Introducing Adobe Spark

New (and Free) Visual and Video Creation Tool

Last week, Adobe rocked the design world by launching an expansive, super intuitive web-based platform for designing visuals and video called Adobe Spark (Sp). The best part about Spark is that it’s FREE! That’s right, the company who is known as the giant in the creative media industry has created a game-changing media tool that is free! Amazing, right?!

Source: Adobe

Spark is divided into three categories - Post, Page and Video. In addition to the web-based platform (available to EVERYONE), Adobe has released (essentially, re-released the original Adobe Post app) three stand alone apps - Spark Post, Spark Page and Spark Video. These apps are currently available only to iOS users. It will be released for Android devices in the future, but no timeframe has been publicized yet.

So, what’s the big deal? Well, remember, Spark is FREE and a web-based platform, meaning anyone can create posts for social media, landing pages for websites or video for social/digital media on a desktop at anytime from anywhere - no software, no download, no money!

Adobe has said that they plan to release the ability for premium features at a later date that would include a paid subscription to the service. This will most likely allow for more advanced options, as well as the ability for personal branding. However, the current release of Spark is impressive; you will certainly find many creative and unique ways to create visual content for your social and digital needs (free, remember!).
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It’s nothing special, but I wanted to prove how super easy (and quick) working in Spark can be. I made the following video in no more than 2 minutes as a quick experiment the day it was released with the video builder on desktop.

Spark is built for all users, from beginners to experts, and will no doubt become a game-changer, especially as the platform and apps continue to advance with further functions and options.

It may not act as a replacement for Canva (yet?), but it is certainly a nice companion. It is like having a Mercedes-Benz sedan (aka Canva), but you need an SUV, too, yet you have the opportunity to have a BMW SUV (aka Spark) rather than a Subaru. (Gee, that must be nice, too, right?!).
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One ‘big deal’ item already, though, is the Twitter post template. Spark uses the actual mobile image ratio, rather than the desktop ratio. This means that on any mobile device, your image created with Spark will not be cut off on the sides. More so, it doesn’t affect the way the image shows on desktop when it is expanded.

As you can see above, the image is scaled the same in the Twitter feed, as well as the enlarged version on the left.

Now, in this example, you can see the difference between the two. The image in the feed is slightly cropped on the sides.

So, do yourself a favor and check out Adobe Spark! Right now! This is extremely fresh news. The best way to learn more is to experiment yourself. Feel free to connect with the greater community of Spark users by posting your creations or searching for others on social media with the hashtag #SparkMade.

Happy designing!
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MLS

Images: Adobe Spark, Pablo