CREATE THE CHANGE.

Building a creative process for the modern world.

Change happens all around us. The weather. Our interests. Even our
relationships are constantly changing. In truth, much of our lives are spent
learning to adapt to the constant changes around us.

Fortunately for creative and business visionaries, change is a good thing.

Creativity is all about change. It’s about changing your perspective to
reimagine the world around you. It’s about finding new ways to solve
problems and express ideas.

If you want to create art and ideas that change the world, you must be
willing to embrace change. According to journalist and business expert
Malcolm Gladwell, “The visionary starts with a clean sheet of paper, and
reimagines the world.” 1

2016 | Create the change. 2

 If reimagining the world feels too grandiose, it’s okay to start smaller—

82% even within your own business. The truth is that companies that welcome
creativity, change, and innovation are inevitably more successful.
of companies believe
a strong connection In fact, 82 percent of companies believe a strong connection between
between creativity creativity and desired business results exists in the market today. 2 And
and desired business they’re right. Because companies that foster creativity enjoy greater market
results exists in the share by a factor of 1.5 when compared to their less creative counterparts. 3
market today. One way they’re using creativity to change and to improve their business
is by focusing on design to deliver better customer experiences. By putting
design at the heart of their organization, businesses can better understand
the ways customers interact with their brand. And they capitalize on that
by creating appealing content and intuitive user experiences.

Keeping up with, or better yet, leading these companies might require

some changes on your part. It starts with shifting your focus to design.
When that happens, your team will be better equipped to create captivating
experiences. This leads to customer loyalty and ultimately gives you a
competitive advantage.

2016 | Create the change. 3

Change the way you view DESIGN.

Design, which was once thought of as simply Of course, you might not have a say in picking your “Where you innovate, how you
the way a mobile app or website looks, is now CEO and top executives. And you might not have
innovate, and what you innovate
a cultural lens that should be at the center of any company-wide decision-making power. But
every business decision. you can start with yourself. Have design-centric are design problems. When
conversations with those you work with—both you bring design thinking into
As Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO, a design and
above and below you. Let everybody know that that strategic discussion, you
innovation consulting firm, says, “Where you
you value design. Set design-related goals. Hire
innovate, how you innovate, and what you
design-led thinkers. Inspire your employees and
introduce a powerful tool to the
innovate are design problems. When you bring
co-workers to follow suit. purpose of the entire endeavor,
design thinking into that strategic discussion,
you introduce a powerful tool to the purpose You also want to empower your designers. which is to grow.”
of the entire endeavor, which is to grow.”4 Provide them with the tools and opportunities
they need to create amazing work. When you TIM BROWN
Tim Brown isn’t the only one who knows design’s CEO
prioritize and encourage design for those you
impact on a business. In fact, 65 percent of IDEO
work with and those you work for, you inspire
organizations agree that design-driven companies
your entire community, bringing them together
outperform their competition.5 So much so, that
literally by design.
59 percent of businesses are investing in design to
help differentiate their brand.6 As you apply the expertise from your employees,
leaders, customers, and even partners, you encourage
65%
Making any kind of change in business is hard, of organizations agree
creative problem-solving. Bringing together a that design-driven
let alone choosing what to invest in. Ideally, every companies outperform
community of people invested in your brand helps
person in the company should have some affinity their competition.
ground solutions in real and firsthand experiences.
for design—from your CEO and executives, down to
the engineers and salespeople. When leadership is
on board, they can make company-wide decisions
that reach every corner of the organization. 59%
of businesses are
investing in design
to help differentiate
their brand.

2016 | Create the change. 4

Airbnb sees the BIG PICTURE.
When you and your team learn to internalize both beauty and utility in the customer experience, you create work that gets
noticed. The sooner that companies embrace this idea, the sooner they start seeing huge success. Here’s an example.

Shortly after Airbnb launched, it began to struggle. Airbnb’s experience begins with photos. It saw its “Everybody takes a trip in
When revenue flat-lined to barely $200 per week, business from the customer’s point of view, and it
their first or second week in
company leadership knew they had to make a big understood that design affects customer experience.
change. After looking at the Airbnb website, co-founder In other words, Airbnb identified what needed to the company, and then they
Joe Gebbia realized something. change and then put forth the effort to make it happen. document it. We have some
“We noticed a pattern. There’s some similarity between The founders at Airbnb learned the value not only of structured questions that they
all these 40 listings. The similarity is that the photos beautiful customer experiences but of making sure answer, and then they actually
sucked. The photos were not great photos. People that everyone in the company gets it too. According to
share back to the entire company.
were using their camera phones or using their images Gebbia, “Everybody takes a trip in their first or second
from classified sites. It actually wasn’t a surprise that week in the company, and then they document it. We It’s incredibly important that
people weren’t booking rooms because you couldn’t have some structured questions that they answer, and everyone in the company knows
even really see what it is that you were paying for.” 7 then they actually share back to the entire company. that we believe in this so much,
It’s incredibly important that everyone in the company
So Joe and team grabbed some cameras, jumped on we’re going to pay for you to take
knows that we believe in this so much, we’re going to
a plane, and took better quality photos of the homes a trip on your first week.”
pay for you to take a trip on your first week.” 9
available for rent. A week later, revenue doubled and
has skyrocketed ever since.8
JOE GEBBIA
Co-Founder
Airbnb

2016 | Create the change. 5

EXPECT a beautiful experience.
Airbnb is just one of many businesses that understands This can be a good thing because it means more 75%
that design is at the heart of the customer experience. opportunities to engage with your customers. But of consumers say
It’s not just a cosmetic final touch but a critical part of these demands also present enormous challenges they would stop doing
creating content and experiences. Another obvious for businesses that want to reach the right people business with a brand
after just one bad
example is Apple Inc., whose attention to design and with the right content at the right time. The truth is customer experience.
detail is shown throughout the retail experience. that yesterday’s efficiencies won’t meet tomorrow’s
customer needs—or even today’s for that matter.
When you think of Apple—whether it’s their
products, their brick-and-mortar stores, or even their
advertisements—you think sleek, simple, yet beautiful.
Consumers have higher expectations today and want
consistently beautiful, personalized content. Even
59%
of consumers prefer
And that’s exactly why people choose Apple products, while average attention spans continue to shrink, 59 beautifully designed
despite the fact that they cost nearly three times more percent of consumers prefer beautifully designed content over plain or
than similar products.10 content over plain or simple layouts, even when simple layouts—even
when short on time.
short on time.13 Accomplishing this requires the most
People will pay a premium for a beautifully designed
advanced and up-to-date technology that you can
experience. And they won’t put up with poor ones.
create and also deliver.
In fact, 75 percent of consumers say they would
stop doing business with a brand after just one bad
customer experience.11

In today’s environment, the challenge is to create

these beautifully designed experiences for every
audience segment on every channel. Because
today’s consumers use an average of 6 devices and
rely on 12 sources of content, businesses are tasked
with creating a ton of content quickly to reach their
customers wherever they are.12

2016 | Create the change. 6

Take Spree for example. Media24’s fashion ecommerce He adds, “Once I get approval, it just takes one click
site knows that building and maintaining its audience to license the image, and the image automatically
takes discipline, creativity, and a constant stream updates across all creatives. It’s saving us time and
of content. From email newsletters and website money, both of which are hugely important to Spree.”
banners to look books and events, Spree needs to
Spree’s creative and design tools have been a game-
turn through content faster than fashion turns
changer. Benadé shares, “Our goal with Spree is to
through trends.
change the way that people shop for fashion, so we
While speed is vital, so is maintaining the beautiful need to push boundaries creatively. Having the right
Spree aesthetic across all newsletters, webpages, and creative tools makes a huge difference, as we can
events. As art director Ryk Benadé puts it, “When spend more time experimenting with designs that
someone sees our newsletter, it should feel like a treat. drive purchases instead of waiting for our software
We put a lot of effort into each newsletter and we to catch up.”
would never be able to push out multiple newsletters
on time to keep buyers continuously engaged with
our brand if we weren’t able to produce content so
quickly with Creative Cloud.” 14

As a brand that values visuals, Spree uses multiple

image and stock libraries to add color and life to its
content. According to Benadé, “Adobe Stock is less
expensive, but the benefits are much more than cost
savings. I can download a comp and add it to every
piece of content in a campaign: banners, newsletters,
pages, and more.”

2016 | Create the change. 7

CHECK your design toolbox.
Just as Spree experienced, the tools your business have The truth is, it’s going to take more than hiring a bunch goals. The team members often work on multiple
are what will enable your business to reach your goal. of new people. It requires you to take a serious look at projects at once and need to always stay up to date
And the end goal is amazing customer experiences. The every step of your creative process. and maintain design consistency.
way to do that is through a high volume of beautifully
Fox Sports Digital did just that. Sports broadcasting To keep their creative process from getting chaotic,
designed content. And the right tools will help you
moves quickly, so the faster the design team can deliver Fox Sports knows how important it is for everyone to
develop that in quantity without losing quality.
the next version of a mobile app or web interface to the have access to design information from the same
You want to empower your creative teams to get work market, the greater its competitive advantage. location rather than relying on multiple file-sharing
done wherever they are. For some, that could mean services and individual machines.
As more channels launched, Fox Sports needed to
providing creative mobile apps. For Spree, it meant
create more content than ever before. They looked for a Just as Fox Sports Digital did, you want to figure out
using impressive stock images. Other companies
way to speed up their creation process. They found that what tasks and workflows your teams spend the
might want to focus on using a secure server that their
Adobe Creative Cloud allowed them to keep everyone most time on. Make sure they’re not constantly
employees can access outside of office walls.
on the team up to date with all the files, fonts, images, tracking down the latest image version or font. Give
You can enable your people with technology, but it has settings, and other assets at their fingertips. them access to stock images and templates to help
to be the right technology. If you’re using old, archaic speed up content creation. Enable them with the
Collaboration is also crucial to Fox Sports’ success
systems, they may be getting in the way of creating latest technology that lets them work on the go.
because creating content takes a lot of people.
content. If a system is difficult to use or doesn’t meet
Designers come up with initial concepts and then
their needs, employees start to use it less and less,
loop in the development and product teams to make
slowing down the creative process even more.
sure that projects are doable and meet business

“Having apps and services in Adobe Creative Cloud that improve efficiency
saves us valuable resources in terms of how much time we spend on a
project and how quickly we can move on to the next project. Keeping
everybody up to speed and on the same page with Creative Cloud results in
fewer last minute changes and more motivated and engaged employees.” 15

JON DEAN
Vice President of User Experience and Design
FOX Sports

2016 | Create the change. 8

Embrace the power of CHANGE.
Regardless of which factors are slowing your business down, the good thing is that you have
the power to change. As a creative and business leader, you have the ability to give your team
members the advantage they need to create amazing work.

So whether that means acquiring new design-related technologies, or even having design-
related conversations, when your people feel inspired and empowered to make design a priority,
amazing things happen. They change the way they value the customer experience, giving your
business a huge competitive advantage.

The Adobe advantage.

Adobe Creative Cloud provides the world’s best apps and services that enable creatives to
collaborate seamlessly across desktop and mobile, delivering amazing digital experiences.

1. Accelerate the design process. Find the perfect stock image from Adobe Stock, or
font from Adobe Typekit font library, all from within the Creative Cloud apps. And you can
access the Adobe Behance creative community to get feedback from talented artists.

2. Create amazing content across desktops and devices. Create from anywhere
using your favorite desktop apps (Adobe Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, and more), plus
companion mobile apps.

3. Collaborate and work better together. All your creative assets—such as images,
shapes, colors, and settings—are always available at your fingertips. Plus, you can easily share
files, folders, and libraries to help speed the creative process.

2016 | Create the change. 9

Adobe has been a partner to the world’s best brands for more than 30 years, providing industry-leading creative solutions
that help you create amazing content. Today, Adobe offers everything you need to achieve an advantage through design,
thanks to a variety of Adobe solutions, such as Adobe Creative Cloud for enterprise, Adobe Experience Manager, and Adobe
Experience Manager Mobile. These solutions bring together the necessary components for a modern digital workflow,
including a full spectrum of creative desktop and mobile apps with integrated fonts and stock images, an asset management
and delivery system that keeps your content connected and accessible, and direct publishing that lets you convert your
designs into beautiful mobile apps that let you update continuously—without coding or IT support. Now you can easily
deliver content at the velocity your company needs to give your customers engaging, personalized experiences. For more
information, visit Adobe.com or contact a local Adobe Sales representative.

1 “Malcom Gladwell,” BrainyQuote.com, Xplore Inc., 2016, http://www.brainyquote. 8 Ibid.

com/quotes/quotes/m/malcolmgla439269.html.
9 Ibid.
2 “The Creative Dividend: How Creativity Impacts Business Results,” Forrester,
10 Daniel Newman, “Customer Experience Is the Future Of Marketing,” Forbes,
Aug 2014.
Oct 13, 2015, http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnewman/2015/10/13/customer-
3 Ibid. experience-is-the-future-of-marketing.
4 “The Power of Design,” Fast Company, June 2005, http://www.fastcompany. 11 Ibid.
com/52735/power-design.
12 “The State of Content: Expectations on the Rise,” Adobe, Oct 2015, pg 7.
5 “Quarterly Digital Intelligence Briefing: The CX Challenge,” Econsultancy, Sept 2015.
13 “Adobe Content Research: Global deck,” Adobe, Oct 2015.
6 Ibid.
14 “Spree: Inspiring the hottest looks,” Adobe, June 2016.
7 “How Design Thinking Transformed Airbnb from a Failing Startup to a Billion
15 “Fox Sports Digital, competing to win audiences across devices,” Adobe, Nov
Dollar Business,” Design Magazine, http://firstround.com/review/How-design-
2015.
thinking-transformed-Airbnb-from-failing-startup-to-billion-dollar-business.

© 2016 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe,

the Adobe logo, Behance, Creative Cloud, Illustrator, Photoshop and
TypeKit are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe
Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries.

2016 | Create the change. 10