Adobe Design Achievement Awards

What are they?

The Adobe Design Achievement Awards are the world's premier digital media competition for students and emerging creators. Get exposure to creative leaders and influencers, connect with other young artists and designers, and learn what it takes to land today’s most coveted creative jobs.

What was my project (zFlick)?

Zflick was a free Adobe® AIR™ application for viewing and saving photos from the Flickr service that an algorithm thought made it "interesting". The application gave each image a score based on a few dimensions, including how popular the image was on the Flickr service at the time.

I built zFlick while in university, submitted and eventually won 1st place in the Application Development category of the competition.

A Few Video Clips

A Life Changing Experience

The Adobe Design Achievement Awards literally changed my life overnight.

There I was registering for my first passport (and first time out of the USA) to travel completely across the world to Beijing, China -- all in the name of "design". I thought to myself: "Wow, I think I can make a career out of this after all".

I ended up returning back to New York after a few weeks in Beijing with the 1st place prize, and a group of international friends with like interests. Many years later I would end up attending the Wedding of one of my dear friends Jacob, whom I met in Beijing that year. It was truely an experience I will never forget, and I am so grateful to Adobe for the opportunity.

Continuing the Relationship...

A few years after the 2009 ADAA's I was pinged by one of the Adobe Creative Community ambassadors to join the Judging panel for that year (2011) and attend Adobe Max in LA.

Edit 2020:

I've since been involved with this competition for 9+ years, and have had the great honor of reviewing student work each year and providing portfolio reviews to incredible talent across the globe. I'm currently an official Mentor on the Adobe Creative Discord Server.