Making big decisions doesn't necessarily get easier with age and experience, but your body will guide you — sometimes painfully — towards what's right.
Hey Kyle. I posted a direct message to you on slack regarding your post about resigning from adobe. I’m going to post it here hoping you will respond with your insights.
I have so much respect and love for the adobe mission of supporting artists. But, I feel as though they’ve lost their way. Adobe Illustrator for the ipad is awful and basically unusable as is photoshop. Fresco is the only useable app for ipad and gratefully it excels. I have been using character animator which requires building puppets in either photoshop or illustrator. I am able to create those puppets in Fresco but when I want to work in vectors I have to move to Affinity Designer and export either from affinity or Fresco to adobe desktop (illustrator or photoshop) which then has a round trip feature for editing when using character animator. I don’t understand the purpose of any ipad software if adobe has created web based versions which don’t seem to work (in my experience) with the ipad. There seems to be an effort to do the same with adobe express which appears to be in direct competition with Canva who now owns Affinity. Meanwhile my neck hurts everytime I sit at my desk to use my desktop imac and software. It would be so much easier to do everything on t,' he ipad. Apple’s greed is only partly to blame. They could design the iPad Pro to run the desktop versions. Or… Adobe could write software for the ipad. I don’t know who to direct these thoughts to, but am certain you do.
Hi, Brett - I honestly don't have any answers for you here. I'm moving forward with other things and not concerned about these particular issues / features / concerns, etc.
Hi, I switched from Adobe to Clip Studio Paint on the iPad a few years back and it’s been lovely. I feel like it’s more artist focused than Adobe ever was. Adobe was more for designers at its heart. You have access to vector tools as well.
Their brush engine isn’t quite as pretty as Adobe, but the company is smaller and focused on a niche market.
Hi Kyle: I was initially shocked to learn of your departure from Adobe. Over the past twenty years I worked for and with Adobe on and off, mostly during the early years of InDesign. Although I miss the income and many great people at Adobe, I understand how one eventually needs to break free. Many thanks for your contributions to Adobe and to Fresco, which I still believe is one of their more successful projects. One question: will you remain committed to Fresco, or are you planning to move to other software?
Just want to say that I respect and admire you immensely for being open about this. I'm looking forward to seeing whatever you do next (and seeing your work on Cara!).
Thanks Kyle! Love your post. I live next door to Silicon Valley. People are either living in extreme poverty or living with terrible burnout. Who is thriving? Probably only billionaires CEO’s. The old (now) tech motto “move fast and break things” is actually breaking people, downtowns, our humanity….
Sorry that you had to go through that.
Glad you’re feeling better now that you’re on the other side.
Hi -- please don't feel sorry for me, in the least. I had a 90% positive and amazing experience working there and building good things, supporting the illustration community, etc.
Things changed really fast, though, in the past 1.5 years and I definitely had to leave.
Anyway, I was really fortunate and it was mostly a rewarding time. Nothing lasts forever. And I need to keep pursuing activities and work that make me feel USEFUL - this is important to me.
Enjoyed reading about the wonder of seeing a piece of art materialise bit by bit as one goes through the process of making it. It’s one of my favourite parts of making art.
I notice this comes right on the heels of Adobe saying they can now use everyone's work that used Adobe to train AI. Is this part of the reason why you left?
I've loved the work you did on Fresco. It was easily the best iPad app offered by Adobe. I worry about its ability to maintain that quality without your influence there. I know that there are still good people there working on the app, but... well, I've worked corporate jobs before. I know how it goes.
I wish you nothing but the best in your future endeavors. Any chance you'll consider making brushes for other apps?
That feeling of you no longer feeling right where you’re in, I’ve been through it several times in my life and the end result has always been a variation of: cut your losses and move on. Seeing the business and ethical turn Adobe is taking as a company, I could infer that you knew it was time to end a life cycle and start another. Sometimes I also forget constant, little improvements along a long timeline may yield amazing results. For instance, a year ago I started learning Japanese online just because I want to go there someday and be able to manage the language beyond survival level. I’m not only finally being able to read small text chunks, but I know this is also a key to connect with Japanese culture beyond anime and on a deeper level. This would also be my fifth mastered language as well. そいのりましょう ✊
Good luck Kyle! I hope you continue to teach. You have a nice way of explaining things. As an Art teacher for over 20 years I can say it is very rewarding to share what you love with others. Thank you for all your contributions so far and I look forward to your next endeavors.
Congratulations on the new adventure! Excited to continue following you in this next chapter, and see where it takes you. Thanks for everything you've built from your brushes to your meditation app. It's inspiring to hear you share your thoughts, and navigate this weird new time in the creative industry.
Kyle, thank you for sharing your journey and the honest reflections on your time at Adobe. Your decision to prioritize your well-being and creativity is inspiring. It’s a reminder of the importance of staying true to oneself, even in the face of significant changes and challenges. I look forward to seeing where your new path takes you and continuing to follow your incredible work. Wishing you all the best in your next adventures!
Good for you - I miss the whole thing that made your brushes special - and that was you , your personality the vids , it felt special, you’d always reply to questions ever helpful - I’ve moved away from Adobe after buying CDs for PC and Mac , and then buying it all again via subscription. Just too expensive and my goodness that UI hasn’t changed since I got my first PS from Hong Kong back in … counts fingers 1996?
Kyle, I am truly wishing you all the best – the Corporate machine can be a bit unforgiving at times, especially for artists – it’s the people that make it worthwhile and I’m glad your connections there seem to be good overall – please take time to heal and we will all await your next evolution whenever that happens🙏🏽❤️😊
I can’t imagine the stress it took to make a decision like this! I greatly admire your courage in doing so.
For me it’s not just your work as an artist and illustrator but also your creative ethos, work ethic, and what seems like a true calling as a mentor and teacher. Your continued support of artists, designer, illustrators has been very inspiring.
I eagerly look forward to what you do next, even if we have to wait awhile to see it so you can have a well-deserved break. Best of luck in your future endeavors!
I appreciate you downloading Lines of Zen - thank you!
Hey Kyle. I posted a direct message to you on slack regarding your post about resigning from adobe. I’m going to post it here hoping you will respond with your insights.
I have so much respect and love for the adobe mission of supporting artists. But, I feel as though they’ve lost their way. Adobe Illustrator for the ipad is awful and basically unusable as is photoshop. Fresco is the only useable app for ipad and gratefully it excels. I have been using character animator which requires building puppets in either photoshop or illustrator. I am able to create those puppets in Fresco but when I want to work in vectors I have to move to Affinity Designer and export either from affinity or Fresco to adobe desktop (illustrator or photoshop) which then has a round trip feature for editing when using character animator. I don’t understand the purpose of any ipad software if adobe has created web based versions which don’t seem to work (in my experience) with the ipad. There seems to be an effort to do the same with adobe express which appears to be in direct competition with Canva who now owns Affinity. Meanwhile my neck hurts everytime I sit at my desk to use my desktop imac and software. It would be so much easier to do everything on t,' he ipad. Apple’s greed is only partly to blame. They could design the iPad Pro to run the desktop versions. Or… Adobe could write software for the ipad. I don’t know who to direct these thoughts to, but am certain you do.
Hi, Brett - I honestly don't have any answers for you here. I'm moving forward with other things and not concerned about these particular issues / features / concerns, etc.
Hope you understand, but I need a break.
Hi, I switched from Adobe to Clip Studio Paint on the iPad a few years back and it’s been lovely. I feel like it’s more artist focused than Adobe ever was. Adobe was more for designers at its heart. You have access to vector tools as well.
Their brush engine isn’t quite as pretty as Adobe, but the company is smaller and focused on a niche market.
Hi Kyle: I was initially shocked to learn of your departure from Adobe. Over the past twenty years I worked for and with Adobe on and off, mostly during the early years of InDesign. Although I miss the income and many great people at Adobe, I understand how one eventually needs to break free. Many thanks for your contributions to Adobe and to Fresco, which I still believe is one of their more successful projects. One question: will you remain committed to Fresco, or are you planning to move to other software?
Hi, Scott- I'm proud of the work I did at Adobe - thanks for the kind words about Fresco.
To answer your question, I am exploring several ideas. More to come.
Thanks for your response. I look forward to hearing of your next move.
Just want to say that I respect and admire you immensely for being open about this. I'm looking forward to seeing whatever you do next (and seeing your work on Cara!).
Very kind of you, Chloe. Thank you.
Hats off Kyle.
Hi, David - thanks for reading, and I appreciate the comment. Not an easy decision, but the right one at this time.
Thanks Kyle! Love your post. I live next door to Silicon Valley. People are either living in extreme poverty or living with terrible burnout. Who is thriving? Probably only billionaires CEO’s. The old (now) tech motto “move fast and break things” is actually breaking people, downtowns, our humanity….
Sorry that you had to go through that.
Glad you’re feeling better now that you’re on the other side.
Hi -- please don't feel sorry for me, in the least. I had a 90% positive and amazing experience working there and building good things, supporting the illustration community, etc.
Things changed really fast, though, in the past 1.5 years and I definitely had to leave.
Anyway, I was really fortunate and it was mostly a rewarding time. Nothing lasts forever. And I need to keep pursuing activities and work that make me feel USEFUL - this is important to me.
Enjoyed reading about the wonder of seeing a piece of art materialise bit by bit as one goes through the process of making it. It’s one of my favourite parts of making art.
Yes, it never gets old for me!
I notice this comes right on the heels of Adobe saying they can now use everyone's work that used Adobe to train AI. Is this part of the reason why you left?
I resigned well before that.
And I think Scott Belsky explained how these terms were misinterpreted on Twitter, FWIW.
I've loved the work you did on Fresco. It was easily the best iPad app offered by Adobe. I worry about its ability to maintain that quality without your influence there. I know that there are still good people there working on the app, but... well, I've worked corporate jobs before. I know how it goes.
I wish you nothing but the best in your future endeavors. Any chance you'll consider making brushes for other apps?
Hi, John - I'm sure the team will continue to do good work. They are all friends of mine and I will miss collaborating with them.
To answer your question, I'm looking into a few cool possibilities.
That feeling of you no longer feeling right where you’re in, I’ve been through it several times in my life and the end result has always been a variation of: cut your losses and move on. Seeing the business and ethical turn Adobe is taking as a company, I could infer that you knew it was time to end a life cycle and start another. Sometimes I also forget constant, little improvements along a long timeline may yield amazing results. For instance, a year ago I started learning Japanese online just because I want to go there someday and be able to manage the language beyond survival level. I’m not only finally being able to read small text chunks, but I know this is also a key to connect with Japanese culture beyond anime and on a deeper level. This would also be my fifth mastered language as well. そいのりましょう ✊
Good luck Kyle! I hope you continue to teach. You have a nice way of explaining things. As an Art teacher for over 20 years I can say it is very rewarding to share what you love with others. Thank you for all your contributions so far and I look forward to your next endeavors.
Thank you, Katie and thanks for being a teacher! I'm from a family of educators. They often go unappreciated.
Congratulations on the new adventure! Excited to continue following you in this next chapter, and see where it takes you. Thanks for everything you've built from your brushes to your meditation app. It's inspiring to hear you share your thoughts, and navigate this weird new time in the creative industry.
Kyle, thank you for sharing your journey and the honest reflections on your time at Adobe. Your decision to prioritize your well-being and creativity is inspiring. It’s a reminder of the importance of staying true to oneself, even in the face of significant changes and challenges. I look forward to seeing where your new path takes you and continuing to follow your incredible work. Wishing you all the best in your next adventures!
Good for you - I miss the whole thing that made your brushes special - and that was you , your personality the vids , it felt special, you’d always reply to questions ever helpful - I’ve moved away from Adobe after buying CDs for PC and Mac , and then buying it all again via subscription. Just too expensive and my goodness that UI hasn’t changed since I got my first PS from Hong Kong back in … counts fingers 1996?
Kyle, I am truly wishing you all the best – the Corporate machine can be a bit unforgiving at times, especially for artists – it’s the people that make it worthwhile and I’m glad your connections there seem to be good overall – please take time to heal and we will all await your next evolution whenever that happens🙏🏽❤️😊
I can’t imagine the stress it took to make a decision like this! I greatly admire your courage in doing so.
For me it’s not just your work as an artist and illustrator but also your creative ethos, work ethic, and what seems like a true calling as a mentor and teacher. Your continued support of artists, designer, illustrators has been very inspiring.
I eagerly look forward to what you do next, even if we have to wait awhile to see it so you can have a well-deserved break. Best of luck in your future endeavors!
Very, very kind words, Tim. Thank you.