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Adobe study charts the changing course of creative inspiration

Where do creative types find their inspiration? New research by Adobe shows it’s increasingly in the online realm. 

The APAC Creatives Pulse study, which was completed by more than 2,500 creative professionals from Australia and New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan (Greater China) and India, found that only 11 percent of creatives in Australia and New Zealand seek inspiration from television advertising, with a majority now finding inspiration online—41 percent from websites or online advertisements, 35 percent from social media and 38 percent from online creative communities like Behance.

Across Asia Pacific, social media took top spot as the biggest source of inspiration, followed by websites, online creative communities and film. ‘Real world’ inspiration like architecture and street fashion were well down the list, which some creative purists and marketers who see part of their role as observing human behaviour might see as slightly myopic. 

89 percent of creatives in ANZ feel they are increasingly working across multiple mediums and disciplines and are mindful of the need to learn new tools and techniques. At the same time traditional measures of success such as industry awards (23 percent) are being replaced by feedback and views on social media (28 percent), with business impact (66 percent) and personal financial success (46 percent) tracking as leading success indicators for ANZ creatives.  

“It is worth noting the dominant role that social media has come to play in the lives of creatives, whether that’s as a source of inspiration or an important success metric. In fact, success in the socialverse is now considered an even more important indicator of success than industry awards, showing that the industry is undergoing a sea change,” says Paul Robson, president Asia Pacific, Adobe.

Australian and New Zealand creatives don’t view mobile as a large driver of change compared to the rest of APAC. Although 52 percent cite mobile as making their work accessible to a broader audience, only 33 percent are using mobile to capture inspiration on the go when compared to the rest of APAC (48 percent) as part of the creative process, and only 71 percent feel that mobile is transforming the face of creativity and design compared to the APAC average of 80 percent. 

“Asia Pacific is home to half the world’s mobile devices. The rise of mobile brings with it plenty of opportunities and challenges for creatives to create content across platforms and devices at a pace that matches the growing economies of the region. We anticipate that mobile devices will become an important part of the creative process when integrated with existing desktop workflows,” says Robson.

Key APAC findings include:

  • 78 percent of respondents across APAC say the role of creatives is changing rapidly or very rapidly with 58 percent citing new technologies as the topmost catalyst for change, followed by the impact of social media (37 percent) and new responsibilities added to the creative function (35 percent). The impact of this upheaval in the industry can be seen in the 84 percent of respondents who feel they will fall behind if they don’t stay current with the industry.
  • Some of the things that keep APAC creatives up at night are losing inspiration/motivation (50 percent), pressure to deliver more content faster than ever (47 percent) and not being trained sufficiently in new skills (46 percent). In ANZ, financial and job security were chief concerns at 52 percent.
  • The desire to learn new things (54 percent), seeing their ideas brought to life (50 percent) and wanting to do great work (43 percent) were the top factors motivating creatives across the whole region. ANZ respondents (61 percent) feel most strongly about producing great work. 
  • APAC creatives identified app development (34%), followed by digital story-telling (12%) and web design (12%) as the skills that will be most in-demand over the next 12 months. In ANZ, graphic design was also listed as a key skill (12%).

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