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A Visit to Adobe

A visit with the Photoshop engineers at 345 Park Avenue, San Jose, CA

June 16 & 17, 2005

Adobe garage entrance — When you visit Adobe Systems, Inc. visitors are allowed to park in the underground parking lots. The image on the left is the main door from the garage to the lobby. As is fitting for a company built largely upon type, type is a recurring theme in the decor.

Adobe towers exterior — Looking North at the 345 Park Avenue address. On the left is the West Tower and on the right is the East Tower. Just barely visible between the two towers is the newest 3rd tower called the Almaden Tower—where the "suits" (executives) work.

Adobe courtyard — On the sixth floor, there is an open air courtyard between the three buildings that has a boccie ball court as well as a basketball court. On both the 14th and 15th floors are walkways that connect the three towers.

Plane overhead — First time visitors might be surprised to learn that the Adobe Towers are in a direct line with the runways of San Jose airport. On most days, planes fly directly overhead—and I mean DIRECTLY OVERHEAD—on their way to land.

View from Adobe — More about "da plane, da plane" later, but I must say that once inside, you never ever hear the planes. Yes, from 10 West, the Photoshop floor, you can sure see them really well, but the soundproofing inside the towers is very good.

Inside Adobe

Adobe reception stairs — Back inside and up the staircase (or elevator) you'll find the main second floor reception.

Adobe security entrance — Here's the main entry to the reception area and security. Visitors must sign in and be "escorted" into the upper floors. However, it's not a good idea to get into it with Adobe security—they don't care who you are or who you know.

Adobe lobby — The reception lobby is pretty hightech with a lot of glass and stone and leather. There's an interesting display of backlit screens with product designs and several with video against the wall.

Meeting the Photoshop Team

John Nack office — Finally, somebody answered their phone and Chris Cox came down to escort me to the 10th floor. My first visit was supposed to be with John Nack, but he had been in the same meeting with everybody else. Here's John in his office.

John Nack with flag — John, who was recently promoted to Senior Product Manager for Photoshop likes flags—such as the "Don't Tread On Me" first used by the Continental Navy in 1775.

John Nack with Photoshop box — Here's John posing with the Big Box, a promotional over-sized Photoshop CS2 package. It's only incidental that I posed him as though he's "carrying Photoshop". But with little prompting on my part, he struck his famous "kiss the bicep" pose.

Julieanne Kost — Just down the hall is Julieanne Kost's office. I snuck up on her and snapped a shot before she realized who I was. Fortunately, Julieanne was happy to see me.

Joe Ault — Next was a snap of Joe Ault. Joe chased me with his CD Sword, actually, it's a prop left over from a party.

Photoshop Lounge — In the far Southwest corner of the 10th floor is the official Photoshop Lounge. They used to have big bean bag chairs but it seems some decorator has gotten loose and made things a bit more "formal". The chairs are comfy though.

Chris Cox office — Just down from the lounge on the left is the office of Chris Cox. You'll note Chris' taste in decoration—a kernel convolution chart, a gamut map and pictures of birds. Chris is actually an avid and rather talented photographer.

Chris Cox door toy — Chris knew I was there—he didn't even turn around when I snapped the first shot. He just said "Hi Jeff". So, I did a close up of his door knob toy.

Russell Williams surprised — My next shooting victim was Russell Williams. The first shutter release made him turn around and the second release caught a really good "deer caught in the headlights" look.

Russell Williams — Russell is now the Co-Photoshop Architect having earned the title when Mark Hamburg left the Photoshop team (Russell shares the title with Scott Byer). Russell is also a talented and avid photographer who traces back to the old "film days".

Seetha surprised — Next, I snuck up on Seetha—caught him pretty good as well.

Seetha greeting — Seetha, whose full name is Seetharanan Narayanan was the number 3 engineer to work on Photoshop after Thomas Knoll and Mark Hamburg. So Seetha has been there a long time—and still loves working on Photoshop.

Scott Byer office — Just down the hall is Scott Byer's office (Co-Photoshop Architect). Scott's office is the closest to the Photoshop Lounge. You'll note that Scott is partial to LCD screens, a lot of them!

Seetha whiteboard — I caught Seetha just outside of Joe's office talking about a "new feature" that he wanted to work on. He immediately started drawing it out on Joe's whiteboard. What's the new feature idea? Can't tell you... top secret!

Jeff Chien — Just down the hall is Jeff Chien. Jeff was "caught"! Jeff, along with Todor Georgiev, has been responsible for some of the real math heavy techie things like Smart Sharpen and Reduce Noise. They also worked together on the Healing Brush.

Sarah Kong — Sarah Kong didn't want me to take a sneaky shot of her so I did a nice pose. She's one of the few "Women of Photoshop" in the engineering department and also has the cleanest office.

The Kitchen & Lunch

Adobe kitchen — Within the labyrinth of the Adobe floor design is a popular place—the kitchen. Free soft drinks and coffee—the caffeine helps!

Magnetic letters — Here's a collage of just a few of the magnetic letter phrases the Photoshop team has spelled out.

Adobe front door — Speaking of lunch, it was time to go out the front door, head up Park Ave and go to lunch.

Walk to lunch — John Nack had set up lunch with the "Bridge Builders", the engineering team working on Adobe Bridge.

Lunch at Gordon Biersch — We had settled on Gordon Biersch, a brewery restaurant a short walk from Adobe. Around the table from left to right is: John Nack, Christoph Moskalonek, Arno Gourdol (Bridge Engineering Manager), Marc Pawliger, Jason Graham, Cris Rys and Gunar Penikis (Bridge Product Manager).

Arno Gourdol — I got Arno Gourdol, Bridge Engineering Manager, to put on his shades and look too cool! Cool!

More Engineers

Russell Preston Brown — Back at Adobe, I wandered over to the East Tower and hunted down Russell Preston Brown. I didn't sneak up on Russell. In fact, at times, he just hangs out looking through his office door as though he's a cat waiting for a mouse to walk by.

Russell Brown Godzilla — After enticing me into his office, he pounced with his Godzilla attack toy! Notice that snarl? It's all bluff, he's really just a tame little pussy cat.

Marc Pawliger on ball — Back over in the West Tower, I stalked Marc Pawliger, the Engineering Director on Photoshop. Marc, it seems, likes to have a ball, a real ball—to SIT ON! He claims it's very comfortable and eases the strain on his back.

Marc Pawliger office — Marc has one of the big offices (he's a director, ya know) and loves his toys but keeps a pretty clean office.

Marc's toys — Some of Marc's toys from his extensive collection.

Wall poster — Adorning the 10th floor are a variety of things hanging on the wall. This was an amusing poster I saw that pulled quotes from various statements made during the Photoshop CS2 Press Tour.

Poster note closeup — Close up of a note on the poster. Turns out John penned that little "quote" himself and added it to the other quotes as a joke!

CS2 shipping party — A shot by Russell Williams taken at the Photoshop CS2 shipping party at the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz. The marketing and engineering managers on Photoshop got all gussied up in costume.

Photoshop War Room — Just down the hall is the Photoshop War Room—Top Secret! I've been in there, but no photos allowed—seriously! This is the room where the future of Photoshop is decided.

Todor Jeff Gwyn — Here's Todor and Jeff hanging out in the hall and Gwyn Weisberg, one of the product managers. To talk to Todor and Jeff is an exercise in extreme mathematics. They are brilliant guys—when the two of them talk to each other, magic happens.

Bryan Lamkin — Choosing to keep his office on 10 West (instead of the Almaden Tower) the "big guy" on the 10th floor is Bryan Lamkin, Senior Vice President, Digital Imaging and Digital Video Business Unit at Adobe. Bryan started at Adobe as the first product manager of the Windows version of Photoshop, version 2.5.

Friday Beer Bash

Cafe Adobe — Since I was there on a Friday, of course I had to go down to Cafe Adobe for the Friday Beer Bash.

Beer bash setup — The Friday Beer Bash is hosted by different groups within Adobe each week. It's free beer and snacks for anybody around late Friday afternoon.

Lynn and Chris — Lynn Shade and Chris Cox are "hangin' out". Chris may look like he's drinking beer—he is, root beer.

Geek food — Ok, it isn't chic, it's geek food. But the beer is pretty good, and it's free.

Discussions — Which can "facilitate" some pretty energetic discussions and debates.

Seetha and Marc debating — Here's Seetha making a point, with Marc reacting with skepticism, but it's all in good fun.

Bottle caps — Spent bottle cap still life #1.

Scott Cris Lynn — Scott is getting small, Cris Rys is getting tall and Lynn looking happy.

Adobe Merging shirt — Best T-Shirt seen? Cris Rys' "Adobe Merging" T-Shirt—made 3 years earlier when the Pro UI Team "took over" the Consumer UI team.

Shirt back — Here's the backside of the shirt.

Da Plane!

Plane overhead 1 — Da plane boss, da plane! Ok, it isn't exactly fantasy island, but there sure are a lot of planes flying overhead, and rather close as well.

Plane overhead 2 — They're pretty hard to ignore when you're outside on the patio.

Plane overhead 3 — At one point, I was going to do a bit of "Photoshopping" to make the planes appear even larger. But I really didn't need to.

Wide angle plane shot — Even with a 10-22mm wide angle lens, I was able to capture some rather close shots of the planes.

Winding Down

Seetha with iPod — As the beer bash wound down, Seetha went in to put on his bike riding gear—including his iPod. Seetha was boogying down and singing out loud, loudly!

Chris reaction — Which I'm sure to Seetha sounded groovy, but Chris had a slightly different reaction.

So, that ends a typical Friday with the Photoshop engineers. They are a solid family (mostly) of like-minded and dedicated individuals hellbent on making Photoshop the best it can be. But, they also like to have a good time while working. It's been my privilege to go visit them often over the years, and it's always a treat to hang out with them (and bend their ears to try to get stuff into Photoshop).

It should be noted that there are far more people working on Photoshop than pictured here. To those people, sorry you weren't around.

Thanks guys!

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