Is Adobe Originals closing down?

mitradranirban
Posts: 65
Adobe is sacking Robert Slimbach who is just near his retirement.
https://typo.social/@slye/114603402101358430
Is Adobe going to replace original design with AI designed typefaces in future?
https://typo.social/@slye/114603402101358430
Is Adobe going to replace original design with AI designed typefaces in future?
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Comments
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I don’t get the sense that their goal is to replace original type design with AI type design but this is rather a recognition that Adobe Originals served its purpose and is no longer a differentiator that drives sales of Adobe products. They have so many high quality fonts from so many different foundries (and getting more all the time) that they don’t need to continue producing new ones themselves.
There could also be some interest in AI lettering, but that wouldn’t really compete with what Slimbach brought to the table, at least at this point.2 -
But Slye didn't say anything about AI. This is a speculation from another user. I don't think Adobe will adopt this path since it damages Adobe Type as a product.1
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People may speculate about his “retirement,” but has he actually announced any farewell tours yet?
I wouldn’t be surprised if he has a few ideas for typefaces that weren’t quite right for the Adobe brand, but would like to develop, perhaps for another foundry, or even his own indie outfit.2 -
My favorite recent design of his is Ten Roman, particularly its italic, somewhere in his design continuum between Arno and Brioso. I also dig the new Adobe Aldine and Adobe Text. Such understated names, such little fanfare, such hidden treasures. I hope he’s at least measurably rich from all of this, if only in Adobe stock options. Perhaps like Zapf he has plenty more output left to release.2
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I am sure he did OK financially. Adobe pays decently.
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And Adobe Kis. Agreed, Slimbach/Adobe have been very quietly releasing some masterpieces recently. It's a shame they no longer seem to provide printable PDF specimens — just very tall, narrow, single-page specimens that cannot usefully be printed and do not even have a full showing of characters.2
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(I wanted to say some more here, just been busy with some family medical stuff....)
Robert Slimbach is one of the greatest living masters of type design. He is passionate about his craft, and one can learn a lot by studying his work.
I have been wanting to spend some quality time with Adobe Aldine, maybe this will be an impetus to do so.1 -
To expand on my post: Robert is pretty close to retirement age and has long been conflicted between his desire to produce work to his own high standards and the fact that the work makes him somewhat miserable. There have always been projects he wants to do (and re-do), which has made it hard for him to just walk away. To make matters worse, he’s often been pulled off his own work to fulfill other requests (e.g. Adobe Clean).
My primary complaint about this situation is how Adobe is simply cutting him loose, rather than crafting a more graceful retirement. Personally, I think it show’s a lack of respect for someone who has had a long, storied career and, in a small way, put Adobe on the map. Some might say he wouldn’t have ever voluntarily retired, but now we’ll never know.
There are still some great designers working on the Type team, along with other dedicated staff. One could reasonably say the Adobe Originals program can live on through them, but I think that really depends on management, since the program has always been about dedicated resources and marketing — and I’m not optimistic about either.
With all due respect to Robert and Carol and everyone who made contributions over the years, I could argue that the Originals program was somewhat tainted in the ’90s when the “Adobe Originals” brand was slapped on some dubious, ephemeral typefaces. Later, at some point the Originals name was repurposed as the name for anything in the Adobe-owned type library*, and not the previously-designated set of typefaces, which further undermined the brand.
(* I was there when this happened and I remember not feeling great about the idea, but at the time it didn’t seem like there were good alternatives. I believe it occurred around the time we started distributing Adobe-owned fonts through Fontspring and Typekit.)
Anyhow, my point is that Adobe Originals has lost much of its original luster, so if Adobe doesn’t want to make original Western typefaces anymore, it feels like it’s time to close the book on it. That makes me a little sad because it’s been very important to me in many ways, but all things must pass.
Anyone who has worked with Robert knows he can be very difficult — but there’s no denying he’s a driven, committed artist. He has other (non-type) outlets for that which make him happy, so I’ll be very surprised if we see any more type from him, but time will tell.15 -
The great thing about being one’s own boss is that there is no “retirement age.”
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conflicted between his desire to produce work to his own high standards and the fact that the work makes him somewhat miserableThat sound horribly familiar.
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