We’re thrilled to welcome back Adobe this year as a sponsor and Design Mixer host! The Create Now Seattle x SDF Mixer on Wednesday, August 19, is an evening for gaining new skills, fresh ideas, and confidence using the latest updates in Photoshop, Illustrator, Firefly, and more.

“Connect with fellow creators to exchange ideas, build your network and be inspired by your local creative community. This event is open to creators of all levels and aims to support your creative growth!” – Adobe Team

Q & A with Daniel:

How can design respond to IN[FLUX] – constant change and uncertainty?

We are at an inflection point where we have to determine what we value about ourselves as humans. With our over-reliance on AI we risk cognitive surrender and a loss of integrity. Just as design encapsulates a critical eye of built and natural systems, so must designers now step up to find balance and intentionality in which skills, orientations, and experiences we want to protect as uniquely human. We’ve been clinging to “moats” that will protect us such as taste, discernment, and “vibes,” but all of those are brittle ledges to cling to. Instead, I suggest we lean into our unique abilities to be curious, show compassion, and embrace contradiction. Ultimately, the machine doesn’t care but we, as humans, care. So the challenge I leave everyone is, decide what you want to be good at, and don’t ask AI to do that for you.

My favorite thing about where I live is…

Seward Park. No where else can you find such a diverse collection of neighbors enjoying the interplay of nature and the built environment: young, old, on wheels, floating, watching eagles, blasting music, eating hotdogs, herding kids, and pretending to get lost on the trails. That is magic.

Tell us about a project that you completed that you are most proud of.

We recently added the ability to take an image into Photoshop and ask the system to show you unique views of that object, to convert the photo into a 3D object so that it can be spun around and change how it relates to other parts of the composition. This is the essence of the democratization of 3D, a quest I’ve worked on for 30 years. We stripped out most of the complexity of 3D. We started with the artifacts that creators are comfortable with. And we worked hard to re-integrate the results harmoniously back into the overall artwork.

What design object or story most strongly influenced your interest in design?

As a teenager growing up in Lansing, Michigan, I was fascinated by automobiles and how they encapsulated agency, protection, style, and representation. They meant freedom. I took that essence forward into my art work, coming back, over and over to themes of safety, comfort, and the personal.

What is your ultimate goal when it comes to your work? What do you hope to contribute?

Really I just want to have fun and find ways to improve the world. Everywhere I look I see objects and processes that can be improved. To design is to be a critic and a creator. To never be satisfied and to infuse our world in ways that we can extend ourselves farther and yet stay in the moment and connected.

If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why?

I’m burdened by a scarcity mentality which most frequently manifests around time. So, I’d wish for the ability to slow down time. So I can savor. So I can really touch a leaf and feel every aspect of it.