The creative software giant has unveiled a new brand identity developed in collaboration with Mother Design. Read on to find out what’s changed and what designers can learn from it.
In 2025, branding and design are key to the success of pretty much every big corporation. But for Adobe, it couldn’t be more important. After all, if you make the software that most of the design profession is using, you have to lead by example.
With that in mind, a brand refresh for Adobe is indeed high-stakes. So it was smart thinking for Adobe to team up with one of our favourite design agencies, Mother Design. (If you’re wondering why, check out their recent work for Scribd and and AirUp.) And the work they’ve served up looks like an instant hit.
At the heart of the refresh is a confident new logotype that pays homage to Marva Warnock’s original 1982 design. Mother’s approach, they explain, was to create something that feels both “inevitable and timeless”, as if it had always been fundamental to Adobe’s identity. And it has to be said, they’ve delivered on that goal.
More significantly, the redesign has made Adobe’s branding dramatically simpler. Previously, the ‘A’ icon and ‘Adobe’ wordmark looked completely different. Now, they’re both fused into a single, self-assured design: a positive-space expression that feels more complete and demands far less corporate gymnastics.
Sharper palette, redder red
But while the logo is the big news here, there’s plenty of other stuff going on besides. For starters, in a move that colour theorists everywhere will appreciate, Adobe has reined in its palette. The new focus is on black, white, and a revitalised Adobe Red: bolder, clearer, and less prone to visual dilution in a sea of rainbow-gradient SaaS logos. It’s the kind of strategic simplification that makes design systems easier to maintain and harder to forget.
A further innovation is ‘The Adobe Lens’: a red frame that contains and highlights images. This unifying element symbolises Adobe’s role as a portal to transformation and creativity, offering immediate brand recognition across diverse applications.
The lens has been meticulously designed for flexibility with defined behaviours (transform, stage, focus) and states (primary, full-flood, and red wash), ensuring consistent yet adaptable implementation across platforms.
A system that holds it all together
This brand evolution has been extended throughout the entire product ecosystem via a scalable, unified design system. Individual product brands now feature refreshed lockups set in Adobe Clean Display: a typeface evolution developed in collaboration with Adobe’s type design team and MCKL Type.
Working alongside Adobe’s product team, Mother Design has also developed a cohesive UI expression system based on Spectrum, Adobe’s product design framework. This system includes redrawn icons, flexible containers and unified motion behaviours to highlight product capabilities across applications.
What designers can learn
There are a lot of changes going on here, then. But what’s striking about this new identity is how unshocking it seems. Yes, the visuals are new, vibrant, and fresh. But at the same time, everything feels natural and kind of like it’s always been there—exactly as Mother envisaged.
More broadly, it’s a great example of how to evolve a global brand with a deep heritage while maintaining recognition and preparing for future expansion. In other words, the old logo and branding weren’t burned to ashes. It did what every smart redesign should: evolve.
While some brands throw out the baby with the bathwater in the name of reinvention, Adobe’s approach feels refreshingly mature. It’s less ‘rebrand’ and more ‘realignment’—the kind that doesn’t alienate long-time users but instead makes everything feel just a bit more… inevitable.