Adobe: “A Rising Tide Lifts All” Event
Over the last few years, the pandemic has brought about great changes in the workplace and how we work. As we face an economic downturn/shifting tides after the great resignation to potential mass layoffs and uncertainty, it is crucial for organizations to improve company culture and keep employees engaged and fulfilled. I am delighted to host an employee engagement event at Adobe Global HQ in San Jose to share my Cross-Cultural creative journey with the community.
The event started with APIA (Asian Pacific Islander @ Adobe) ERG leaders Shipali & Shirley introducing the APIA initiative and providing all attendees boba & dumplings to celebrate our AANHPI community & culture through our food & beverage! And, of course, the real-life 🧋 & 🥟 matched our content from my first fireside chat with Margaret Quan, Sr. Director, Product Led Growth Initiatives at Adobe. Margaret chatted with me about my stories behind creating the Unicode Dumpling 🥟 & Boba tea🧋 emoji designs and how I used Adobe products, such as Photoshop & Illustrator, to create original artworks of 🥟🧋🥡🥠🥢 🦚 used by billions.
I also talked about the importance of artists & scientists working together to create innovation – from the boba tea emoji story, where the initial rejection of the boba tea emoji proposal was rescued by three Data Scientists, Ranjitha, Sujay, and Timothy, and how we worked together to successfully championed the emoji on everyone’s phone today. I also shared my recent collaboration with the Computer History Museum on its wall art featuring six global emoji changemakers: Katrina; Paul, Rayouf, Lumen and Jennifer. I also shared my creative process behind the Shanghai Disney Resort cross-cultural campaign, where I integrated Mickey, Simba, Mulan, Elsa, and Snow White & 7 Dwarfs with traditional Chinese paper aesthetics by using Adobe Creative Cloud products, such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, and Acrobat.
My second fireside chat was with the Head of Community Advocacy & Customer Empathy, Teresa Au, where we discussed what it was like for me to grow up in Asia, go through a STEM high school, and convince my parents and family to move overseas to study design in Australia & the UK; the story behind my name where my grandfather changed from “Pretty & Creative” to “Happy & Creative”. We also discussed the importance of mental health and how creating art transformed my sadness about losing my grandma during the pandemic into an ongoing flower project, art show, and new connections.
Finally, we had an exciting raffle drawing where everyone who attended the event got a chance to win the 12 art pieces. It was such a fun engagement and gave people incentives towards the end of the talk to receive a present 🎁 being present 😉.
It was great to be part of the Adobe community and share my journey to amplify awareness of diverse API cultures & strengthen ties across communities – a rising tide lifts all of us!
Copyright © 2023 Yiying Lu
