Ask Adobe Design: What was your first Adobe product experience?

Five of our team members share how their first experiences with Adobe tools shaped their careers

Illustration by Jessie Lin

We invited five team members to reflect on their first encounters with Adobe’s creative tools—and how those moments shaped the paths that led them here. Whether it was discovering a passion for motion design, getting hooked on computer graphics, or finding a creative community, their stories reveal how early inspiration evolved into careers building the very tools they once learned to love.

“December 1992 was my first time using Adobe Premiere 1.0. It was thrilling! Just over a year later, at the Macworld Expo in January 1994, I saw some video graphics created in CoSA After Effects. I was gobsmacked! I realized that a talented artist using a personal computer and After Effects could create beautiful, emotional motion design. I wanted that. I couldn’t afford the software at the time, but I bought it a few months later (that After Effects 2.0 box is still sitting on my shelf).

“There are moments in life that shape careers. My early days with Adobe’s tools changed mine.

“In the years that followed, I made my living as a motion designer, primarily using After Effects. Then, my focus shifted to designing the software tools themselves. At 33, I returned to university to complete a BA in Film & Media Studies, followed by a master's degree in Interaction Design, and a desire to design great software. My thesis, Cinematic Interaction, explored the intersection of design, the language of film, and interactive computing—precisely what Premiere and After Effects had inspired me to learn. These became the foundation of my career.

“November will mark 20 years since I joined Adobe as a product designer for After Effects. After 12 years in that role, I transitioned to designing experience continuity across our many products, and today I have a front-row seat to the innovative, world-changing experiences people create with our tools. I hope my contributions help inspire someone on their creative journey—just as Premiere and After Effects inspired me.

(Note: CoSA, Company of Science and Art, was the small company that originally created After Effects. Aldus acquired CoSA in mid-1993, and Adobe acquired Aldus in late 1994. Several members of that early CoSA team are still at Adobe.)

“I began using Adobe and Macromedia products in 1998 when one of my brothers gave me my first laptop loaded with Macromedia Flash 3, Macromedia Dreamweaver 1.3, and Adobe Photoshop 5.0, and said, ‘I want to see what you can do with this.’

“Like any ’90s kid with tech, I played around and taught myself to code in my parents’ basement, wrapped in a blanket, drinking Mountain Dew. I’d make individual components, like buttons, gradients, and containers from scratch, or create web pages using Dreamweaver canned templates just so I could ‘break them’ to better understand their mechanics. I may not have known proper terminology, but within a month, I could explain which design components to use and how to manipulate the code to create something entirely different. Over time, I became addicted.

“I often think back to when I was five and telling family that one day I’d ‘get paid to draw pictures.’ I came from an art and music family, but my father had high hopes that I'd land a government role for job security. My love for creating art was great. I was determined to make art and design my career. Since then, I’ve run the rails of every field that connects to what I love: graphic design (my primary), photography, motion effects and animation, video production, web design (which transitioned to UX design), brand strategy, creative direction, marketing management, and more. It wasn't just about creating individual ideas; I wanted to bring simple ideas into immersive experiences that would shake perception. My curiosity led me to the wildest places; I started networking with other creatives, building ideas that snowballed into adventures, and eventually began freelancing so I could expand my outlets and knowledge. I wanted to learn and use it all.

“Freelancing led to working multiple roles simultaneously for each of the various companies I worked for. Today, we call that a 'unicorn,' but then we called it 'indispensable.' I’ve worked for top tech companies for over 18 years now as a creative lead. I’ve also been a photographer for the MLB’s Washington Nationals, helped NFL charities with their promo designs, created town/city logos, and been fortunate enough to win two best in class global design awards for website design (that involved research, content, design, and development). I've led workshops to help creatives find their individual, artistic voices, helped people understand accessibility and inclusivity (through workshops like DC's very first annual Design Week), and mentored young designers in top tech companies. I’ve also spent a lot of time looking for ways to give back to the underground (and my brother) for creating the space for me to blossom.

“What led me to Adobe, is a dream I had when I started creating: It wasn’t enough to work on a product or find ‘a job that pays the bills.’ Those felt disposable. I wanted to work for the company at the epicenter of free flow creation for artists itching to share their vision of the world with the world. With TiVo, Capital One, FINRA, Google, and Meta in my background, I’ve been at Adobe now for a little over three years. My mission is to find what makes all teams under the creative belt within an organization work together to transform a simple idea and an orchestrated symphony of connectors towards a vision that immerses people in their own ‘next level' of perception and vision.”

“A journey that began when I was eleven led me to Adobe. In 1984, my dad brought home a Macintosh. While he spent his time in MacDraft and Multiplan, I couldn’t keep away from MacPaint, MacDraw (sorry MacWrite, you were for homework), and Apple’s ImageWriter. I discovered how much I loved computer graphics. MacPaint was amazing, but because there weren’t a lot of other options at the time, every now and then I’d get bored (I memorized Bill Atkinson’s face in FatBits and could recreate it from scratch).

“I loved drawing, but wanted to get into the animation business, so it wasn’t long before I asked my dad how I could make my pictures move. He brought home Microsoft BASIC, and I dug in. My crowning animation was Airwolf, faithfully created in FatBits, flying in from the side of the screen, one blessed bit at a time. Although to say it “flew” was a stretch, more like two-state flip-flopping propellers and sliding onto the screen. But I was hooked. Drawing, animation, and programming filled my days and provided some small income when neighbors requested page layout services. More importantly, my hobbies and career interests were beginning to form.

“In 1986, my dad brought home SuperPaint. At that point, it was becoming clear that my dad wanted me to learn and get involved in whatever digital revolution existed in the 1980s. Equipped with SuperPaint’s LaserBits and with access to an Apple LaserWriter, things were really cooking. I eventually moved from BASIC to Pascal, and my interests expanded with the release of StrataVision 3D in 1989. Between drawing, animation, programming, and 3D rendering, it was tough to find the time (or the motivation) for homework.

“Everything changed when Adobe Photoshop 1.0 dropped in 1990. My go-to paint program was long in the tooth, and Photoshop filled the void. With Photoshop 2.0 in 1991, the Knoll brothers (the co-creators of Photoshop) became my idols. In every subsequent version of Photoshop, I watched the ordering of Thomas and John Knoll on the splash screen—from Thomas and John, to John and Thomas, and eventually to Thomas only. I figured they were genius programmers and lived glorious lives—and I wanted to be a programmer.

“Though non-linear video editing was years away, I developed an interest in video editing, working with Panasonic SVHS decks and linear control peripherals. While pursuing a degree in computer science, I stayed close to graphics by working in digital pre-press and later in multimedia CD-ROM development.

“I watched Adobe from the outside when I was young. I loved using their software and was a Photoshop evangelist to my friends. Throughout my programming career, and in various roles, I’ve always requested that a license to Photoshop be included with my company software because I simply couldn’t be without pixel-pushing. When a position opened at Adobe in Lehi for an iOS developer on the Spectrum team, I knew it was time to try. I joined Adobe in 2021. Known for creative excellence, Adobe provides me with Photoshop and an entire suite of creative tools without me even asking. There's nothing better than that.

“These days, I leverage software engineering skills and grow my interests in graphics, animation, and video editing. I learn from and value the people I work with, and my creative media interests have an outlet. Now I’m just waiting for Adobe to plunge into 3D printing. I wonder if the Knoll brothers are working on it.”

“Adobe Premiere Pro. It was 2014 and I was into vloggers and beauty and fashion. YouTubers inspired me to get into video filming and editing.

“I made vlogs about my life as a teenager. I’d film myself and my friends hanging out, then edit the clips in Premiere Pro with slow-motion effects and dramatic songs to make my life look whimsical and cool. (Even though some of them are embarrassing, I still enjoy looking back at those videos as a time capsule from that period of my life.) I also used Premiere more formally during my time on the school paper where we’d make videos spotlighting various students and clubs. My co-photo editor/best friend and I would edit them after school at the local mall, taking turns editing on a single laptop.

“Video filming and editing made me realize that I enjoyed expressing myself and capturing my point of view through creative mediums. Over time, I became interested in photography (Adobe Lightroom), print design (Adobe InDesign), and graphic design (Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop). While none of these hobbies ended up directly leading to a career, playing around with different tools solidified the importance of creative expression in my life. Photography ended up sticking the most, and I’ve been lucky enough to be the photographer for my friends’ businesses, be on set with big brands, show work at galleries, and make zines.

“I was 14, and thought I was going to be a marine biologist, so I initially didn’t think about Adobe as a company that I’d be able to work for, but having access to creative tools and a supportive creative community definitely helped me end up where I am.”

“I’m dating myself here, but I’m 95% sure that the first Adobe application I ever used was Adobe Photoshop 2.5 for Windows. I was a first-year high school student, and we had an Intel 486 DX/50 with a whopping 8MB of RAM at home. I don’t recall how I got my hands on Photoshop, but I do remember it came as a stack of four to six 3.5" floppy disks.

“I got into computer graphics at a young age, writing scripts for scenes in POV-Ray, a raytracing application (a type of 3D rendering that simulates shooting beams of light outwards from the camera to understand how they reflect off surfaces). I would post to the imaging groups on CompuServe, a platform that provided online access in the ’80s and early ’90s. Adobe Photoshop was the first application that allowed me to create visual compositions. Version 2.5 had no layers and one level of undo, but those constraints taught me to think about what I wanted to do before doing it.

“Over the following decade, my creative journey took off. When I was 16, my interest in electronic music led me towards design, where I spent most of my free time making flyers for local underground and club events here in Minneapolis. Like many young DIY creatives of that era, I did whatever I could to get my hands on the tools that I wanted to use. It was only much later in life, as an established professional, that I could afford to own Adobe’s Creative Suite.

“If I’m being honest, I never considered the possibility that I’d be able to work at Adobe and take part in the creation and development of these tools. Doing this work, day in and day out, brings me immeasurable satisfaction. I get to help shape and craft the very same applications that I’ve been using for the last 30 years.”