Geoff Dowd

Adobe Ink is a Creative Cloud pen for the iPad. It's sidekick is Slide, a digital ruler. Together, these real tools for drawing have inspired several new iOS apps for Adobe, and proved that Adobe has made their first consumer electronic hardware product in an authentic, beautiful way. It is has won a 2015 IDSA IDEA Award. Designed in collaboration with Robert Brunner of Ammunition Group. Engineered in partnership with Adonit and MindTribe.

In developing Ink, we also developed Creative "Cloud Copy > Paste". Copy an asset from one iPad with your pen and paste it onto any other iPad. Each Adobe Ink contains a unique device ID and acts as a token, if you will. Adobe Ink is personal. It holds your style.

You can read about the making of Ink here.

The straight-edge has been redefined for the touch screen as a "digital ruler". This is Adobe Slide, side-kick to Adobe Ink, the Creative Cloud pen.

Simply set Slide onto the iPad screen, and see it project parallel lines to trace right up against. Perfect lines, arcs and shapes on screen.

Local Color takes on new meaning as Adobe Color CC invents geotagged color themes for the wrist.

As technology moves to the body, we see an opportunity to do so for design assets. As you travel through your world, discover color themes captured from your location and those farther out. By geotagging color themes and moving them to Apple Watch, Adobe Color CC takes on a richer, more relevant role in a designer's day.

We participated in Watch's 1.0 launch with our app available on day one.

With your phone, quickly capture and convert images into vector graphics that you can use in Adobe Illustrator CC, Illustrator Draw or Photoshop. Whether symbols on a sign or something in your own sketchbook, it starts with inspiration. Snap a photo with your device's camera, or use a saved favorite from you camera roll or Creative Cloud project files.

A modern approach to drawing and drafting, Adobe Illustrator Line lets you draw straight lines, geometric shapes, perspective views and more. Line reimagines traditional drawing tools like rulers, T-squares and shape templates for the modern world. Designed and developed to showcase our creative hardware, Ink & Slide, a key discovery was made when we developed the digital version of the ruler we call "Touch Slide" – a software feature informed by its hardware counterpart.

Create vibrant illustrations on your iPad in Adobe Illustrator Draw that can be sent as layered files to Adobe Illustrator on your desktop – fully editable ones, too. Draw is a key piece of our design ecosystem with the Creative Cloud, pushing the envelope of professional utility of the iPad.

I am steadily and thoughtfully building a highly functioning team.

Together, we are responsible for the design of software, hardware and systems enabling the modern designer from inspiration to creation and beyond.

Once a product has been designed and developed, getting the word out is critical.

This may seem elementary, but I've learned the hard way that marketing a product is just as important as making it. Over the course of software and hardware creation, I've enjoyed learning how to speak LIVE directly to thousands... and deliver the same message in a one-on-one conversation. The key to speaking about your product is authenticity.

Recently I was profiled in the New York Time's "Workspace" column. It was humbling to share where we work and how with the NY Times readers around the world. I was also invited to share my personal inspirations – and it seemed to resonate. After touching on my late father, Charles, a symphony timpanist and graduate of The Juilliard School, I received a very generous letter from a Juilliard executive. I am always struck by how creatives nourish each other.

You can read it here.

We share our team's experience any chance we get. Recently, we put on a great show for AIGA's Designing Product Series hosted by Adobe at our San Francisco studios.

Intended to inspire attendees to design their own products, we assembled a large invite-only crowd and gave this prompt: "We redesigned the pen... tonight, you will redesign the tape measure!"

What if?

Following a panel discussion and Q+A, the guests enthusiastically redesigned the tape measure in their own way. With VIP's from Twitter, Facebook, Samsung, Google and more, it was an incredible evening of mad-dash creativity and many new friends were made. Prizes were won.

Digital and device work is always in motion. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then these narratives that emerge through short vignettes speak volumes. See my work in action.

I've been properly media trained. I can bridge and pivot with ease. But that's no fun.

If you'd like to read about our team and my inspiration – and written with authentic voice...

New York Times: Workspace, click here.

Fortune Magazine, click here.

WIRED, click here.

I.D. Magazine, click here.

The Power of Design, click here.