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 slides in PowerPoint plus other essential apps for outlining, note gathering, and creating visual elements. Their conversation includes open and honest thoughts about the growing role of AI in presentation design. They share what’s helping them, what’s changing their workflows, and what keeps them curious—or cautious. They also talk about where they hope AI will take the industry and where they’d prefer it not to go, all while emphasizing the human thinking that still guides great presentation work.

Episode Highlights

• Hear how Jody’s very first presentation on a kindergarten playground set the tone for a lifetime of storytelling.
• Follow Mike’s winding path from fine art to bioengineering to comic books before he ever opened PowerPoint.
• Learn why Jody sometimes shows 300+ slides in a 45-minute presentation, and how audiences never notice.
• Hear Mike describe AI as a Friction Fixer or Accelerator. It is part of the process, not the product.
• Listen as both designers share how AI is already part of their daily process, what it helps them do, and why the human element still matters.
• Catch their honest fears and hopes for AI—including how far they think avatars might go.

Resources and Links

• Mike Parkinson – Website
• Jody Wissing – Website
• Inkscape – Free vector graphics editor
• Slidewise – Add-in for managing and inspecting PowerPoint content
• NXPowerLite – Windows file compressor
• Creative Cloud Libraries for PowerPoint – Add On
• The Presentation Design Conference 2026, February 17–20, 2026
• CreativePro Week 2026, Nashville, June 29–July 3, 2026
• Save $100 on any CreativePro event in 2026 with the discount code: PODCAST
• Get $15 off one year of CreativePro membership with the discount code: PODCAST

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 the most important takeaways from Adobe’s flagship event.

Episode Highlights

• David and Theresa share their experiences at Adobe MAX 2025 —  what makes it both inspiring and overwhelming.
• Why David calls Adobe MAX a “double-edged sword” — part innovation showcase, part marketing machine.
• Theresa’s favorite new Lightroom feature: AI-powered photo culling.
• Their cautiously optimistic thoughts about Firefly Boards and Creative Cloud Projects.
• An honest conversation about AI credits, ethics, and the future of Adobe’s business model.
• What tools and gadgets inspired their friends at MAX — from painting software to portable lighting.
• The unexpected creative tip from Jason Hoppe that had everyone laughing (and rethinking their Halloween jack-o'-lanterns).
• How attending events like Adobe MAX and CreativePro Week builds real creative community.

Links & Resources

• Adobe MAX Sneaks 2025
• Escape Motions: Rebelle Painting Software
• Harlowe Lights
• Jason Hoppe’s Pumpkin Carving - https://www.youtube.com/@JasonHoppe 
• The InDesign Conference 2025, December 9–12
• The Presentation Design Conference 2026, February 17–20
• ​​CreativePro Week 2026, Nashville, June 29–July 3
• Next Office Hours, Friday, December 19, at 3PM ET

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 rival Adobe’s Creative Cloud. The team also explores why this announcement might be good news for everyone, from professional designers to the next generation of creatives.

Episode Highlights

• Canva’s surprise move announced during Adobe MAX
• Why David says “free” doesn’t necessarily mean “professional-grade”
• Theresa’s take on Adobe’s shifting focus toward hobbyists
• Mike’s look at Affinity’s strengths (and key limitations)
• The gap between Adobe’s “everyone” tools and enterprise solutions
• How Affinity compares for pros: what’s missing and what’s impressive
• The bigger picture: education, accessibility, and competition in creative software

Resources

• Canva’s official announcement: Affinity now free forever
• Affinity Suite overview (Photo, Designer, Publisher)
• Adobe MAX on demand sessions
• CreativePro InDesign Conference

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 potential of InDesign’s next chapter. Along the way, they share favorite finds, event updates, and a few classic “InDesign Secrets” throwbacks—complete with the return of the Obscure InDesign Feature of the Week (-eek!).

Highlights:

Who are David and Anne-Marie?

• Anne-Marie's LinkedIn Learning courses

• David's LinkedIn Learning courses

InDesign User Group: 20th Anniversary

Adobe MAX

Obscure Feature of the Week: Emit CSS

InDesign 2026:

Flex Layout makes its debut (similar to CSS Flex Layout)

David explains how Flex Containers let designers control spacing, alignment, and relationships among multiple objects.

InDesign’s “InCopy on the Web” (beta)

Despite the confusing name, this new feature introduces true browser-based text editing for clients and collaborators.

Cloud collaboration Cloud Documents

Cloud documents now autosave, sync live edits, and support share-for-text-editing links.

Math Expressions evolve Math Expressions

MathML integration improves with a dedicated panel and the long-awaited ability to copy equations directly from Microsoft Word into InDesign. Jean-Claude's script to convert math expressions to RGB to CMYK

Context Bar gets smarter (and slightly more confusing)

The floating context menu now includes quick access to paragraph and character styles.

Adobe Express template integration

The new “Templates” option on InDesign’s Home screen opens the Express web app, not native templates—an unexpected (and debatable) choice.

Links & Resources

Free Webinar: Bullets and Numbering in InDesign – Now available on demand

Design + AI Summit – November 13–14, 2025

CreativePro Week – Coming to Nashville, June 29–July 3, home of Hatch Show Print

Listeners can save $100 on any CreativePro event with the discount code: PODCAST

CreativePro Membership – Unlock the magazine, downloads, and exclusive resources

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 unique voice while adapting to rapid change, why embracing experimentation matters, and how to balance efficiency with authenticity. Amy and Mark bring both optimism and caution to the discussion, leaving you with practical insights and plenty to think about.

Highlights

• Lighthearted banter about tech talk and finding “their people”
• Honest takes on common fears: job loss, plagiarism, and the “end of the world” narrative
• How AI is reshaping creative careers and where humans still hold an edge
• The balance between efficiency and originality when using AI in design
• Practical advice for staying relevant: evolve, experiment, and protect your value
• Why ethics, transparency, and authenticity matter in AI-powered workflows
• Opportunities for creatives to lead in strategy, storytelling, and human-centered design
• Future-proofing careers by learning adaptable skills, not just technical tasks

AI Tools Mentioned

• Adobe Firefly
• Nano Banana for Photoshop
• Loveable
• Bolt
• Replit
• Streamlit
• Vercel
• Firebase

Links & Resources

Design + AI FREE Webinar – September 30, 2025: https://creativepro.com/event/free-webinar-unlocking-the-potential-of-ai-in-video/ 

Design + AI Summit – November 13–14, 2025:https://creativepro.com/event/design-ai-summit-2025/ 

Listeners can save $100 on any CreativePro event with the discount code: PODCAST

CreativePro Membership – Unlock the magazine, downloads, and exclusive resources: https://creativepro.com/membership/

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 make content faster and easier to digest. This is followed with a conversation about community connection and their ideas for sustaining the energy of CreativePro Week year-round. Mike shares his newly formed Office Hours, and Theresa teases similar new community initiatives on the horizon.

Along the way, they preview upcoming events and dive into a candid discussion about AI in design—what excites them, what makes them uneasy, and why creativity and foundational skills still matters most. The show wraps with Mike’s top InDesign career tip—one you won’t want to miss.

Links & Resources

CreativePro Membership – Unlock the magazine, downloads, and exclusive resources: https://creativepro.com/membership/

CreativePro Magazine Article MATE: Your AI Helper in InDesign and Illustrator https://creativepro.com/mate-your-ai-helper-in-indesign-and-illustrator/

Office Hours – Join the conversation: https://creativepro.com/office-hours/

Design + Accessibility Summit – September 16–19, 2025: https://creativepro.com/event/design-accessibility-summit-2025/#overview

Design + AI FREE Webinar – September 30, 2025: https://creativepro.com/event/free-webinar-unlocking-the-potential-of-ai-in-video/

Design + AI Summit – November 13–14, 2025:https://creativepro.com/event/design-ai-summit-2025/

The InDesign Conference – December 9–12, 2025: https://creativepro.com/event/indesign-conference-2025/

Rob de Winter’s Flux Kontext Photoshop Plugin – https://www.robdewinter.com/flux-kontext-plugin-for-photoshop

InDesignSecrets is now the CreativePro podcast! Join David Blatner and Theresa Jackson and review the past 20 years of podcasting, as well as what 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 InDesign subreddit (forum) of Reddit.com.
• Creative Cloud Members get 3 months of LinkedIn "Premium Career" membership (which includes LinkedIn Learning). See Adobe CC Benefits page

Obscure Feature: Show Transparency Grid

• More information on Creative Cloud Libraries

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 evergreen:

• From issue 1: Recipes for Applying—and Ignoring—Text Wrap in InDesign
• issue 2: Fast Formatting with Nested Styles in InDesign
• issue 7: InDesign Tips of the Trade
• issue 8: Working with Anchored Objects in InDesign

What's new in 20.3

• Fixed Issues
• What's New
• Peter Kahrel's Latex to MathML script
• Issues with Generative Fill in InDesign

News:

• Members can now download the Tables Superguide of articles
• CreativePro Week (use the code CPSECRETS to get $100 off that or any creativepro event)

Obscure Feature: Delete All Guides on Spread

• Shortcut for selecting all guides

* 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 an Object Style when Placing an Image

Join us in our live studio audience for Podcast 332 at CreativePro Week!

Clear Rotation:

• Rotate frames with a trackpad gesture
• Did you know you can move the spread rotation features with a script?
• Even more cool: A script to rotate all the spreads that contain frames that are rotated

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

Venngage: AI powered design at your fingertips

Resetting Preferences

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 Jamie McKee
• Designing with Type: Grunge, Punk, and Futurism by Nigel French
• InDesign Nightmares by David and Anne-Marie

Theresa Jackson:

• Articles and videos
• Old (but fun!) Interview

Font Tricks:

• How to change the underlying default font for a document (see Don Ayer's comment at end for an easier solution)
• OpenType text and text frame adornments

Obscure Feature: Match Pasteboard to Theme Color