Recap of Adobe Max 2025

I have been a professional graphic designer for 10+ years, but this was my first time attending the Adobe Max conference. The conference was held from Tuesday, October 28th until Thursday, October 30th. This is how I’d describe this conference: Adobe Max is like the Disneyland of design conferences. There’s an abundance of sessions to sit in on, labs to partake in, on top of a creative park where one can play around with programs, talk to vendors, shop the market. Easy to say, my first day, I was completely overwhelmed. I tried to stack my schedule with sessions and during breaks, head to the creative park, fully underestimating how long some of the lines were. I was much better adjusted to the scheduling on day 2 and day 3, able to experience as much as I could.

Highlights:

• Lab sessions with hands-on experience and fun, design exercises meant to bring out of the box design thinking to the forefront, or experiencing new [to me] programs like Adobe Fresco

• New features in Adobe programs, like generative ai being able to name my Photoshop layers!

• Learning tips and tricks to help streamline my workflow

• Listening to speakers that redefine my design thinking and approach to design problem solving

• Connecting with other creatives, and even commiserating about the same design problems

• Free swag!

Lowlights:

• Long lines for everything

• Subpar food

• While the Adobe Max app was seamless and worked well, constantly having to open the app to view anything left me feeling like I was too reliant on my phone

• The abundance of information left me feeling inspired but burnt out

Overall, I had a great experience. I came away inspired and excited to implement the things I learned into my everyday design work. It may have been my first Adobe Max, but hopefully not my last.