Adobe Founders' Award Book
The Adobe Founders' Award, established in 2001, is one of the company's highest honors, recognizing employees for embodying Adobe's core values: create the future, own the outcome, raise the bar, be genuine. In 2023, I proposed a new approach to the recipient gift: a bound book, part of a collection meant to grow over the next 20 years, with a personalized outer sleeve, a dedicated section for each recipient with a stylized photograph and name, and two spreads of peer-written quotes.
Bob Aufuldish designed the first edition in 2023; through working sessions with Zoey Gassner and me, we established the format that followed, including the "red thread," a unifying cover design element carried across every edition since. Zoey has been the artist liaison across all three editions, taking charge of each year's creative brief and leading the conversations with the incoming designer, while I oversee the program and each year's direction. Zoey also designed the book herself in 2024.
The 2025–2026 edition, designed by Julia Schimautz, profiled 13 award recipients across an 86-page interior, taken from concept through four rounds of review to final print. Julia's process was distinctive: she designed the book in InDesign, printed it on a Risograph, then rescanned and re-composed those printed pages back into InDesign to produce the final print files, giving the book a hand-done, textural quality native to her style.
Credits
John Caponi / Commissioning Creative Director / Original concept (2023), program oversight across all editions
Zoey Gassner / Artist Liaison / Creative briefs and artist conversations across all editions (2023–2026); helped establish the format and "red thread" (2023); Designer, second edition (2024)
Bob Aufuldish / Designer / First edition (2023); helped establish the format and "red thread" through working sessions
Peter Chase / Editor / All editions (2023–2026)
Pat Patterson / Editor / First edition (2023)
Deb Fant / Project Management / First edition (2023)
Julia Schimautz / Designer / Third edition (2025–2026)
Shannon Judkins / Project Management / Third edition (2025–2026)
