I can’t help but think that this issue is a bit like the CreativePro Magazine version of the movie Inception. In the movie, time slows down as characters enter a dream within a dream to plant an idea that will put someone on a new creative path.

That’s not too different from what I was hoping to achieve in this month’s feature article on the Before & After magazine collection coming to CreativePro. In it, my goal was to plant the idea that taking advantage of a timeless resource will help you achieve more success in your creative work.

If you haven’t seen the movie (or heard of Before & After) you might have no idea what I’m talking about. So, allow me to back up and simply state the facts. For almost a quarter century, Before & After magazine was a treasured resource for a generation of graphic designers. With clear writing and brilliant examples it taught them to think more creatively and solve all kinds of design problems. As the tagline said, it was all about “how to design cool stuff.” And because they’re about design, and not any specific software, the techniques described in Before & After are evergreen. Articles written in the 1990s are just as relevant today. Many people regard their collections of printed copies of Before & After as treasures they’ll never part with.

So, when CreativePro had the opportunity to license this content and present it to a new generation of designers, we jumped at the chance. Check out my article and some of the Before & After content now available on the CreativePro website, I think you’ll agree that it really is a dream come true.

Also on the topic of how to be a better designer, Nigel French is back with advice on the benefits of being a perpetual student (and teacher).

In this month’s members-only video, Myra Ferguson makes getting started in Premiere a whole lot less scary. She shows step by step how to combine clips, text, motion graphics, transitions, and sound into a compelling final product.

We also have a bit of “AI in Ai” as Dave Clayton shows how to use the Text To Pattern feature in Illustrator. If you’ve ever struggled to create vector patterns, chances are you’re going to love the option to generate them from prompts.

This month’s podcast features a discussion between Theresa Jackson and yours truly on design trends and our content plans for 2026. We also discuss the Pantone Color of the Year, and what it suggests about the current cultural mood.

And finally, don’t miss the Community Calendar of upcoming CreativePro events, including two free webinars and an awesome livestream video session.

Enjoy!