks and licks and likes and who's pointing at some bullshit and another insufferable TikTok or reel or whatever that. Oh, God. Oh, God. I'm just saying. So bigger isn't better.

Look where I'm at. This isn't supposed to happen.

But all those big jobs, I stack up little shit and I make something big out of it. Okay.

But every big job I got that had a PDF and an NDA this tall...

there was so much heartbreak inside that stuff. And the meetings about meetings, the emails about... you know what I'm talking about, just time wasted over people worrying about whose team is talking to whose team and who's CEO divided it by the angle of the dangle of the FCO and all this other shit. Who cares? Call me and I'll make the change, Karen or whatever.

Sorry. I'm done taking that shit. But these are big gigs that were awesome. BIG GIGS THAT WERE AWESOME I got to work for NASA. I got to make a poster for Voyager two.

When you work for NASA, space is real and we go infinitely in this direction forever. Either get to the edge of the universe or it goes forever and it's one or the other and that is magical to me in real right now. But, yet, when we made this, there's a little typo. I didn't have the thing pointing back at Earth, so.

You really got to watch your shit when you're working for NASA. Just check which way Voyager is pointing to get the data. Carl Sagan, you know what I mean? Where's Joby? This is my buddy, Joby Harris. He gets to work for NASA. This is the guy that hired me for this. I'll love this guy forever. I got to work for him. I got to work for NASA. Something I grew up looking at as a kid. You know, you get to know each other. I got to make a stamp for America. And that's every kind of American, right? First printing was 400 million...

but yet, I went down to 50th and [inaudible] and was, look, hugging everybody and shit and celebrating. But this is dedicated to our mail guy Fahm, right? Seven years because, wait...

this stamp for the record was not about some Lee Greenwood bullshit. This was about America being a nation of immigrants where every kind of person and every kind of family can come there and make it.

ARRA AMERICAN RECOVERY & REINVESTMENT ACT OF 2009 When you get to work for the president. But with your buddy Chris Glass through the Mode Project in Chicago, I was a little ant all the way down at the very bottom of that stuff. We got to make these AR logos that were on signs all over the place. Chris did the big one. I help tune it up. I got to do the Little Tiger one. When you see that, you cry your eyes out. I voted for him. I voted for him.

When they call you up to the big leagues, do the work with everything you got, everything you got. These are little gigs. Okay. My little Sister Leah's Nail Goals. She's an aesthetician. We grew up together and she does my nails. I lay there like a big buffalo snoring... and she does my nails. And I made her a logo because in her little shop there, she tricked it all out, needed a logo and then she painted it on the wall. And this is her little studio sanctioned by the city of Portland. Right. Chris and Joe, my buddy Chris Soli. I used to work with at Cinco. He got married and I got to do all their postcards and stuff. Check it out. Look at all this cool shit for Chris and Joe. These are beautiful people. I love my buddy, Chris.

I spent a lot of time on that salmon for Joe, a lot of time. Look at them. Look at them. Love is love, right? For Joe and Chris and my sweetheart, Leigh. She has her own little brand called Leigh McKolay Designs and she makes all kinds of nasty little items and she comes to me with an idea, I'm simply the vessel. Her boyfriend gets around a little bit in this game, but I make these little things for her. And that's her new Bite Me patch and also...

Mom's Estate Sale This Summer. You know that's my mom and there's my dad. That's our fall portrait. Here's my dad working out in the yard. Give it a little spice.

AWWW, DAD, Look at my dad, this little shop down the basement. I had to clean that out this summer ten years later and it sucked. But while I was doing it, it enveloped in my dad's Jim Draplin-ness. I was painting signs because I don't paint. And I got it. Mom needed signs for the tent sale, so I get going crazy. I'm making signs. I'm starting to mess with things. I messed with my mom. I messed with our favorite neighbor, Kelly. You know there's Joe to get the prices. But here's the thing like, use what we do when they took... look at all the skin on that one guy right there when they're taking down the tent. Anyway. DON'T BE AFRAID TO DO WHAT WE DO FOR THOSE CLOSEST TO YOU Don't be afraid to do what we do for those closest to us. Because that's the best shit. That's the best shit.

Here's some recent work. We'll get you out of here. I got to work for NASA again. I got to do a record for Harsh Mellow. This one's for O. We miss him. Jason Isbell posters. John Hodgman book covers. A pedal for Red Fang, but then I got my own pedal. That was awesome. DDC Fuzz. It goes to 11. Of course, it does.

When they call you to do the corn maze. Do the perfect corn maze, you know what I'm saying? Hot dog Mandala, I've shown it all. I got to make a towel for Loose. When you get to work for your favorite recent band, I passed up Superdrag in the nineties like a jerk. I didn't know they were on MTV. I just screwed up. I love this band. This is a top five DDC band now and I got to meet them in Knoxville and do a poster for them. And I'm buddies with the band now and I'm helping out John with stuff. Oh, shit. I'm at the end of the 20 minutes. Okay. Rumpl Blankets and Rumpl blankets. I got to work for Maren and Chris Stapleton and Chris Stapleton and socks, shit. Tenacious D again. Look what he's carrying. Look what he's carrying.

We started a puzzle company with J Mascis and some guys from Denver, and it's called Puzzle Heads. We have the first six of the subscription service. Go check those out and there, Puzzle Heads is right there. I got my... did my first pair of underwear, my first pair of underwear. Yeah. Look at all that junk, right? But that guy's going to catch a cold if he's not careful, man. Look at him. Not me, you know? Okay. I'm sorry. I'm over time, but get your phone out. Now, get your Instagram fired up. Is your Five Folks to Follow. Now. Now. Okay. Now. DJ Javier, okay? This guy does incredible work and I've never seen this before and he's a sweet guy. He's a family man. He is in Santa Barbara and I love his work. And please follow DJ Javier. Okay. Julie Solvstrom.

Follow her, now. Her work is exquisite. I love Dana Tanamachi work and I'm so gentle. The one time I got to meet her because I don't know how to make what she makes. I have so much respect for what she makes. And when I see something like this from Julie, like the type is beautiful in that note, the illustration is beautiful and it makes you feel good. That's graphic design, too. Zero Deluxe out of the UK. Whoa. He's Ben Aldis, guy. I've never met him, but I've been looking at his stuff every couple of days. Go follow Zero Deluxe now. This stuff is just incredible. I've never seen this before. These are people that are putting in the work and I've learned from this stuff and I go crazy with it.

Follow ZeroDeluxe. Rachel Rose out of Portland, Oregon. Follow rachfacemurray, because she does these incredible, I don't even know what to call them paintings or almost like a quilt on this old canvas. When you're up close to it, you can see every little blem and it's just perfect. And I want to hire her to make something for the road show? But when you see these things, I collect them. And when I get up in front of you guys, I say go follow rachface right now, right now. Because there's some stuff happening here. Aside from all the cliche shit out there, people trying to sell you things, sell you things and sell you things, I mean, I'm no different. But I learn from these people putting the work in.

And finally, a guy from Portland, Oregon, by way of Oakland now, Martin Ontiveros, I have been a fan of this guy's work for 15 years. I just... I hope even longer than that. The heavy metal guy in his work is all his. Right. Follow this guy because he puts the time in. He's not taking these cheap routes that point at that shit and all that other stuff. Fine, he's putting the time in. Is there an award for that or numbers? That's why I love him, because I learn from this? So, please follow him. Okay. Use your platform to prop folks up. Okay I got some DDC Sneaks, too. I got to do this. The new Stapleton record. Here's the first two singles. Here's a little sneak for you. Leigh, where are you at? I don't know. I paid off your car this morning. PAID OFF!

Okay. I'm turning 50 in 4 days. We're going to the Redwoods to get amongst the magical trees to be quiet and give respect to the universe around us in nature. I'm going to slow my life down in my 50th year. Okay. Okay. The stuff I've been so lucky to pull off logos, life and logos, field notes, the book, merch, I'll go fast, merge things, stuff, all the Skill share videos, three fonts for these. I'm sorry, I'm over time. We got... I'm an owner in a burger joint. Everyone who took the workshop, thank you so much. I got to go all over the world to say this stuff to people. There's a little something there. I went to Bratislava, Slovakia. Come on, man. Today is number 543 times doing this? Hell, yeah.

I got to meet all these cool people...

all over the design industry in the world. I have a lot of friends here today.

But the best part about all this shit...

I got to make a living being creative. I GOT TO MAKE A LIVING BEING CREATIVE I GOT TO SHARE MY MESS WITH SO MANY FOLKS. I got to share my mess with so many people. Thank you. And I got to take care of those around me.

My mom, Leigh, my little sister Oliver and Jacob. My little sister Sarah. Hell, even my buddy Dale.

All with a life in graphic design and I sure as hell didn't see any of that coming, you guys. All right. Let's get you of here. Appreciation is felt. Read this later on, but here's the deal. Thank you. THANK YOU!

[inaudible].

That's the face, Mom. This entire talk is for my mom. That's the face she gives you when she kicks your ass in Scrabble, right there.

APPLAUSE!!!

Please welcome Karen X Cheng.

Hi, I'm Karen and I'm a social media addict, and this is the story of how I got addicted. I made my first viral video ten years ago and I can remember it so clearly. I posted it and that day, it got a few 1000 views and I thought that was amazing. And I woke up the next morning and I hit Refresh.

It had over a million views. Oh, my, God, I was stunned. That high was the highest high I've ever felt in my whole life. It feel good.

Why did it feel so good? I think because I had a lot of insecurities and I just wanted someone to tell me I was special. All of a sudden, millions of Internet strangers telling me, "Yeah, I'm special. Hmm." It felt good and I wanted more. Social media is a hell of a drug. And like a drug addict, I spent the next decade of my life chasing that high. It was always the same cycle. I would post the video, get high and then crash. And I need another hit, so post another video, get a high, and then crash, high and then crash, over and over until each high was less than the last before. And over time, it's just awful kind of empty. I fell into a trap. I started measuring my self-worth in likes and views and that is a formula for unhappiness. And that's what I want to talk about today.

The Artist versus The Algorithm.

I've been feeling this tension lately between what we as creatives want versus what the algorithm rewards. And this is a room full of creative people and a lot of us would just like to make good art. But these days, it feels like that's not enough. Like, you also have to understand the algorithm.

For most of human history, we prayed to God. But lately, it feels like we've been praying to the algorithm.

The algorithm didn't like my last post. Did the algorithm change in my shadow band...

and we start to change our behavior to try to please the algorithm. I thought the algorithm was truth. It was gospel. It was the perfect scientific measure of what people want. How could I argue with that? And so I took it really hard. Whenever anything flopped, I would make something that I was really proud of and post it and it would barely get any likes. And then I would start to question myself, my taste, my judgment. Like maybe, this thing I made wasn't good after all.

What took me so long to realize the algorithm is flawed.

I thought the algorithm measured what you like. What you want. Close? Not exactly. The algorithm measures what you pay attention to and the business model is to capture that attention and serve you ads. So, every time you pay attention to something, you're going to start seeing more things like...

which sounds good, like, that sounds fine.

Let's imagine if the real world worked this way.

Let's say you're driving on the side of the road. Do you see a car crash and you pay attention to it because you're just watching out for your safety.

The algorithm notices.

You pay attention to car crashes. You must like them. We'll show you more.

You really like that? Slap some ads on it.

Yeah. Now, we're in business.

This is how the algorithm works. We have an algorithm that rewards the extremes, the most angry, the most clickbait, the most virtuoussignaling, the most and we start getting pushed to the extremes. And even AI knows this. Ask AI to draw a picture of a person eating food and you might get something like this. Now, ask AI to draw a YouTube thumbnail of a person eating food.

Social media algorithms are pushing us to become these caricatures of ourselves. It's kind of like this. Let's say you help a friend move. It's hard work. You spend all day doing it. You work up a sweat. You feel really good about helping. And then at the end of the day, your friend is like, "Thanks, here's ten bucks." Like, wait, what? That just cheapens the whole thing, like, that's not why you did it.

And I think that is happening to so many creatives right now. He got into this because we love creating and we post it. The social media algorithms like here, here's ten likes. Like what? Is that what my work is worth? No. The algorithm is flawed. The algorithm doesn't reward great art. And yet, we as creatives keep judging ourselves as if it is. There's been so many times that I've seen someone's work that is so beautiful and moving and it flops. And then I see someone's low-effort content thirst trap get millions of views. Oh.

Over the years, I have had to learn the hard way and I've had to come up with all of these mental defenses to try to protect myself from the algorithm. I think of it like defense against the dark arts, except more like defense against a crushing, demotivating and addicting algorithm.

Self-defense for artists in an algorithmic world and I want to share five defenses and this is not a checklist or a to-do list. This is just some of my personal experience. So feel free to use whatever is helpful and let go of the rest.

I think a lot of us would love to break free from the algorithm completely and ignore it. But the reality is, if you want to make a living, pay your bills, you kind of want to get your work seen. And a really good way to get your work seen is to "play the game" of the algorithm. Ideally, you could find the intersection of what you want and what the algorithm wants. But lately, I've been finding this is getting harder and harder for me. I think we would all love to find the intersection of money and passion. But when you can't, it is okay to do some things just for the money and other things just for the passion. The formula I follow is one for me, one for the algorithm. I do things for the algorithm. I do optimize for it. That helps pay the bills. But then I also make stuff just for me. That helps keep me sane. Now, this is not a talk about how to optimize for the algorithm. If you want to hear about that, you can feel free to take a picture of that URL, look at it later. And for those of us who don't work in social media, you could also think of it as one for me, one for the boss or one for me, one for the client. I have a friend. He has got this video production company. He's a super-talented director. He makes the most beautiful moving videos, and then the clients would just destroy it with their feedback and it would just be soul crushing for him. And he'd get into all these arguments with his clients and no one was happy. He was always trying to hit this elusive middle. So then I asked him, "Well, what happens if you stopped arguing with the clients and if you just gave them literally everything they wanted? And then on your own, every once in a while, you do a personal project that the clients can't touch with their feedback." And once he started doing this, he was so much happier and the clients were happier, too. It doesn't have to be exactly one for one. You can change the ratio to fit what you need. If you're not in a place where you're financially stable, maybe you do one for me, ten for them. Or if you are financially stable, maybe you decide you want to do the opposite.

There's this quote...

"If you create content based on the fear of losing followers... you may end up losing yourself." Damn!

When I saw that, that's when I told myself the one for me, I could not let that number go to zero. So for the ones that I do for me, I post those too. But for those I tell myself, "Okay, I'm not going to judge myself for the number of likes or views on this one." Easier said than done. There's this weird culture. Have you ever seen this hashtag? Hashtag. Please don't let this flop... as if a flop is something to be embarrassed about as if a flop means your work isn't good. I started giving myself a little antidote instead of "Please don't let this flop" every time before I post a video, I say this to myself...

"I made this for me, not for the algorithm. It's a success because I learned something. Doesn't matter if it flops. I'm proud of my flops." Let's break this down. I made this for me, not for the algorithm. And I'm not going to define success as likes or views, I will define success as just whether I learn something. Therefore, it doesn't matter if it flops. I'm gonna take it one step further. I'm going to be proud of my flops. I'm going to be proud of that low like count, that low-view-count because my flops mean I took a chance. I decided to do something that the algorithm didn't recognize. I learned and grew from it. Don't let car crash algorithms that reward mass appeal and thirst traps be the judge of your work. Be proud of your flops.

How many of us have heard? The key to being successful on social media is...

consistency.

Post every day, the algorithm will reward you if you feed it every day.

It's exhausting. Feels like, I'm running on a hamster wheel. You post something, the algorithm gives it 24 hours, then the attention is gone, and then you're supposed to do it over and over and over again. I want to share something that helped me get off the hamster wheel.

Seek respect, not attention. It lasts longer.

There's videos that people have made.

There are videos that people have made that I remember a year later, five years later, ten years later. I respect those artists so much. Those are the artists that I'm always trying to hire. And then I see some low-effort content. I don't even remember who made it a day later, even if it got millions of views. This quote gave me the courage to get off the hamster wheel. Put more effort into fewer things and prioritize making things that I respect instead of constantly clamoring for attention.

So, we've been talking about social media algorithms. We should probably talk about AI algorithms, too.

I think something we hear a lot about is how AI is a tool. It is a tool to creatively empower humans. And, yes, that is true. The weird thing is, I can feel incredibly creatively empowered by these AI tools at the same time that I feel a little sad that something so beautiful and special art that humans once did for each other can now be done better and faster by machines. It's so confusing because I can feel both of those emotions at the same time. I don't have the answers here, but I can share something that helped me mentally cope with this feeling. This is from an article by Nathan Baschez.

The leading edge of aesthetics will probably always involve human skill, even if the methods we use to channel that skill will change dramatically. Sure, it feels like it's happening right now.

We should think of AI tools more like an instrument that can be played well or poorly and less like a replacement for humans.

Human plus AI... is probably going to beat AI alone for a long time.

Human plus AI beats AI. Of course, it feels so simple. So, lately, whenever I use AI, I've been thinking, "How can I bring the human into it?" I was playing with Generative Fill and I started playing around with creating a painting effect, turning this into a watercolor. I realized if I went frame by frame, I could turn it into this painted video and I started brainstorming. How could I make this feel more human? And I'd like to share it.

Sometimes I do worry that because of AI, our feeds are going to be flooded with all of the synthetic content. And I think one antidote we have to that is to infuse as much human as we can whenever we use AI. When all these AI tools started coming out, I thought, "This is so exciting." Felt like Christmas. Opening new present every day. Always new toys to open, always new things to try. But after a few months, I started noticing I was getting kind of overwhelmed. And I didn't even have time to learn a new tool and explore it before another one came out. And after a while, I started to feel a little more like this.

I just felt so overstimulated. It was just this constant whiplash. Just constantly new things to learn, new things to try, ever-ending to-do list. Oh, how did I get here? Let's rewind to 15 years ago.

Remember that feeling when you got your first smartphone? I remember thinking, "This is great." Waiting line at the grocery store? Scroll. Waiting line at the airport? Scroll. I'm never going to be bored again. Yeah!

But humans experience boredom for a reason. When you're bored, your mind gets to wander. And I found I've come up with some of my best ideas when I let myself be bored. They have actually run science experiments where they force people to be bored and then those people perform better at creative tasks afterwards than people who were not forced to be bored. So, boredom is the secret weapon to creativity and yet we are systematically eliminating boredom with our phones.

When I hear a juicy news story, I run to the Internet comments to find out what do the Internet comments say. I don't even stop and ask myself, "Well, what do I think?" My phone is crowding out my mind. In a world where we are constantly pumping ourselves full of content, our phones are crowding out our ability to think. Our ability to think. Original thoughts. The brain needs space to breathe.

But how can I... how can I take time away from screens when I have so much FOMO, I have to keep up? Otherwise, I'll get left behind.

I want to tell you about my friend, Leah. She is this artist. This is some of her work. And I was working with her on a project and on Friday night she told me, "I'm not going to be online for the next 24 hours because it's Shabbat." And on Saturdays, she doesn't work or use technology and she spends that time instead with her family. She is this innovative, creative technologist and she's on the cutting edge of AI... and yet, a full one seventh of her life is free from screens? I'm thinking she's got to figure it out. I wanted to try it. So I was inspired by this tradition of Sabbath and I gave myself a challenge.

What if on Saturdays I don't look at screens? No phone screens, no computer screens, no TV screens. Screen-less Saturday.

For some, I did it. It was so hard, but also refreshing. Imagine a day without screens. You wake up instead of the anxiety of checking, "What's new? What did I miss?" Oh, nothing I have to do except remember how to be human. And I thought after my screen-less Saturday, I'd be rushing to my phone to find out what I missed. But a curious thing happened, which is I started finding it easier and easier to resist my phone for the rest of the week. And I don't do it every single Saturday, but I have done it most Saturdays this year. And if you want to try it, you can tweak it to fit your life. Maybe it's a different day of the week, maybe you do it once a month. If you have people who depend on you, maybe you do it together. I've done so many things to try and shut off my phone, and this is the single best thing that I've done to try and feel human again.

So those are my five defenses. It is what I do to protect myself from the algorithm.

But it's not really fair to expect people to do all this... all this mental jujitsu. Like, I shouldn't have to do it, you shouldn't have to do it. It's like asking us to design our own seatbelts. That should not be our job. It's the job of the car manufacturers to design the seatbelts. And I feel like we are at that tipping point again with our technology. What would it look like, if the next generation of technology was designed more mindfully? Okay, I want to share something.

This is so random and I went back and forth debating whether I should include this or not. And this is not a solution, but it's just something that I find really interesting. So some of us have a work laptop versus a personal laptop or maybe you have a work phone versus a personal phone. So this is my work phone. It's struggling a little bit in the direct sunlight. And this is my personal phone. I call it my newspaper phone because it really feels like I'm looking at a newspaper that can refresh and it's kind of like a Kindle, but it's shaped like a phone. And it's less janky, but it works. I can technically do everything on it. I can listen to podcasts, I can look stuff up, I can check the schedule of Adobe MAX...

and I can even... I can even watch TikTok. I don't usually have TikTok on this phone, but I installed it just to show you. Yes, you can watch TikTok, but, I mean, look at it.

The addicting things just kind of become unappealing. With this thing I get in, I look up what I need and I get out.

But my goal is not to get you to buy one of these. But if you want to, please do your research first. This thing has a ton of flaws. It doesn't even support a SIM card. It's not quite ready for prime time. But I love this phone. I love what it represents. Which is... it challenges my assumptions of what a phone should be. For the last decade, the phone has been about more. More, more, more, more more. What more can we cram in? How more can we addict you? But what if the next generation of phones was about less, not more. Phones not designed to suck you in, but phones designed to get you back out in the real world? Change happens when we demand better. We are at that tipping point now. We deserve better. We deserve better algorithms. There's companies right now that are even experimenting with letting you choose your own social media algorithm. We deserve better phones, phones that don't addict us... and we deserve better AI, AI that is built thoughtfully. Adobe has really thought about how to do this mindfully through Content Credentials, through the transparency with the data set, compensation structures for artists and I would really like to see more companies follow their lead.

Change happens when we demand better. We are at that tipping point. We absolutely deserve better.

I want to end by shouting out some amazing humans who helped me with this. They are fantastic. You should absolutely hire them. This presentation was human plus AI, mostly human with a little bit of AI and last, if you decide you want to try anything from today, I would love to hear from you. What's working? What's not? Thank you for giving me your attention. It's such a scarce currency these days. Thank you.

When I'm creating, I'm listening to jazz. It allows me that same improvizational freedom... -This one's nice, right? -Yeah. He'll get to a certain point and he will include me. And most importantly, tell me when to put the brush down.

A lot of my interest in the things that I do paint and draw are tough, but they have a softer side. It's really an extension of myself. There's a duality to all of us, right? The challenge is finding the tranquility. There's beauty in everything.

Please welcome Walker Noble.

Adobe MAX, how are you? So it's not often we get to be in front of a stage in front of this many people, so I have to do one thing real quick. Hey, Mom and Dad. Just want to get out of the way.

So I want to take you back to 1993. I was in junior high. CIRCA 1993 Something happened in school one day that set up a mantra that I've been living by ever since. A girl walks into my classroom and she proclaimed that this famous football player is her uncle. Now, you know the vibes, right? It's middle school. The teasing happens immediately, the laughter. "Shut up. That ain't your uncle. You're just lying." She... "Look at her over there, trying to claim that football player." There was something about what she said that stuck with me. I was never into teasing, So I didn't want to get involved in that. But I thought to myself.

"Why not her?" So I muster up my little courage. I get in front of the classroom and I'm like, "Guys, wait. That football player is somebody's son... which means he's probably somebody's brother...

so he has to be somebody's uncle.

Why not hers?" That day set up the mantra that I've been living by ever since... WHY NOT ME? "Why not me?" Why couldn't that be her uncle? Fast forward. Why can't I be a creative full-time? Tons of people are. Why not me? Why can't I make a living as an artist, as a creative? Why not me? I want to talk to you about Walker Noble Studios, as it exists today and kind of tell you how we got started.

We are a husband and wife own team here in Los Angeles. I'm the artist.

My wife is the boss...

and not just in business, also in life... but I am confident enough to admit that and that's okay.

We sell everything from wall art to stationery, housewares, textiles, soft goods, hard goods, apparel, furniture, interior design, you name it.

I was working a dead end job and wasn't happy. Wanted to become a creative full-time, but I don't know if you heard of these little things, like these pesky little thing is called bills, right? So I didn't have the confidence and I had the self-doubt and I wasn't willing to say, "You know what, I quit." So what I did was I would go to work every day and at night, I would come home and I would create. Here I am in my studio creating. This was my outlet. I needed this for myself. I needed this for my sanity. My wife used to call my corporate job, my corporate sponsor. It was my sponsor while I was trying to achieve my goals, right? So, on the weekends... what we would do is we would go out and we would sell at art fairs. We would sell at markets...

flea markets setting up at 5 o'clock in the morning, you name it. We were getting great feedback, we were hearing back from customers, market research, everything. Now, keep in mind, my wife, DiDi, who I just showed you... she is a special education teacher here in LA. K through six. Can we please give a round of applause for all of our educators? So, here's us selling at one of the markets. So in addition to working her job, she would help me on the weekends, even though she was tired from doing what she did. That's love, that's partnership.

Even though we were doing well, I still didn't have the confidence to leave. Not quite yet. I still had self-doubt. I still had those pesky bills.

But one day, something happened. Crazy. My dear friend, Ebee, she owns a store here in LA, called Sunbeam Vintage over in Highland Park.

She makes a poster one day and it goes viral. In one day, we get $20,000 worth of orders.

Now, at the time, I only had 200 followers on Instagram. Went viral, so what did Didi do? She revamped our website. She made all the orders. She's the brains, as you can tell behind the operation. She orders all the stuff and we're just packing up orders as we binge whatever we were watching at night.

So let me paint a picture for you. 2020 happens. Now, I told you, I didn't have the confidence to leave my job. I needed a reason. Well, the world gave me a reason. 2020 rolls around and we all remember what happened.

The job in which I was doing, I was selling office products to office buildings. So, obviously, when the pandemic happened, all of that went away. So, let's paint a picture. I lose my job. We're saving for a house. We all know how expensive it is to buy a house here in LA.

We're looking to have a child.

So, what do I do? I naturally get online. I apply for another job. I was about to take another job. DiDi then comes to me and says, "Don't take that job." Now, DiDi is logical. She's very rational. She's very pragmatic. She's not the risk taker. So for her to come to me and say, "Don't take that job"... meant the world to me. I had to believe in it if she believed. She said, "Don't take that job because all you going to be as upset and you're not going to be happy?" And she basically said, "I don't want your ass walking around here unhappy in this house and I ain't dealing with it. All right." So the world works in crazy ways. Now, I told you we had that boost from my dear friend... but still only had about 200 followers. Whatever.

I get a DM from a major retailer, a buyer at a major retailer. Thousands of stores. "Hey, Walker. We love your art. We love for you to sell with us. Give me a call." And I did.

Get on the phone, "Hey, Walker. Here's what we're looking for.

We need thousands and thousands, tens of thousands of pieces, framed, under glass, UPC codes, delivered to this port, delivered to this dock." A logistical nightmare that I simply could not handle. "We need it in four weeks. Oh, and by the way, it's 90-day terms. Meaning we'll place the order in January. You're not going to get paid till the end of March, most likely April." So, that life savings that we had, we're saving for our house and the baby, I was going to have to dip into that to create this order.

Now, keep in mind, we're in Tiger King pandemic, not Squid Game .

People still playing flutes on the balcony. You know, you remember.

So I'm on the phone with this retailer and I said, "Well, what happens if the order gets turned around?" "Well, all that money that you put up, you lose." "Hey, okay." There's no way I could do this order. I couldn't frame it, I couldn't finance it. I didn't want to do it because that was going to be our life savings. I just didn't want to do it. And there was no way that I could do the order, fulfill the order. So, naturally, my response to her was, "Is that it?" She says, "No, this is a small order. We're going to do thousands more on the next one." I said, "Oh, okay, great. Because I thought this order was a little too small for me and my team." What in that moment caused me to get rid of self-doubt? My back was against the wall. I had to do something. I was unemployed. We wanted a baby. We wanted a house. I had to make it happen.

So the plan was simple. I'm going to take this purchase order from this very reputable company and I'm going to shop it around to manufacturers. Let them take care of the order, front the money for the order and then we're going to settle up 90 days later. Sounded like an easy plan to me.

Well, I called 15 manufacturers and that was a full-time job in itself, sometimes staying up overnight 'cause they're overseas the whole thing. I speak to all the manufacturers and all of them said, "No." Not because of me, but because of the state of the world. No one was willing to take a risk. Great.

I reconvene on Monday with the retailer, with the buyer.

Get on the phone. We're on Zoom. You know how it goes. And we go through all of our pleasantries and how's the weekend, blah, blah, blah. Then I drop the bomb on them.

"Hey, guys, I'm not going to be able to fulfill this order." "Yeah. See, this is why we don't deal with makers of your size, because you can't fulfill orders like this, you can't scale fast enough." I said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, Wait a minute. Wait a minute. It's not me. It's not you. It's the state of the world. However, instead of making this contentious. Let's make this work.

Partner me with the manufacturer that you trust and let me handle it from there." And they did.

So I meet with this manufacturer. We're on Zoom.

"Okay, Walker, here's the deal. All you do is send me the file of the artwork. I then take that, I manufacture, I frame, I package, I deliver. I do everything." "So, what happens if the order gets turned around in the middle of the ocean?" "Well, I'm left holding the bag, not you. You don't put up any money." Well, damn! This is too good to be true. "What's the catch?" "Remember that profit margin that you thought you were going to make when you were going to do the order by yourself?" "Yeah. You're taking a haircut." And I said, "Sir, I know we're on Zoom, but I'm bald already." How much lower can you go? Right.

And he went lower... so low that some people might have walked away from the deal.

But I said to myself, "I put up no money, I don't have to dip into my life savings... I've just gained a manufacturer.

Let's do it. But there has to be something else that I can get out of this deal. So, before we get off Zoom, I said, "Wait a minute. Huge warehouse, right? Is all of this art for that one retailer?" "No. I sell to over 15 different retailers around the country." "Well, all right. Here's the deal. From now on, you are my exclusive manufacturer. I only work with you. In return, here's what I ask. Whatever we don't sell, whatever art that we don't sell to that one client, I want you to take that art and pitch it to all of your other clients." That order quadrupled in one week.

I often think to myself what would have happened had I have not taken that chance.

I probably wouldn't be standing here today.

I wouldn't have learned what it was like to work with a large retailer. I wouldn't have gained a manufacturer.

For me, it was just a learning experience. Even if it didn't happen, at least I was going to be prepared for the next opportunity should it come my way.

Oftentimes the question that we forget that is the most important question to ask. I talked about, "Why not me?" Let's take away two words. Let's focus on the word "Why." WHY? Why do I want to be a creative full-time? Why do I want to sell my business and have that exit strategy? "Why" is the most important question that you can ask? My "Why" is very clear. Let me show you my "Why." Getting emotional.

They're the reason why I wake up every day...

and work as hard as I can possibly work to achieve my goals... to provide for my family. To be happy as an individual, as a creative.

Now, your "Why" may look way different than my "Why", and that doesn't matter.

What matters most is that your "Why" is so strong that you wake up with that same conviction to go out and do what you have to do to achieve your dreams.

As creatives, we've been told since a young age...

"Art isn't a way to make money. Don't go to that art school. Go to a real college. How are you going to make a living?" These are our own family and friends that are telling us this stuff, right? But let me tell you how crazy we are. We then put obstacles on ourselves on top of the ones that we receive from outside people.

Let's talk about one of those obstacles...

social media. We just heard Karen talk about it. I got to talk about it, too.

When I was making this presentation, at the time, I had... 9450 followers.

That's it.

I have no Blue Check. I applied for a Blue Check and that's the response that I got.

But that doesn't matter.

I'm still here.

It didn't stop Adobe from finding me.

It didn't stop me from working with brands that I've been honored to work with. I've collaborated with some of the biggest brands that I'd never dreamed of working with. From licensing deals to merchandizing to collaboration, you name it. Now, I'm not saying social media isn't important. As I told you before, social media sparked my business with that viral post. But what I am telling you is don't let that be the reason why you say, "Oh, I don't want to start my business yet. I'm not ready." Now stop all that.

Don't let that be the reason.

You wouldn't believe how many people with thousands of followers, millions of followers, hit me up in my DMs and ask me, "Hey, how do you get so many deals in partnerships and collaborations?" I'm standing on stage with three people who have hundreds of thousands, if not millions of followers and they all have the glorious Blue Check. But what did I say before? I'm still here.

If this were a movie, there are so many characters along the way that have helped me get to where I am today.

From my friend Phil, who referred me to the print shop that I use, from my friend Ebee, who made that Instagram post... from my friend Maggie, who referred me to brands and connected me with brands that I did not know. Aurora, who did the same. My friends and family who would wake up with us and go to the markets and help us sell. Hey, Sarah, Mallory, Nate.

Look to your left and your right.

That person sitting next to you...

is either further along than you are... right where you are or just getting started.

But the one thing that we all share in common is that we all want to grow. We all want to improve.

This is why we're here.

This is not cheap to be here. I know, right? But it's worth it because of this. You have to promise me before we leave here today, that person sitting to your left and right get their number. Exchange their... exchange your information.

Please do that.

Some of you may say, "Wow, he got lucky." And I'm going to say, based on the definition of luck that I know... you're damn right I got lucky.

According to the famous Roman philosopher Seneca, "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." I told you how I prepared. "LUCK IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PREPARATION MEETS OPPORTUNITY." Thank you.

I told you how I prepared. I went to the markets. I created, not to make money, I created for the love of it and the money followed. I woke up at 4 o'clock in the morning, I got home tired from work and I still went to my studio and painted and did what I had to do. That was the preparation. So when that opportunity came knocking, I was prepared to receive that luck.

If I've inspired just one person today...

my job here is done.

Today, I'm here to serve you. It's not about me.

I know what it's like to be that creative that so badly wants to go full-time.

At the end of documentaries, how you see like the update on what happened. So... we got the house.

We didn't just get one baby. We got two.

Twenty-one months and six months. It's wild in my house right now.

But before I leave here, I talked about, "Why not me?" The question I want to leave you today with, the most important question to me...

"Why not you?" You hear me? Why not you? Adobe MAX, I love you.

My name is Walker Noble.

Let's stay in touch.

Please welcome Oak Felder.

Where's my money? Where's my money? Looking for where I'm supposed to be standing. This is a big stage, man. Oh, my God. Okay, I'm going to get one thing out of the way first before we get started. Just like my man Walker said before I came out here... nobody's going to believe that this many people showed up to watch me speak. So I'm taking advantage of this. I want every... So, so, so, on the count of three, I'm have everybody go, "Adobe!" Okay. You ready? One, two, three. Adobe! Fantastic. I love that. Give yourselves a round of applause. You all got some good energy.

I don't know if you can tell, but I am a 300lb, six-foot-five Black Turk with a Mohawk.

This is an important fact, too, because it makes me a very unique person. Look around. If you happen to see another six-foot-five-inch extremely handsome 300lb Black Turk with a Mohawk...

don't tell my wife, she's into that kind of thing and it could be a bad thing.

I'm here to talk about the concept of paying it forward.

But I'm a record producer and a musician, so I call this concept "Play it forward." Now, I'll tell you a little bit about myself. I am from the great city of Istanbul, Turkey.

Hey.

Of that place. It's a fantastic mixture of Eastern and Western influences.

And literally, some days on my way to a comic book shop that had been there for two weeks, I'd pass a mosque that had been there for 800 years. One of the most fascinating things about my city. And nothing to me exemplify this mixture and its influence of Eastern and Western cultures more than my beautiful mother.

Hey, Mom. That's my son on the left.

My mom loved music. She'd walk around the house all day singing. And then I come to think about it, I do that now, too. It drives my wife crazy. But she'd walk around the house singing all day and she'd be singing music from those seminaries that we all know about, artists like İbrahim Tatlıses and Muazzez Ersoy.

You don't know who that is, right? But you know what? She would also walk around singing music from that style that you automatically associate with a place like Istanbul, that you automatically think of when somebody mentions Turkey. That's right, Motown.

She loves soul music. Some days she would wake me up in the morning for school. Kick down my door singing, You make me feel Like a natural woman Okay, Mom, we get it. Not at seven in the morning. I'll say this, though, 300-pound, 6-foot-5-inch Turk with a Mohawk... that day going to school, I could not feel more like a natural woman, I swear to God.

My mom kept music in my life and I'm thankful for that.

And it's that interest in music that brought me forward into my career as a record producer. I'm gonna fast forward a little bit. I'm here in Los Angeles, California, early in my career as a record producer and I'm working with an artist... that represented an amazing opportunity for me... big A-list situation. Amazing opportunity.

But I would get a phone call during that session that would stop my world.

My brother called me during that session and he said, "Oak, you have to fly back to Turkey... because we just found out mom has cancer." Now, what does one do in that moment? What does one do in a situation where you are literally going through the biggest opportunity of your life...

but you're presented with the worst news of your life? Two choices. You need to, A, compartmentalize those traumatic emotions, focus and get through the opportunity. Or, B, allow that to overcome you, leave the session. Now, remember, I can't fly to Istanbul in 2 hours. It's an 11-hour flight from Los Angeles, California. It's not like I could do anything at that moment.

I chose to stay. I chose to compartmentalize those emotions. And I chose to say, "You know what, I'm gonna get through this session." The problem is, you compartmentalize and you keep in traumatic emotions, it does a lot of damage.

A little while later, I would hear the thing that I needed to hear. At the moment, I needed to hear it. Driving down the street, turn on the radio and the lyrics go like this... When I find myself In times of trouble... Mother Mary comes to me Speaking words of wisdom You guys know it. "Let It Be." That's right.

Now, I'm going to say something about Sir Paul McCartney.

I don't know this man. Not at all. Never met him a day in my life. Never even been to the town he grew up in. His life experiences and mine could not be more different. But Sir Paul McCartney did something for me in that moment, in that car.

He gave me permission to feel.

Something about that song... gave me an opportunity to allow those compartmentalized traumatic emotions to come flooding out. Oh.

You guys hear me? Okay, good. And those emotions came flooding out in that moment, listening to that song.

See, when you hold those emotions in for too long... Oh. Oh, we have a...

Okay, I don't know how... That sounds better anyway. Amazing. Can you guys hear me? Fantastic. Round of applause for the technician that just handed me this microphone.

Figures a record producer would have technical problems on stage, right? Man. So in that moment, I was given the opportunity to let those emotions come out. Listening to "Let It Be" really did that for me. And so, the universe did me a solid via Paul McCartney.

It was time for me to play it forward. And to do that, I would need a little help from my good friends.

It's the most accurate depiction I could get on short notice. I know this is Adobe MAX, but y'all got to bear with me, okay.

Let's start with Pop Wansel. Pop Wansel is an amazing producer, constant collaborator of mine, the son of Philadelphia soul royalty. His dad's an amazing producer as well. And I've done a whole bunch of songs together, some of which I hope you've heard.

And then we'll get to Sebastian Kole, songwriter from the Magic City of Birmingham, Alabama. An amazing person. Yeah. Nobody clapped for Philly, but somebody clapped for Birmingham. That's awesome. All right.

Fantastic songwriter and a great friend of mine. This next one is actually a mutual friend of all of ours. I hope especially with this crowd, technology.

We'll get back to technology in a second. Last but not least, Canadian-Italian by the name of Alessia Cara...

from Toronto, Canada. Here you go. I need that enthusiasm. So, I'm sitting in the studio with Alessia one day. Actually myself, Pop, Sebastian and Alessia all sitting together. And let me tell you something about being in a studio.

Ninety-percent of the time, we're not really doing anything while we're in the studio.

It was kind of just waiting for inspiration to strike. Right. And so don't tell the labels that though, they'll stop paying for my studio time.

Sitting there in the studio, watching television, watching... You've seen this show. It's a show about plastic surgery gone awry.

And so Alessia says, "I wonder what it is that makes people do this." I said, "What do you mean?" She says, "I wonder what it is that makes people feel like they need to do this to themselves in order to be accepted by society." There was the inspiration. She wanted to write a song that spoke to people, that told them, "You are beautiful just the way you are. You don't have to change yourself. As a matter of fact, the world needs to change its perception of you.

Because there are no scars to your version of beautiful." Okay, let's write a song.

And here's the thing about writing a song, though. I have this pet peeve, people go into a recording studio and they come back out and they say, "Hey, oh, I just wrote a song!" No, you didn't.

You didn't because you haven't played it for anyone yet. What does that mean? The person dances in their living room by themselves, are they a performer? I don't think so. If a person is singing in the shower by themselves, are they a singer? No.

A song has to be a conduit of emotion from me to you.

It is a way for me to describe how I am feeling musically, from myself, the creator, to you, the audience.

Oh, man. And people are really good at doing this because this... Actually, I'll give you an example here. I'm going to pull my rig up.

All right, so this isn't my full studio setup. It's actually a lot bigger than this. All right, so...

All right, can I get some sound here? How's the rig? Very good. It's okay. I'm going to play a chord, I have one hand right now, so it's going to be a very simple chord. All right. I want... I'm gonna play this chord.

All right, raise your hand if that sounded happy.

All right, most of you raised your hand. That's good. There's hope. Okay.

All right. Raise your hand if that sounded sad.

Okay. Now, what is it... Let's not forget our clicker here. What is it about those two chords that gives you those associations? The first one sounded happy, right? The second one sounded sad. What is it about those? Surely, it must be associative. We're raised watching films and seeing all these examples of situations that are depicted on screen. "Oh, this sad situation is accompanied by this sad music." "This happy situation..." You know, Superman shows up and it's this triumphant fanfare, right? So these associations have to be... what it is that make us understand the difference between happy and sad music. That sounds like a reasonable explanation to me. Raise your hand if you agree with that assessment. Put your hands up. Fantastic. Keep your hands up, no, no, no, no, no, keep your hands up, keep your hands up. I'm gonna tell you why. Because everybody who has their hands up, I disagree with every last one of you.

Okay. And let me tell you why I disagree. I had an opportunity recently to go see this man.

Arguably, the greatest film composer of all time.

I had a chance to see him live at the Hollywood Bowl.

And, I mean, if you know you know, he did E.T., he did Jurassic Park, he did Indiana Jones. I'm a massive Star Wars fan, so that's what I choose to focus on when I go to see John Williams.

We were at this concert, about 20 minutes into it...

going through all these beautiful songs and then this one song starts.

For Star Wars fans, I'm gonna tell you what song it was... "Duel of the Fates." Thank you very much. That's right. Now, for the people who don't know, this song is about a villain that's in The Phantom Menace , his name is Darth Maul. Let me tell you some about Darth Maul. He is terrifying, right? And the music is just as terrifying.

So, this song starts... and immediately after the song starts, about two rows over from me, this baby starts crying.

And beyond wanting the baby to stop, first thing I thought about was... "How does this baby know?" This baby is three months old, man. Like, this baby has never seen Superman . This baby has never watched a rom-com. This baby doesn't understand associative music with associative situations. Baby is three months old. How does the baby know that "Dual of the Fates" is terrifying? That's because the kernels of emotion already exist in the music.

And there are people who are really, really good... at shaping these kernels, so that we can get the right message.

Imagine my surprise when I found out...

that "Let it Be" was written about Paul's mom.

Moreover, it was written about his mom with cancer.

In the same moment that I was dealing with the same trauma, the same stress, that song came on the radio. Now, mind you, he doesn't say anything about his mom having cancer in the song. There's no way for me to know that in the moment. But somehow, that message was relayed to me and gave me an opportunity... to get my emotions out... so that I could get my stuff together and go help my mom with her cancer treatment. Paul really did that for me and he knew how to do it.

And so it was important for me to be able to do it for somebody else, to be able to play it forward. And to do that, I would need help from my friend, technology. So now, what I'd like to do is demonstrate to you all... how we actually did the track that we did that day. So I'm assuming I'm swapping to this microphone.

Mic check. Y'all here me? All right, man. A-grade for technical assistance today, y'all. It's dope. Yeah. Round of applause.

All right. So, I don't know if you guys can see this. There we go. That right there is Logic. So, everybody who's familiar with Adobe and all the suite of stuff that comes with that software and all that, all those helpful tools, this is essentially the audio version of the same. This allows me to create the music that I create. It gives you guys an opportunity to shake your butts, too. Here we go. So while we were in the studio, the first thing Alessia said was, "She wanted some hopeful chords." So that's what I gave her.

All right. So there's a nice little heartfelt, hopeful chord. And then what I'm going to do is I'm going to layer. Thank you.

Appreciate that. So, now, what I'm going to do is I'm going to layer that chord progression that I just added and add an organ. As everybody in this room knows, layering is a very important thing when it comes to being creative. Right.

All right. So then after doing that, it's time to drop the bass. There we go. And...

So there's our base. Now, it's time to add drums. Now, this part of the production is something that Pop Wansel did when we initially did this track.

Here's my kick.

Pop absolutely nailed it when we did this production, so I'm hoping I'm doing my brother justice.

Now, I'm not going to go through the whole thing. Just going to go and copy that over, because copy and paste is such a magical tool, isn't it? We're going to add our snare or what I like to call our two and four element. The reason I call it that, because it happens on the two and on the four.

And we go, one, two, three, four. One, oh... Did you see that? We all make mistakes, right? All right. Gonna use our trusty copy and paste. And there we go. Last but not least...

this is going to be our hi-hat elements and here it comes.

All right. Now, here comes the fun part.

You are going to sing for me.

That's right. Let me tell you why you're going to sing for me.

Because I'm a 300lb, 6-foot-5, Black Turk with a Mohawk.

No, it's going to be fun, you guys are going to kill it. Okay. So, again up here.

Interesting. All right, here we go. All right, real simple, guys.

You're literally going to repeat after me. We're going to go... Oh-oh-oh-oh Two, three... Oh-oh-oh-oh One more time... Oh-oh-oh-oh Oh, my God, that sound incredible.

Come on, give yourselves a hand, man. Come on. Oh, nailed that. That's fire.

God, Leigh, we'll walk out of here and start signing some people, man, I don't know.

It's all in the booth. All right. So now, that we have most of our elements for the production, the song. We are going to play what this feels like with Alessia's vocal, since she's not here to re-record it.

Here we go.

Hey!

It does sound great.

And that is how we did "Scars to Your Beautiful"by Alessia.

Okay, but wait, but wait, but wait. Remember, I was saying that a song is a conduit of emotion from one person to the other.

Did we make a song? Let's see.

EIGHT-YEAR-OLD EVERLYSE, WHO IS BLIND, HAS ALWAYS FEARED DOCTORS SO WHEN SHE NEEDED SEIZURE TESTING AT THE HOSPITAL, SHE WAS VERY ANXIOUS UNTIL A MUSIC THERAPIST CAME INTO THE ROOM WITH A GUITAR. EVIE, WHO LOVES SINGING, IMMEDIATELY CALMED DOWN. Four, three, two one. Can you sing "Scars to Your Beautiful" now? She just wants to be beautiful She goes Unnoticed she knows, no limits She craves But there's a hope That's waiting for you in the dark You should know you're beautiful Just the way you are And you don't have to change a thing The world could change its heart No scars to your beautiful We're stars and we're beautiful Oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh Oh-oh-oh-oh There is, in this room, such a potential for creativity...

so much skill and so much talent.

We all have the ability...

to change a person's life with some of the things that we create.

Paul McCartney was able to do that for me...

and I was lucky enough to do that for Evie.

So...

So you've got to remember to do one thing.

When the universe does you a solid...

and gives you something in the moment that you need it...

it is your duty to pay it forward to the next person.

So, play it forward. Thank you very much. You guys have been amazing.

Wow.

You're beautiful. All of these speakers today were incredible and I hope you're feeling as inspired as I am after listening to all of them. Their stories, while very different, remind us that human imagination and ingenuity knows no boundaries. And I'm excited to share that Aaron, Karen and Walker have contributed assets to a brand-new MAX Creator Toolkit, which you can all access today using Adobe Express.

Yeah. Get in there.

Thank you to all of them for their time, for their grace, their vulnerability and reminding us why we all got into this to begin with.

As you've heard through the last few days, we want to hear from you. We've already been blown away by what you're sharing, your passion, your insights and all the fun you're having together is what makes MAX so special. So you can take a social media detox, just not now. Keep sharing... share your creations with the world using #AdobeMax. For those of you here with us in LA, check out the Creative Park if you haven't already. We've heard from you in years past, how important it is to network and meet each other. So we re-imagined this space to do just that with the photography, video, 3D and design neighborhoods, the beautiful purpose-driven stories from our customers and sponsors. And there's an amazing marketplace with people like Aaron's work for you to explore.

Now, remember to come back here at 5 p.m. Pacific, to check out what we're cooking up in the labs with MAX Sneaks. Last week, we gave you a sneak of Sneaks with Project Stardust. But I promise you, there's so much more. After that, we'll connect, we'll celebrate, we'll dance at bash with the iconic Rev Run.

Yeah.

I want to thank all of our sponsors. I want to thank all of you for your time and for coming together. And before we wrap this morning, I want to extend a heartfelt thank you, the deepest gratitude to the entire Adobe Team worldwide. We have been looking forward to MAX for months. Teams have worked tirelessly, tireless... Excuse me. We're all tired. We've been working a lot. We've been working a lot on these launches, these incredible releases and to make MAX an extraordinary experience. So, thank you, Team Adobe.

Yeah. Yeah.

And we promise you, we'll continue to push the boundaries of creativity and continue to bring you more Adobe magic. In fact, we want even more people to participate in the incredible experience of Adobe MAX. So look for more coming soon to a city near you. Thank you for all being part of this journey. Now, go out there and continue to inspire the world with the stories you tell. Enjoy the rest of Adobe MAX and have a great day. Bye, everyone.

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Inspiration Keynote - GS2

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ABOUT THE SESSION

Be inspired by top working professionals including Creative Director Karen X Cheng; Graphic Designer Aaron Draplin; Creative Director Walker Noble; and Record Producer, Songwriter, and Entrepreneur Oak Felder. Hear about their creative process, what inspires them today, and the takeaways for your own creative journey.

Technical Level: General Audience

Type: Keynote

Category: Inspiration

This content is copyrighted by Adobe Inc. Any recording and posting of this content is strictly prohibited.

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