If you have ever thought of entering the field of multimedia, which includes all sorts of digital production, you must’ve come across a software company called “Adobe.”
Adobe is everywhere and everyone uses it. From your favorite content creators on YouTube and Instagram to international corporations. Adobe products have become the go-to software for creatives all around the globe.
The Adobe creative suite covers almost every creative need as its products appeal to graphic designers, web designers, photographers, illustrators, marketing professionals, animators, and many more.
What I found most interesting about Adobe was that despite having high prices and only being available for a monthly subscription, many designers tend to stick by it despite other cheaper alternatives entering the market.
So, why is it like this and why do so many designers swear by Adobe?
This isn’t going to be an article talking about the long detailed history of the brand rather why designers use it, how it is better than its competition and how it rose to the top becoming the industry standard.
What Is Meant By Industry Standard & Why is it Important?
Industry standard is an established norm or requirement in a particular business area. Knowledge of the industry standard can lead you in the right direction to try and learn what the industry requires of you.
This means you will be well equipped by the time you choose to enter the workforce or go solo and start your own business.
In a creative industry, businesses require people to be proficient in the use of the Adobe Creative Cloud because of its effectiveness and its versatility.
What Makes Adobe So Successful Amongst Artists?
There are a number of factors that make up the success of the company however, the first and foremost is one that every business swears by, the “customer is always right” rule.
Adobe’s success amongst multimedia artists and content creators can be due to the fact that they have always centered their development over the customer’s needs and demands and tends to treat each individual accordingly.
Adobe knew it wanted to target all types of content creators but not all content creators want the same kind of creative software. Some are web designers, some are graphic designers and some are motion designers, all these different groups want something that will cater specifically to them which is exactly what Adobe did.
It developed and released a number of different applications such as Photoshop, Illustrator, and After Effects.
Each of them is different from the other and has huge learning curves meaning a person specialized in Photoshop cannot just open up Illustrator and instantly become an expert in that as well due to its different nature.
This is the beauty of Adobe’s products, no product is the same copy of another, they are all unique in their own way, tailor-made for the specific profession.
Innovation
This helped them tackle the ever-changing business dynamics and kept them their top position in the market as their competitors would only add tweaks to their interfaces and copy what others were doing and varying the price a bit.
Constant improvement
When other competitive firms in the industry are busy copying each other, Adobe invests massive amounts of money into its research and development to provide its users with the newest tools at their disposal.
Subscribers of the Adobe Creative Cloud are constantly updated with new upcoming tweaks in their applications allowing the current versions of the software to be automatically up-to-date. This means that Adobe would probably never become obsolete and might remain dominant in the market.
Powerful and Time-efficient tools
Adobe gives its users access to powerful tools in which they can get exactly the effects they desire.
Want to give yourself blue eyes? Photoshop it, want to give yourself longer hair? Photoshop it, want to add a different background behind you? Photoshop it.
Another great example of a powerful tool is the clone stamp tool in which you could make multiple duplicates of an image.
If you want to give the illusion of a huge crowd of people you can use the clone stamp tool, select them and turn down the saturation to make them blend in the background.
There are many other innovative powerful and time-effective tools such as the smudge tool, blur tool, lasso tool, curves tool, hue/saturation tool, and many more.
Adobe allows you to create absolutely anything you can think of due to its wide selection of different tools.
The Future of Adobe Software
Let’s discuss the future of the Adobe Creative Cloud and what it means for up-and-coming designers, content creators, and the creative industry.
Adobe continues to generate billions of dollars in revenue and is promising enough to stay the leading brand in the creative industry here are just a few stats to support that notion:
- Adobe had a 169% increase in revenue from 2014 to 2019 going from accumulating $4.147 billion in 2014 to $11.171 billion in 2019.
- Over 90% of the world’s creative professionals use Adobe Photoshop.
- Adobe Creative Cloud mobile apps have been downloaded over 449 million times.
- The average number of graphics created every month by Adobe Illustrator is roughly 180 million.
Adobe has bought a lot of other companies including Magneto, Multimedia, and Day Software just to name a few.
There are, however, other companies competing to overthrow Adobe from the top spot.
These include Serif’s Affinity Trinity, which is a substitute for Adobe’s Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign, GIMP and Krita, which are free alternatives of Photoshop, and Corel Software which is similar to Adobe’s Creative Cloud bundle.
Even though these companies seem to bring valuable products to consumers they just can’t seem to beat Adobe’s intuitive design and innovative features.
Conclusion
So is Adobe here to stay?
Yes, and if you want to be a competent creative you should grab yourself the Adobe Creative Cloud and learn how to use it inside and out. This will keep you competitive in the industry and, if you get through the learning curve, all the initial hardships and the hefty price tag will be worth it as you will see Adobe as irreplaceable.
Having full knowledge of the Adobe Creative Cloud will open up a lot of opportunities for you in your future, whether you plan on getting a job or starting your own business Adobe definitely has your back.
