Adobe MAX 2025: A Creative Future Unfolding + Our Trick-or-Doodle Experience

Creativity is no longer reserved for designers or people who live inside creative suites. For years, marketers and everyday creators often felt like they needed advanced tools or hours of training to bring ideas to life. At Adobe MAX 2025, it became pretty clear that chapter is closing. Adobe unveiled AI-powered features and assistants that make creating easier, smarter, and more collaborative than ever. Think tools that help you generate visuals faster, refine video edits in seconds, and build personalized content at scale without sacrificing originality or control. In short: more creativity, less friction.

And in the middle of all that excitement, booths buzzing, and screens glowing… we brought our own little creative corner to life at booth #2832.

Sometimes some sheets and markers are all you need to spark joy.

Trick or Doodle at Adobe MAX: The Spookiest Corner of the Expo Floor (And Happiest)

While big screens showcased the future, we went back to basics: hand-drawn imagination and a little Halloween spirit.

We loved our doodle activation at Adobe MAX and TechCrunch last year, so we couldn’t resist bringing it back again. Only this time, we spiced it up with a Halloween theme. Trick or Doodle called on anyone passing by to sketch a costume or dream up a cute, funny or even spooky character. And naturally, every masterpiece got a .ME sticker badge.

And wow, people showed up.

Cute anime characters. Familiar faces from Brawl Stars. Original little beings imagined on the fly. Ghosts who looked like they’d just come from a startup pitch meeting. One zombie who was clearly living off espresso and deadlines. A joyful, messy, wonderfully creative mix. 

The best part? Watching people switch out of conference-mode and reconnect with creativity as play, not pressure.

Markers squeaking. People hyping each other up. Folks who “don’t draw” suddenly doodling bats in sneakers. That spark when someone remembers they are creative, no matter what tools they usually use.

That’s the magic of moments like this.

What Adobe MAX Feels Like When You’re Really There

Adobe MAX brings the future front and center – no doubt about that. But the thing you notice when you’re actually there isn’t just the tech. It’s the people. The tiny moments. The energy that builds when creative folks share space.

Workshops buzzing. Quiet little conversations in hall corners. People scribbling ideas on notebooks, tablets, phones – whatever they had on them before the thought slipped away. 

And then over at Dentsu’s booth, Acky Bright, the Japanese manga artist, spent three days building this massive live illustration… and people kept circling back just to see what he added next, sharing updates online not for likes, but because they truly couldn’t wait to show everyone what was taking shape. That sort of genuine excitement is hard to come by.

And then, just a few meters away, there was our booth, covered in cute-spooky doodles and silly characters, reminding us where creativity really starts:

Curiosity.
Play.
An empty sheet and a marker.

Why We Keep Coming Back to Adobe MAX

It is simple. We return for the spark you only get when creative people gather.

Here are some of our favorite moments from this year:

• People pausing at the booth, seeing all the amazing doodles, whispering “oh no, these are too good,” then drawing the most adorable character of the day
• The pile of our stickers quietly shrinking because “my friend needs one too” 
• Attendees posing proudly with their doodles like they were unveiling tiny gallery pieces
• Cute-spooky characters everywhere… even the clowns were adorable (and that’s coming from someone who does not like clowns)
• Our LA-themed .ME t-shirt making its way around the expo floor like a secret “yes I doodled” signal
• Dynadot tote bags turning into mini art canvases, filled with markers so attendees could customize and color their bag on the spot
• Multiple visitors telling us they already use a .ME domain and sharing the stories behind their projects (can’t lie, this is what we loved the most)

It reminded us why Adobe MAX belongs on every creator’s calendar: it’s where innovation meets the joy of making things for no reason other than it feels good.

And that’s our favorite kind of creativity.

The Spirit of Adobe MAX 2025: Creativity for Everyone

Beyond our little corner of spooky-cute creativity, MAX had a strong message this year. The era where only “the trained pros” got to create is fading fast. Tools are evolving, workflows are opening up, and creative expression is becoming something everyone gets to participate in.

Adobe MAX 2025 highlighted features designed to make it easier to:

• brainstorm and refine ideas
• clean up audio and visuals
• shape quick video edits
• create personalized content faster
• collaborate across marketing and creative teams

And even without sitting through full sessions, we still got to try a bunch of these tools right on the expo floor – from designing stickers at the Adobe Express-o bar (loved the pun) to customizing Coca-Cola cans at the Adobe activations. Fun, fast, and honestly a pretty cool way to see the future hands-on.

Especially since we had our own lead designer with us – seeing him explore these tools, not feeling threatened by them, but genuinely excited that some workflows are finally getting easier even for seasoned creatives, said a lot.

Think assistants that support and enhance your creativity instead of replacing it. Tools that give more people permission to make things, experiment, and join the creative conversation.

It’s not about shortcuts. It’s about removing friction so imagination gets room to breathe.

And seeing people’s faces light up when they realized what they could do? That was half the joy of being there.

Until Next Time, Adobe MAX

We’re heading home with a pile of doodle-filled sheets, photos we’ll be scrolling through for weeks, and that quiet buzz you get after being surrounded by people who really show up creatively. The kind of energy that sticks to you in the best way.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by, picked up a marker, shared a story, or just smiled at the silly things taking shape on paper. Tiny moments like that end up meaning more than they seem in the moment.

Here’s to ideas whispered instead of shouted, to blank pages that turn into tiny worlds, to playful experiments that accidentally carry meaning. And most of all, to making a mark – not because you have to, but because something inside you nudged you to try.