From Barbie to Coach: Adobe Reinvents Design with AI

3 hours ago7 min read2 comments

For decades, Adobe’s creative suite—Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign—has been the foundational toolkit, the very canvas upon which the modern visual world is painted. Now, as artificial intelligence reshapes the very nature of creation, this 42-year-old tech giant is orchestrating a quiet revolution, weaving AI into the fabric of global design workflows.The transformation is both practical and profound. Designers and marketers are no longer just using tools; they are collaborating with them, leveraging Adobe’s Firefly for generative imagery, Substance 3D for crafting photorealistic digital twins, and Express for rapid, on-brand content.It’s a shift from manual craft to co-creation, where the artist’s intent is amplified by algorithmic precision. Hannah Elsakr, Adobe’s vice president of GenAI New Business Ventures, frames this not as a replacement of skill but as its augmentation: 'AI should help you work faster and with more precision, while you stay in control of the craft.' This philosophy is materializing in powerful, bespoke applications. Consider Tapestry, the parent company of luxury brands like Coach and Kate Spade New York.Here, AI acts as a creative force multiplier. Through Adobe Firefly Custom Models, the brands have trained AI on their own archives—the specific patterns, textures, and intricate details that define their heritage.This isn't about generating generic luxury; it's about accelerating design iteration while preserving the unique soul of the brand. Lissette Siesholtz of Kate Spade New York describes this as an 'exciting phase of brand reinvention,' where AI serves as a tool to 'expand the possibilities of design.' The workflow is elegantly integrated: an initial concept sparked in Firefly is then refined and perfected across Illustrator and Photoshop, a digital atelier where human taste and machine efficiency dance in tandem. The result is agility; marketers can preview products earlier, and campaigns can be built in parallel, collapsing the traditional, linear creative supply chain.This new paradigm extends from high fashion to household staples. Newell Brands, the company behind Elmer’s Glue and Sharpie, faced the universal challenge of too much content and too little time.Their solution was to reimagine their entire content supply chain. For a massive back-to-school campaign, instead of orchestrating complex photo shoots, they trained a custom Firefly model on Elmer’s distinctive 'cut-paper' aesthetic.Samantha Tuttle, director of marketing, explains how this allowed them to generate hundreds of tailored visuals at scale, capturing a fun, energetic style that was once painstakingly crafted by hand. The same approach has been adopted by Paper Mate and Yankee Candle, using AI to test visual variations that resonate across global markets.Yet, for all its power, a crucial boundary is being drawn. Nick Hammitt, Newell's CMO, emphasizes that while AI accelerates production, 'people are at the beginning and the end,' verifying quality and brand alignment.This sentiment echoes across the creative industry. A recent Envato report found nearly half of creative professionals now use AI daily, a 50% increase from just six months ago.But artists like Santanu Hazarika offer a vital counterpoint, arguing that AI, for all its mimicry, lacks the emotional texture born of human experience, conflict, and reflection. He warns of an 'aesthetic homogeneity' that emerges when tools are used without personal language or depth of intent, reducing creation to mere duplication.The future, then, is not a binary choice but a synthesis. From Mattel using Firefly to build Barbie’s world to Coca-Cola codeveloping a system for global creative consistency, Adobe’s AI ecosystem is becoming the invisible infrastructure of our visual landscape. The next time you admire the sleek label on your coffee cup or the packaging of your favorite snack, consider the silent partner in its creation—a tool that amplifies human imagination, but can never replace its soul.

#featured

#Adobe

#Firefly

#generative AI

#design

#enterprise

#branding

#digital twins

#creative workflow

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