Designers: Keep up with hovering art directors – Adobe shows you how

If you’re a creative professional, chances are you’ve worked with a Hovering Art Director. You know the type, the micro-manager who stands over your shoulder, providing unsolicited and nonsensical feedback, like "let’s try this sunset as a sunrise".

Written By: Laura Connelly

17 March 2017

Fortunately, there's a solution that can help you keep up and keep your sanity – Adobe Stock.

In a new spot by Adobe and agency mcgarrybowen Amsterdam, we watch as a designer heroically manages the extravagant (albeit hilarious) demands of his art director – thanks to an assist from Adobe Stock. With only an hour to spare, he creates original artwork for a meeting with a fictional client, the subtly named WolfBear ginger beer.

The video is part of Adobe’s new Hovering Art Director global campaign that spotlights the benefits of the integration between Creative Cloud and Adobe Stock. According to a recent report, creatives can see a 10x productivity gain with Adobe Stock in Photoshop. So many steps are eliminated that the process of licensing an image goes from nearly 3 minutes to 16 seconds*.

“We really pushed the content to the maximum, looking for all sorts of images to make this crazy composition. We discovered firsthand how much quality and diverse content Adobe Stock offers. You just chuck a search term into the side panel and seconds later there it is in your comp,” says mcgarrybowen Amsterdam Creative Director Daniël Sytsma of his experience working with Adobe Stock to create campaign assets.

The WolfBear artwork features over 100 individual Adobe Stock images, including a baby bear, a wolf, an astronaut, a tornado, and a particularly epic volcanic explosion.

You can learn how to recreate the WolfBear artwork during a free webinar on March 30 at 6pm BST. Register here to attend the live one-hour masterclass on compositing and retouching led by art director Michael James Phillips from mcgarrybowen Amsterdam and designer Alessandro Pisano from Magic Group Media. Plus, we’ll have some fun surprises for our audience.

In addition to the full video, you can also watch some of our favourite outtakes from the shoot on the Hovering Art Director site. Just make sure no one’s lingering behind you before you turn on the volume.

*"Adobe Stock: Boosting Design Efficiency Through Integration," Pfeiffer Report, Pfeiffer Consulting, 2016