Designed by Adobe Desktop Brand Team

An avid user. In denial fan.
That’s how I’d describe my relationship with Adobe.
Personal quests aside, finding “Inspire” had a major impact on my consideration of the software giant.

“Inspire” is a publication from the Adobe Experience Design team. Articles range from interesting topics such as ‘Personalization and the Anti-Brand’ to the contemporaneity of ‘The Multiuser era’. Anyway what surprised me the most was an article giving insights on the process of designing Adobe CS5 graphic system.

I always questioned myself about the agency or agencies that were behind the successive rebrands of Adobe’s products.
From splash screens to application icons. The desktop brand team are the guys responsible for all the branding that you see everyday while using Adobe’s products.
From the he beautiful iconic Botticelli’s Venus, the rich nature inspired illustrations on CS2 to the simple and systemic two letter mnemonic on the CS3 (that in someway reflected the need for an extensible system).

On the CS4 there wasn’t much change. With CS5 on the other hand there was the need to move small steps away from the minimalist approach back to a slightly more dynamic and artistic one.
I like the end result. From the lithographic inspiration on the UI to the Aicher inspired grid that defines the splash screen shapes, this new system adds these little sparks that pleasantly revive the old artistic approach of Botticelli’s and rich illustrations, while retaining most of the essence of the CS3 and CS4 system.

David Mendes
Ideas on Design

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Adobe
Adobe Inspire

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