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

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
• The InDesign Conference

Books we mentioned:

• Shift Happens: a book about keyboards by Marcin Wichary
• How Comics Were Made, by Glenn Fleishman

Background on the: carriage return