In 2019, Adobe was deep into its Creative Cloud adolescence. The software had stopped being a tool you bought and started being a place you lived. CC 2019 felt like that: an apartment with new locks, some rearranged furniture, and a few mysterious buttons your roommate added while you were asleep.
There’s a specific gray you only find in Photoshop CC 2019. Not the canvas gray of newer versions—too flat, too clinical. Not the pinstripe gray of CS6—nostalgic, but dated. No, this gray lives in the space between New Document and the first brushstroke. It’s the color of possibility before it takes shape. Adobe Photoshop CC 2019
I remember opening it on a Tuesday night in autumn. The splash screen: a surreal, neon-drenched figure with paint strokes for hair. Cyberpunk bohemian. Adobe knew we weren't just retouching photos. We were building little worlds. In 2019, Adobe was deep into its Creative Cloud adolescence
Digital prose / creative nonfiction