Autodesk unveils brand campaign putting the people who design and make the digital and physical world in the spotlight

Autodesk’s new brand campaign, The World Is Yours for the Making, celebrates the nearly 300 million people who design, make, and operate the places, products, and stories that shape our lives. Created with Giant Spoon and director Salomon Ligthelm – using Autodesk Flow Studio, Maya, and Flame – the campaign launches across U.S. streaming TV, digital, and social, with industry-specific films to roll out over the coming months. At a moment when technology advertising is dominated by AI, Autodesk shifts the spotlight to the people deciding what to make with it.

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Today, Autodesk launched The World Is Yours for the Making, a brand campaign that centers on the architects, engineers, builders, designers, manufacturers, filmmakers, and creators who use it. The 60-second film, created with Giant Spoon and directed by self-taught filmmaker Salomon Ligthelm, rolls out across Autodesk’s channels worldwide and debuts on TV tonight in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco during NBC’s broadcast of the NFL season opener, a rematch of February’s Super Bowl between the Seahawks and Patriots.

The campaign runs against the grain of technology advertising. AI was featured in 23% of this year’s Super Bowl ads, according to iSpot, and 54% of consumers say they hear so much about AI that it has started to annoy them, according to a Harris Poll survey released in June. Autodesk’s answer is a campaign that keeps its technology in the background and puts the people making the decisions in front.

“People change the world. Technology enables us to. Everything around us was designed and made by someone, and most of those people will never be famous for it. Turn on any game this fall, and you’ll see plenty of technology companies talking about the future, with technology as the hero. We wanted to do something different. We wanted to put the spotlight on the people actually designing and making our future. That’s why we’re showing up on the NFL’s opening night and on one of the biggest screens in the world. To celebrate our customers, the unsung heroes designing and making a better world for all. This world is yours for the making. What will you make?” – Dara Treseder, Chief Marketing Officer, Autodesk

Autodesk makes AI tools, including ones used on this film. Why make a campaign that isn’t about those?

Because the most interesting thing about any tool is what someone chooses to do with it.

The architects, engineers, builders, manufacturers, and filmmakers Autodesk serves don’t need to be told AI is changing their work. They’re already living it: architects and engineers are being asked to build more with less time, money and labor; manufacturers are rethinking what they make and how they make it amid inflation and supply chain disruption; and filmmakers can now create at a scale once reserved for major studios without one behind them.

AI is woven into that work and into this campaign, with Autodesk Flow Studio, Maya, and Flame helping bring it to life. But tools do not decide which problems matter, what tradeoffs are worth it, or what deserves to exist. The people who make those decisions, and the judgment behind them, are the territory this campaign explores.

When machines can generate almost anything, the more interesting question isn’t what AI can make but rather: what will people choose to design, make, and operate, and how much further can their ingenuity take us?

“This campaign was designed as a welcome packet to planet Earth. A manual with one simple message. Make something. A big thing. A tiny thing. Anything. As long as it leaves things a little better than you found them. In a world where you can create work in a heartbeat, remember to create work with a heartbeat.” – Ian Grody, Chief Creative Officer, Giant Spoon

The World Is Yours for the Making is Autodesk’s answer: technology can expand what’s possible, but people decide what is worth making. While the technology will keep changing, the human urge to imagine something – and bring it into the world – won’t.

Who is this campaign for?

This campaign is for the entire design, make, and operate community – from the world’s largest companies, which use Autodesk software across complex portfolios, to independent creators and two-person firms bringing one project to life at a time.

Ambition isn’t defined by the size of a company, and increasingly, neither is impact. More than one third of the Design and Make workforce (36%) now works freelance or on contract, while nearly one in five (18%) is considering starting a business this year, according to Autodesk’s State of Small Business report, conducted with GlobalData. Autodesk launched Autodesk for Small Business in May to better serve this growing community.

The campaign brings all of these people into the same story, because they share the same drive to take something they can imagine and make it real.

Where will the campaign live?

The campaign is live across Autodesk-owned channels globally and a broad paid media mix in the U.S., including streaming TV, digital, audio, and social. Select TV placements in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco will debut during the NFL’s Patriots vs. Seahawks kickoff game.

Autodesk’s NFL placement extends a fast-growing presence the company has built in professional sports over the past year. Since September 2025, Autodesk has been the Official Design and Make Platform for the New England Patriots, with Autodesk Forma serving as the digital backbone to prepare Gillette Stadium for its year-round event schedule, as well as the Kraft Group’s real estate projects. Autodesk holds the same designation with the Cleveland Browns, as Autodesk Forma is supporting the build of their new stadium, Huntington Bank Field, opening in 2029.

How will the campaign show up in the physical world?

Starting September 13, an activation on the Exosphere of Sphere in Las Vegas will welcome more than 12,000 Design and Make professionals arriving for Autodesk University 2026, the company’s annual customer conference.

The animation, which shows the stages of design and construction on an epic-scale building complete with the cranes, forklifts, and elevators in motion, brings to life the machinery behind the scenes of the built world – a literal take on the campaign’s ethos: “This big world we call home is yours for the making.”

The campaign will also come to life through out-of-home advertising at Harry Reid International Airport and throughout Las Vegas, with placements spanning retail, rideshare, and other high-visibility urban placements.

A Venetian Installation will also invite AU attendees to answer, via QR code, “What is your #1 principle for designing and making?” The first 2,000 participants will receive a Moleskine notebook, with 100 more given away to online entrants who participate here.

What was technology’s role in the making of the campaign?

The campaign itself reflects the idea that technology is only as good as the people using it. The 60-second film was made using Autodesk Flow Studio, Maya, and Flame throughout the production process.

What’s next?

After AU, the campaign will continue through industry-specific films across architecture, engineering, construction, and operations; design and manufacturing; and media and entertainment. The World Is Yours for the Making will become Autodesk’s ongoing platform for telling the stories of the people behind the scenes shaping what gets designed and made.

Learn more about the campaign here.
Watch the film here.

About Autodesk

The world’s designers, engineers, builders, and creators trust Autodesk to help them design and make anything. From the buildings we live and work in, to the cars we drive and the bridges we drive over. From the products we use and rely on, to the movies and games that inspire us. Autodesk’s Design and Make Platform unlocks the power of data to accelerate insights and automate processes, empowering our customers with the technology to create the world around us and deliver better outcomes for their business and the planet. For more information, visit autodesk.com or follow @autodesk. #MakeAnything 

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SOURCE Autodesk, Inc.