How Adobe Max Failed the Diversity Test
An open letter about how #AdobeMax chose to ‘honor’ my culture on one of the most sacred days of the year
On Saturday, November 2nd, I attended the Dia De Los Muertos event at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where people from all over the world come together to share a passion for art and culture by honoring the dead. As a creative director, I’ve had the honor and opportunity to support artists in designing altars for our communities in the past at this very event. The design approach is the same process I would advise any of my collaborators with:
Phase 1: Discover
Phase 2: Design
Phase 3: Transform
Phase 4: Transition
Designing altars to honor my ancestors is not a transactional design process for me. In fact it’s something deeper. At Idea2Form we like to call it Multi-Dimensional Design (MDD). MDD requires curiosity, deep listening, empathy, intuition, creativity, divergent thinking, and inclusive leadership.
MDD is rooted in the legacy of mutual support, resourcefulness, and innovation exemplified by communities of color.
It’s Monday, November 4th, 2019, and the start of the annual #AdobeMax Creativity Conference. I chose not to attend this event because it lacks a personal value that I cherish—financial accessibility—but moving past that, I began to see larger issues arise based on tweets and images from social media.
Rather than attend the conference, I instead did what most people of Mexican heritage do in the first week of November. I celebrated Dia de los Muertos to honor my ancestors with intention. As a designer of Mexican heritage, this is an especially sacred time for me because all of the aesthetic elements that go into the design ritual of altar making. Day of the Dead allows me and other designers to show that we are a culture made up of sacred symbols beyond skulls and sombreros.
In #AdobeMax’s attempt to acknowledge Dia de los Muertos, they used an image that was devoid of meaning and symbolism to a widely celebrated holiday in Mexican culture. As a Mexican creative director, I was disappointed to see this tweet from a brand that claims to be on the forefront of design, innovation, and culture. This grayish, dull image does very little to reflect Dia de los Muertos or Mexican culture (read below).
My response:
I wasn’t the first to find this image to be questionable:
I had hoped to engage in a dialogue with AdobeMax’s social media, but the tweet was deleted about fifteen minutes after my initial tweet. This could have been a coincidence, but it could also have been an attempt to silence my initial message, which seen through a wider lens is a tactic to silence fellow designers of color who may have a similar issue. To be honest, every Mexican person I know who saw this photo as a representation of Dia de los Muertos would shake their head in disbelief.
Below is an image from the creative session with Russell Brown, the senior creative director at Adobe.
It’s hard to get past the irony and irresponsible messaging of the “Creativity For All” hoodie conference attendees received with their hefty registration fee. A more truthful statement would have been: Creativity for all... who have $1,895 to spend on a convention.
So why am I taking time out of my day to write this? Because in less than two months we are entering a new decade, and a company that dominates the design and innovation industry is still missing the mark on diversity, inclusion, and culturally congruent content strategies.
In addition, there are designers from marginalized communities who are working exponentially harder to create equity and empathy-centered social impact using design.
Earlier this year, while in a Lyft, coming home from a business trip, the driver asked me about work. “Do you like what you do?” they asked. “I love it,” I answered. “You LOVE it?!” they exclaimed and looked at me directly through the rear-view. “In my whole life, I’ve never heard anyone say that they LOVE what they do.”
The driver had questions and I was happy to gush my love of being a graphic designer. I love design. It keeps me sane. It’s my meditation, my morning coffee; it’s my zen.
Design as a career has shifted drastically in my 15 years in the industry but continues to be a place of gatekeepers and elitism.
I never get tired of hearing my mom tell people that I grew up preferring pencils and paper to dolls. It’s a great reminder of how early in life I became invested in creating and understanding the power of aesthetics.
My favorite definition of design is “creating order out of chaos.” It makes sense to me. As the daughter of working-class gardeners, I’ve seen my parents dramatically transform chaotic gardens into enchanted spaces with depth, color, and texture.
Design as a career has shifted drastically in my 15 years in the industry but continues to be a place of gatekeepers and elitism. It reflects a paradigm of people being valued simply because they come from a culture of dominance and familiarity.
#AdobeMax is sustaining a culture of creatives who believe that being served by other people is how you should be welcomed into a space. These are the same spaces that have also mistaken me for the help, and in these spaces I often find myself relating with the custodial and catering staff rather than other attendees because that is what is familiar to me.
To #AdobeMax and anyone else reading this: I am not here to be a whistleblower, and I am far from an expert in writing think pieces. I am a graphic designer of Mexican heritage who has been an Adobe products user since 2004. Having access to Adobe tools and design networks has opened up opportunities for me that I want to see for other marginalized people. I want creativity conferences to be accessible to communities of color, not just as servers or attendees but as celebrated speakers and experts on the cultural aesthetics we represent.
With my observations, I am certain that I am not alone in my sentiments. For those who are interested, I would love to speak with you about how to make progress in the efforts of inclusion and cultural responsibility, with Adobe, in your workplace, and throughout the world.
Thanks for your time.
Alexandra “Lexx” Valdez
Co-Founder & Creative Strategist at Idea2Form.com
