Are you interested in design, but creative isn’t really your thing? How about being completely uninterested, but are sometimes tasked with creative duties? Or are you a creative who loves design, but wants to save time, money, and effort? If you are any of the above, Canva is for you! The website opens with the phrase ‘design anything’ and use of the word ‘anything’ is right! There is a plethora of easy-to-use design options for everyone — creatives and non-creatives; beginners and pros; individuals and organizations alike.
What is Canva?
Canva is all things graphic design! The free platform launched in 2013 as an easy-to-use, drag and drop design creation tool. Canva offers templates and provides design elements like font options, media upload options, colors, stickers, charts, and more for users to make every masterpiece their own. Users have the option to use the website or download the Canva app on their mobile device (iOS or Android) or computer (Mac or Windows). Just create an account and design away!
What can I create with Canva?
Canva allows users to create almost anything they can think of. There are several templates for everything to assist the creative process and give ideas on where to start.
With the free version, users get 25,000+ templates, 100+ design types, free photos and graphics, Canva Teams, and 5GB of cloud storage.
Standard designs
Canva offers standard print product options that are useful for students, teachers, business owners, and professionals to get ahead in their marketing and advertising.
Some standard design options include:
· Infographics
· Presentations
· Posters
· Brochures
· Newsletters
· Flyers and more!
Business designs
Branding just got easy! If you have a startup business or even belong to a large corporation, Canva has got you covered. Its business design options are perfect for personal and professional branding. Learn how to “Design resources for your business.”
Some business design options include:
· Logos
· Business Cards
· ID Cards
· Resumes
· Websites and more!
Social media designs
Canva’s social media materials give a brand everything it needs to be successful in targeting its audience digitally. From animated designs to social media stories and highlights, Canva helps users create graphics that are cohesive across all social channels. Explore ways to use Canva for social media!
Some social media design options include:
· Social media animations
· YouTube thumbnails
· LinkedIn banners
· Instagram ads
· Pinterest pins
· Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram posts/stories
· Story highlight covers and more!
Additional design options
The options don’t stop there! Canva incorporates almost any idea you can think of and provides multiple templates to choose from for inspiration. Don’t hesitate to explore!
Other cool options include:
· Menus
· Book/CD covers
· T-shirts
· Photo collages
· Zoom virtual backgrounds
· Invitations and more!
There is no limit on a user’s creativity. Canva offers more advanced options for advanced creatives or for those interested in learning more. These options include curved text, applying texture to photos, image cropping, and other photo enhancement effects to create the perfect design. Canva also provides font combination recommendations, a palette generator resource, a design size guide, and design theme ideas to create the perfect design for your purpose.
Saving money, time, and effort with Canva
You are the designer! Canva offers hundreds of design templates for those who struggle with design or would just like to save effort and time. With those templates, you can swap out images, sticker icons, and text to make the design your own with just a few clicks.
With the plethora of design options that Canva offers, there is no need to hire anyone else to do the work. After some experimenting, you are sure to be a Canva expert — and you work for you for FREE!
Canva Teams
Team project for school or work? A bonus to Canva is its cool collaborative aspect that allows users to work on any project together in real-time. Create a team by inviting others and selecting their permissions without a drawn-out approval and registration process. Users can begin collaborating and creating in a matter of seconds on any device from anywhere in the world.
Canva teams allow for content creation and communication to exist all in one place. Simply tag your team members to post comments, leave feedback, and share designs.
Teams are free and available to all Canva users. They can have up to 3000 members that users can assign Administrator and Member roles to control access and complete projects effectively. Whether a user invites family, friends, or team members at work, Canva Teams help users work together to create a coherent design that cohesively and effectively represents the purpose of the design work.
With having so many people, organization is key. Canva allows users to create and assign topics to shareable folders that store all projects and are accessible to all team members on all their devices. From the boardroom to the classroom and everything in between, Canva makes designing together better for everyone.
Canva Pro
There are two versions of Canva: the free version and Canva Pro. Canva Pro is subscription based and includes added perks and features that the free version doesn’t have. With Canva Pro, users receive 75 million+ premium photos, 3000+ premium fonts, and 420,000+ premium templates. There’s a Magic Resize background remover and premium animations, in addition to a Brand Kit, Content Planner, additional folders, a social media scheduler/publisher, and 100GB storage. Users can participate in a 30-day free trial before officially subscribing.
“More features, more fonts, more everything means that our creative has leveled up! Switching to Canva Pro is a next-level game changer. I produce more professional material than ever before and spend less time doing it!”
— Casey Castro, Sydney Yoga Collective
Purchase a Canva Brand Kit
Canva Brand Kits are included in Canva Pro and are mainly used to aid brands with brand consistency and professionalism. Brands can set font, color, and logo presets inside the editor to save time and upload the unique font and colors used for the brand. The Canva Brand kit creates a standard graphic design content to be used on business cards, screensavers, brochures, and other company paraphernalia.
Canva for Enterprise
Are your graphic design needs for an organization? Canva for Enterprise is similar to Canva Pro but is specifically for organizations who have design needs at-scale — like Fortune 500 companies, franchises, and startups. There’s brand control, locked brand elements, saved templates, and approval workflow that ensure work is cohesive and consistent across the brand. Canva for Enterprise also offers an integration feature allowing assets from other platforms to be integrated into Canva for convenience and ease of use.
“Canva has been a huge benefit to our business as it has given us a design platform to empower our franchisees. Franchise owners nationally can create their own artwork, increasing efficiency by reducing time and money.”
— Josie Wallace, Marketing Manager, Collective Wellness Group
Canva courses and tutorials
Canva never leaves you hanging. It offers many free courses for design gurus and beginners alike. Canva courses include:
· Personal Branding with Dr. Talaya
Canva also includes tutorials that equip users with the tools they need to be successful using the platform. Whether taking some time to brush up on your skills or taking the time to learn new ones, Canva offers tutorials from start to finish in the design process. The tutorial topics include:
As if that wasn’t enough information, Canva also supports a blog feature that gives additional information on relevant design, marketing/branding, and teacher and student resources to be a successful creative.
Pros and Cons of Canva
Canva vs Adobe Photoshop vs Adobe Illustrator
The most well-known graphic design tools are Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. The disadvantages to these tools are that they are not free and are more difficult to use. Both platforms offer a plethora of editing tools but could take several lessons to fully learn what is offered. They are usually used by more advanced designers and are considered more heavy-duty software.
Although Canva does not have all the same capabilities of Photoshop and Illustrator, Canva has a free version, is online based with no download or software required, has a mobile app, and has collaboration and library storage capabilities that Photoshop and Illustrator do not.
Canva is the most user-friendly tool for both creatives and non-creatives to create designs quickly and efficiently. Compared to Photoshop and Illustrator, its learning curve is minimal, and its outcome is well worth it. It’s a great way for creatives to enhance their skills and for beginners to take the first steps to becoming design experts.
Is Canva for me?
Canva tripled its audience in less than a year by understanding its audience.
“We took what we learned from our competitors and applied it to a different audience — our unique target audience: business owners, marketers, other professionals, and non-designers in general.”
-Andrianes Pinantoan, Growth Marketer, Canva
As Adrianes and Pinatoan mentioned, Canva is unique in that it benefits professionals with design needs as well as non-designers. If you are not graphic design savvy, you don’t have to worry about there being a long process to overcome the learning curve. Canva’s ease of use in addition to its vast resources make the design process beyond simple.
If you are a business professional, marketer, or belong to an organization with graphic design needs, Canva can benefit you and your business. Its collaborative, integrative, and educational aspects make it the perfect tool for branded content creation and for receiving tips on how to get ahead in your marketing strategy.
Whether an expert or a brand new creative, Canva is the platform for you. Create without limits!
