Find your creative spark: Meet the luminaries at Adobe MAX 2026

Check out the new luminary sessions at Adobe MAX 2026

Register today

As Robert Half ramps up to sponsor and exhibit at Adobe MAX 2026, we had a chance to connect with the Adobe team and gather insider insights on this year’s event.

Join Robert Half at Adobe MAX in Miami Beach in November and find fresh inspiration with luminary sessions.

Luminaries are the artists, innovators and creative trailblazers who light up Adobe MAX by sharing their personal journeys and influential work and fresh perspectives. This year, Adobe is welcoming 5 first-time luminary speakers, bringing brand-new voices and ideas to the MAX stage.

In luminary sessions, you’ll gain new perspectives on how experience, passion, talent and experimentation shape creative work. Learn how each new luminary thinks about creativity, develops original workflows and harnesses innovative new Adobe tools and technology while preserving the raw joy of creativity.

Whether you're looking for your next big idea, a new way of thinking or a creative role model, luminary sessions are the place to find it. Add these sessions to your MAX agenda, discover your next creative hero and bring fresh inspiration back to every project you tackle. Explore all luminary sessions by selecting “Luminary” in the Adobe MAX catalog’s session-type filter.

Let’s meet the newest luminaries coming to Adobe MAX:

George Butler

Illustrator and artist-reporter George Butler reports from conflict zones, climate hotspots and humanitarian crises, using pen, ink and watercolor to tell deeply human stories that go beyond the headlines. Over two decades he has documented frontline experiences from Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq, Nepal, Ukraine, Syria and Angola, focusing not on spectacle but on meaning, dignity and identity. George encourages a new perspective on the world’s most urgent stories and champions creativity in education, the home and the workplace. George is the co-founder of ACTION SYRIA.

Join George for the luminary session, Creativity, Crisis, and the Future of Being Human. News moves fast. Human stories don't. Can "slow journalism" repair what polarized media has broken? By slowing down in places characterized by urgency, George cuts through today’s fragmented, fatigue-driven news cycle and offers a powerful counterpoint to the speed and abstraction of the digital age. Learn how visual storytelling can deepen empathy and understanding, and how he uses ink, time-lapse and stop-frame techniques to report the news.

Murugiah

Murugiah is a British Sri Lankan multi-disciplinary artist, illustrator and designer working in London. Using a colorfully surreal visual aesthetic, he playfully explores the macabre, bittersweet and joyful experience of his daily life and identity. Infused with candy-coated dreams and peppered with South Asian motifs, his work—encompassing film, architecture, art and design—resonates with those also seeking kindness, authenticity and compassion.

Check out Murugiah’s luminary session Finding Your Creative Voice on Your Own Terms. Fresh from his landmark solo show at the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, Murugiah shares his unconventional journey from architect to multidisciplinary artist, with a practice that now spans illustration, design, public sculpture and animation. Murugiah takes you behind the scenes of commercial projects for Apple, New Balance, Faber and Elton John, sharing honest stories of reinvention, self-discovery and uncertainty—and how these challenges ultimately shaped his work.

Marisol Ortega

Marisol Ortega is a first-generation Mexican-American designer, illustrator and art director living and working in the Pacific Northwest. She is best known for her vibrant flora and fauna illustrations that play with texture, linework, bold color palettes and organic shapes—reflecting an exploration of her cultures.

In Marisol’s luminary session, Your Life Is the Moodboard, she asks: “What if your next great idea is closer than you think?” Discover how everyday moments, memories and experiences can turn your life into your own mood board. Learn how to elevate the ordinary, unlock original ideas from life experiences and create work that feels authentic, personal and uniquely yours. In this session, we'll explore the redesign of the Seattle Kraken's jersey for Women in Hockey Month and discover the inspiration behind it.

Vanessa Rivera

Vanessa Rivera is the artist behind The Life of AIVAX, where family life and creativity collide in the most whimsical way. She teams up with her kids and husband to build props and photo sets that turn everyday moments into storybook-style magic, using photography, digital painting and compositing to bring the scenes to life. Think childhood nostalgia, big imagination and a little bit of everyday chaos turned into art.

Join Vanessa for the luminary session, Creative Storytelling that Stands Out in a Crowded Feed. Great stories don’t always start with big ideas—they often begin with small, ordinary moments we tend to overlook. Rivera shares how everyday moments have inspired some of her most viral and meaningful artwork. Through her Notice, Expand, Whimsify framework, she’ll break down her creative process and show attendees how to create stories that feel original, emotional and impossible to scroll past.

Hayden Hillier-Smith

Hayden Hillier-Smith is a Streamy Award-winning video editor and creative director known for shaping some of the most influential content on YouTube. As the longtime lead editor for Logan Paul, he helped redefine what modern online editing looks like—developing a fast-paced, story-driven style that has reached billions of views and influenced a generation of creators.

Hayden has collaborated with top creators including MrBeast, Johnny Harris, Michelle Khare and Sam & Colby. He runs the HillierSmith YouTube channel and co-hosts The Editing Podcast.

Join Hayden for the luminary session, Story vs. Scroll: Crafting Narratives for the Attention Economy. Two editing languages are competing for dominance. Traditional storytelling is patient, invisible and built to serve the narrative. Modern web media is aggressive, fast-cut and engineered for fractured attention. But what if the tension isn't a rivalry—but a gap? Hayden shares the unified editing philosophy he's developed: A modernized approach to classical principles that respects the attention economy without abandoning artistry.

Ready to join Robert Half at Adobe MAX and experience Luminary Sessions for yourself?

Register today and save $400 on an in-person conference pass with promo code RHMAX26.