The CreativePro Podcast

No matter how long you've used your favorite creative tools, there's always one more shortcut, hidden feature, or unexpected workaround waiting to surprise you. In this episode, Theresa Jackson and Mike Rankin share a collection of practical tips and "wait, you can do that?" discoveries submitted by CreativePro Week speakers. You'll hear tips for favorite tools from Acrobat to PowerPoint, includin...

Some of the most useful new Illustrator features are easy to miss if you aren't actively exploring the latest updates and beta tools. In this episode, Theresa Jackson talks with illustrator and toy designer Thaddeus Coates and digital artist Luke Choice about the new Illustrator features they're genuinely excited to use. Thaddeus shares how Illustrator fits into his character design and toy-making...

Canva's mission is to empower the world to design, and by most measures, it's working. Millions of people create content in Canva every day, which means design is no longer something that belongs exclusively to designers. Now, with the acquisition of Affinity, Canva is making a move into professional territory. So what does that actually mean for those of us who make a living in this space? In thi...

Great design lessons outlive the tools, trends, and even the formats they were created in. In this episode, David Blatner and Mike Rankin revisit the work of John McWade and Before & After Magazine . It's a look at why foundational design thinking still matters and how McWade's work continues to shape how creatives see and communicate. You'll hear how Before & After began in 1990 and why it resona...

Lisa Carney and Jesús Ramirez join the CreativePro Podcast to explore the intersection of Photoshop craft and community in the age of AI. Drawing on years of Hollywood production experience (where every pixel counts) they compare notes on high-end retouching and compositing. The conversation bridges traditional techniques with the latest AI-powered tools. Lisa and Jesús share behind-the-scenes sto...

In this episode of the CreativePro Podcast, David Blatner and Theresa Jackson pull back the curtain on how the CreativePro Week 2026 agenda came together for this summer's event in Nashville. Recorded in conjunction with the agenda launch, the conversation offers a timely look at the decisions shaping the program. If you've ever attended CreativePro Week and felt like the content spoke directly to...

Theresa Jackson and Mike Rankin kick off the new year by reflecting on 2025 before looking ahead to 2026. They share their thoughts on design trends for 2026, framed less as visual styles and more as shifts in behavior and mindset. They also react to the Pantone Color of the Year, Cloud Dancer, and what it suggests about the current cultural mood. AI enters the discussion, as it has become part of...

Theresa Jackson kicks off this episode of the CreativePro Podcast by digging into one of the most common frustrations for creative teams: review and approval chaos. She's joined by Mike McHugh from PageProof. Listeners are invited to learn alongside Theresa as she asks the questions many teams wrestle with every day. Together, they unpack why creative reviews break down, why email and ad-hoc tools...

Mike Parkinson and Jody Wissing join the CreativePro Podcast for a candid conversation about their unexpected paths into presentation design. They explain that presentation design isn't what most people think it is. It's not about making pretty slides. It's about understanding and caring about the content well enough to turn it into a story. They walk through their favorite features for building s...

David Blatner and Theresa Jackson return from Adobe MAX 2025 with stories, insights, and a few surprises. They recap the biggest announcements, their favorite new features, and the feeling of creative inspiration that had nothing to do with Adobe. From AI showing up in nearly every app to Firefly credits, new collaboration tools, and what it all means for creative professionals, they break down th...

During Adobe MAX, Canva dropped a bombshell announcement: the entire Affinity suite—Affinity Photo, Designer, and Publisher—would be free forever . In this episode, David Blatner, Theresa Jackson, and Mike Rankin share their reactions to the news and unpack what it means for creative professionals. They discuss how Canva's move shakes up the design software landscape and whether Affinity can ever...

InDesign 2026 is here—and so are David and Anne-Marie! In this episode of  The CreativePro Podcast , David Blatner and Anne-Marie Concepción bring back InDesign Secrets and dig into the newest release of Adobe InDesign (v21). They explore what's fresh, and what's just plain weird. From the new Flex Layout feature to live text editing in the browser, they unpack the good, the bad, and the future po...

In this episode, Amy Balliett and Mark Heaps sit down for an honest conversation about artificial intelligence and what it means for creative professionals. They share how AI is showing up in their work today, the opportunities it creates, and the worries it raises about originality, ethics, and the future of design. Along the way, you'll hear candid reflections on how creatives can keep their uni...

In this episode, Theresa Jackson and Mike Rankin go behind the scenes at CreativePro. They share how their similar career beginnings in prepress connected them at their first meeting many years ago, and how they now share overlapping roles at CreativePro. You'll hear from Mike about the CreativePro Magazine evolution from InDesign-only coverage to a broader creative focus, and other changes that m...

InDesignSecrets is now the CreativePro podcast! Join David Blatner and Theresa Jackson and review the past 20 years of podcasting, as well as w hat to expect next! Links and Info: Our podcast started in late 2005 ! Trivia: Did you know our podcast intro music was created by Anne-Marie Concepcion's daughter, Nicole?! Have an idea for a future podcast? Leave us a note below!

Topics: Big news about podcast name Our favorite obscure features Fun obscure feature "spelling bee" game Obscure Feature: Positional Form   Friendly Alien: Episode 300 Tip of the Week   Barbell: 20 Obscure Features Episode 35   List of All Our Obscure Features (so far)   Positional Form: Exploring OpenType Pro Fonts, Part 2

Just for fun: Bad Advice (and Good Lessons) Interview with Marcus Radich from PageProof Obscure feature: Show Transparency Grid Links: Bad Advice The "Bad Advice" thread on Facebook Sara Rosinsky's Em Dash shirt Interview with PageProof: New Proofing Add-in for Microsoft Office Centralizing the Proofing Process with PageProof News: Adobe engineers did an Ask Us Anything 24-hour marathon on the InD...

Topics: Great lessons from the archives (that you may have missed) First look at InDesign 20.3 Obscure Feature: Delete All Guides on Spread Sponsor: PageProof is a simple-to-use but powerful online proofing platform that makes giving feedback on creative work effortless See David's latest conversation with PageProof founder, Marcus Radich Links: Old InDesign Magazine articles that are definitely e...

* DOIE: Dept. of InDesign Efficiency * Obscure Feature: Clear Rotation * News Links: Dept. of InDesign Efficiency 10 Essential Tips for Using Quick Apply in InDesign Activate Last Used Field Shortcut Apply Leading to Entire Paragraphs: What Causes Inconsistent Leading and How to Fix It How to Start Using InDesign Scripts How-to Create a Custom Workspace The weird "Place Gun Frame" trick: Applying...

Topics: The INDDC format: good and bad Interview with Venngage CEO Eugene Woo Obscure Feature: Reset Preferences on Quit Links: Cloud Docs: Collaborating Using Adobe Cloud Documents Creative Cloud Storage: Where Does It Go? Working with Adobe Cloud Documents Anne-Marie's Cloud Docs video "for Design Geeks" on LinkedIn Learning The endgame… collaborative editing, like the current Photoshop beta Ven...

Includes: Favorite font tricks Interview with Theresa Jackson InDesign 20.1 Obscure feature: Match Pasteboard to Theme Color News: 20.1 is in release rollout multi-find/change is now free Old (but still relevant!) InDesign Magazine articles, now on site: Designing Photo Albums in InDesign by Khara Plicanic Getting Started with GREP Styles in InDesign by Steve Caplin Working in Microsoft Word by Ja...

Topics: Anchored Objects Interview with Marcus Radich, PageProof Obscure Feature: Standard Carriage Return Links: Marcus Radich, from PageProof.com Anchored Objects: Working with Anchored Objects in InDesign How to Anchor a Graphic to Text (Video Tutorial) Anchoring Graphics Between Paragraphs Wrapping Text Around an Anchored Object Drag and Drop Anchored Objects Coming in 2025: CreativePro Week T...

Table Scripts: Switching Rows and Columns in an InDesign Table Sort tables Setting Table Column Widths Easier Table Formatting Sizing Columns and Rows with a Script Calculations in InDesign Active Tables plug-in from DTP Tools Fixed Issues in InDesign 20.0.1 CreativePro Events: The Design + AI Summit, CreativePro Week, and more Obscure Feature: Cell Division

What's New in InDesign 2025: Adobe's update page How to Avoid Print Problems with MathML in InDesign New Accessibility Features in InDesign 2025 James Wamser's New Features Guide Creative Cloud Storage: Where Does Your Work Go? New "wow" products at MAX Project Neo Substance 3D Viewer Amazing ProjectTurntable from Sneaks Interview with: Karen Brewer, Adobe Obscure Feature: "Show Subset" Five Ways...

News: CreativePro Week 2025 in Phoenix: registration is open CreativePro online summits   The Design + Accessibility Summit The Design + Marketing Summit The Design + AI Summit CreativePro Magazine Sept. 2025 issue: Accessibility Tools Sponsors of this episode: Adobe MAX : The Creativity Conference PageProof : All your proofing in one place. Online.   Embedding Graphics:   To Embed or Not to Embed...