CANVA Useful design without a design degree!!
Have you ever looked at someone’s social media page and wondered how their images are so creative or captivating?
More importantly have you ever wished you had skills to make your images and posts as amazing as some of the top companies out there?
Although there are many applications that can modify images and posts not many can do it so effortlessly as Canva. This web-based application allows even the most novice user to bring their social media game up to the big leagues.
It is true that most social media platforms have some sort of editing software built-in to choose filters, actions and even include texts. However, these options pale in comparison against capabilities of software like InDesign or Photoshop. Canva combines some of the features of these powerful design suites into a more digestible and usable stage.
The site itself launched in 2013 and has garnered now more than 15 million users worldwide. They are currently producing designs at a rate of 33 designs per second with more than 1 billion designs created on the application. Melanie Perkins, CEO and CO-Founder of the design house was recently chosen to be included in Forbe’s Asia’s 30-Under-30 list. This is a great honor for a company that just finished an investment round gathering $40 million in the U.S. and a valuation of $1 billion.
These results and accomplishments alone should convince you that the site and capabilities are worth exploring but the skeptics will look beyond Perkins’ personal successes or those of an individual company and ask: How can this site help me, and my business grow? For those of you with this question, let me give you a few examples below of visual content created on the site versus the original images. All of these were created by me personally and although I may have more understanding of social media than the average business owner, I am in no way an expert on design, imaging or photography.
None of these took any longer than an hour to complete with some simple tools from the site. In addition, a user has the option to upgrade the account to a pro-version and gain even more options on how to modify, filter and include text onto visuals.
The idea for Canva came about like so many other innovations do; the need to fill a void or find a solution to a problem. Perkins, a teacher of a university design program asked herself, “Why shouldn't everybody be able to create beautiful designs?" She realized that in the not too distant future design would take on a whole new look and her students were struggling to design and create images that were good.
And yet that is not nearly the end of the story. Canva is currently working with more than 25,000 not for profit organizations to impact their design capabilities. Moreover, Canva has grown rapidly over the past few years with achievements like; the inclusion of more than 100 languages within their text applications; the creation of Canva China, a localized platform with Chinese fonts and designs; the creation of Canva Print where users can design, print and receive printed creations by mail and; making their first acquisition of Zeetings in order to include the same capabilities and user friendliness to create presentations.
Small business users can certainly use all of the tools available to create better engagement with their customers. An application like Canva allows owners the ability to create content and share posts that will capture their audiences without the need for a degree in art or graphic design.