Hi First name / friend, Phew, what a week it has been for me!
I'm currently typing this out in my hotel room this morning with the sound of the London Thames river outside my window. My voice is nearly gone, and I've got bags under my eyes, but Adobe MAX London is officially complete. If you’re not familiar with Adobe MAX, it’s one of Adobe’s creative conferences, an annual event where they unveil the latest tools, updates, and innovations across all their apps. Think of it as a behind-the-curtain look at what’s coming next in the world of design, photography, video, and all things creative.
I see it as my duty to keep you all informed on all the great design happenings, so let’s dive into this special edition of the Friday Finisher covering all the latest updates, livestreams, and behind-the-scenes moments from MAX London, so you’re the first to know what’s new!
Disclaimer, I work with Adobe on video collaborations, yet this newsletter is 100% my own views and thoughts and not a paid edition. I always want to make that clear for you all :) |
|
Keynote Kickoff: Ideas, Inspiration & Innovation
The Opening Keynote at Adobe MAX London 2025 kicked things off with some seriously exciting updates. Adobe showed off new features across Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro, including one of my favourites, Firefly Boards. They also revealed improvements to Photoshop for iPhone and upgrades to their web tools, making it easier than ever to create on the go. The vibe was all about speed, creativity, and making powerful tools more accessible for everyone. I was in the audience and loved every minute of it. |
|
Going Live with My Favourite Photoshop Features
I had the pleasure of jumping back on Adobe Live for another stream, this time diving into all my favourite new updates in Photoshop. I teamed up with photographer Joe Allam to explore some of the tools I’ve been loving lately, showing how they work and how you can use them in your own creative projects.
I’ll admit, I always get a little nervous before going live (especially with such a big audience watching), but I genuinely had a blast. It’s always such a great opportunity to share my passion for design and photo editing with others. If you missed it, you can catch the replay—let me know what you think of the new features! |
|
The Future of Moodboarding My top product launch from Adobe MAX this year has to be Firefly Boards, a brand new AI-powered mood-boarding tool now in public beta. It’s designed to make the early stages of a creative project faster and easier by giving you one space to generate, remix, and edit images using simple text prompts. You can upload your own visuals, pull in assets from Adobe Stock, or start from scratch, all on an infinite canvas built for quick ideation.
What makes it especially exciting is how collaborative and flexible it is. You can remix images, apply styles, extract prompts, and use generative tools like Fill and Expand, all without ever leaving the board. It’s also tightly integrated with Photoshop and Adobe Express, making it easy to move from brainstorm to final design. It feels like a living, creative playground where your ideas can evolve fast and freely. If you're someone that works in creative direction or collaborates a lot with other creatives, this might be the tool for you. |
|
PHOTOSHOP UPDATE OF THE WEEK |
|
Photoshop (beta) Actions Glow Up Earlier last week, Adobe asked me to create a video showing off the new Actions update inside the Photoshop (beta) app, I've been putting it to the test all week and it is seriously SO good. You can now open your Actions panel directly within the beta version and apply complex, multi-step edits to your images with just a few clicks. Whether it's colour grading, retouching, or resizing, the process is faster and more intuitive than ever. No more digging around in menus or recreating the same process over and over.
Even better, you can now type in what you want to do and Photoshop (beta) instantly generates an action for you. Want to “make the photo warmer and sharpen details”? Just write it out, and you’ll get a ready-to-run action in seconds. It’s like having a custom editing assistant built into your workflow. Click the link below to update your Photoshop, (don't forget the Beta app too) as there are a ton of new tools launched that seriously speed up the way you work. |
|
Illustrator UPDATE OF THE WEEK |
|
Check Out What's New In Illustrator I know Illustrator is our favourite app, so of course I haven't forgotten about this! Adobe Illustrator's latest update brings significant performance enhancements and AI-powered features to streamline your creative workflow. Music to all our ears, the most-used effects are now up to five times faster, and improvements like more responsive menu access and quicker font navigation help you stay in your creative flow.
One of my personal exciting additions to Adobe Illustrator is the introduction of Generative Expand, a feature previously only in Photoshop. Generative Expand allows you to extend your vector canvas beyond its original boundaries and fill the new space with AI-generated content that seamlessly blends with your existing design. This tool is particularly useful for adjusting aspect ratios, adding background elements, and my favourite use for it, adding last minute bleed area to print files. SO handy. |
|
MISSED MY LATEST INSTAGRAM POSTS? |
|
Thanks for reading!
A lot of time and effort goes into curating these emails, if you don't want to receive them please don't click ‘mark as spam', instead just hit unsubscribe below and you'll never hear from me again 😊 |
|
NDSM
Amsterdam, 1033NA, The Netherlands |
|
|
|
