Badly Draw Stick Men
Let’s face it, most of us aren’t graphic designers. If you’re anything like me, your artistic talents stretch to badly drawn stick men. And even though I’ve been working in marketing for many years, I’d never had to create my own graphics.
Working for big companies there was always a designated design team. I’d brief them in on what I wanted created and they’d work their magic. So when I stepped away from the corporate world I had a conundrum. I could write copy for emails or blogs and run ad campaigns no problem, but I had no experience in creating any of the graphic assets I needed to run alongside them.
These days more than ever, stand out visuals are imperative when it comes to successful marketing campaigns. Whether it’s display/social media ads, email campaigns, infographics or company logos, catching people’s attention with well designed graphics can be the difference between a successful or failed campaign.
Graphic Design For Dummies
So luckily for me, a friend of mine introduced me to Canva, or what I like to call ‘Graphic Design for Dummies.’ Although to be fair that’s a bit unfair to Canva as it insinuates that it’s only for people with no experience in design. It’s also used by just as many (if not more) professionals as well. The easy to use interface is just one of the many benefits.
Whatever you’re looking to create, Canva will almost certainly have a template for it (over 420,000 with new designs added daily). As you can see in the image above, at the top of the homepage it gives you the option to ‘Design anything’ and it’s not wrong. So far I’ve used it to create social media ads and posts, display ads, email templates, presentations, infographics, newsletters and videos. And I’ve only just scratched the surface of its features.
Search, Resize and Collaborate
For me one of the main benefits is the seemingly limitless number of premium stock photos, videos, audio and graphics (75+ million if you use Canva Pro). Gone are the days of trawling Google for images without a watermark stuck on them (come on we all did it). When you’re launching a new product and need numerous different assets it makes life so much easier.
Another of their features that has saved me hours of time recently is their Magic Resize function. It enables you to easily resize any design. Whether you need to change a newsfeed ad into a story or display ad. Or alter an image to fit your newsletter as well as your landing page, the Magic Resize function makes it quick and easy.
To make your life even easier, Canva is designed with collaboration in mind. Add another user as a team member and you can combine your design skills (or in my case make use of your colleague’s far greater expertise). So whether you’re a newbie like I was, or a seasoned pro like my very talented colleague, Canva will provide you with all of your design needs and more. But don’t just take my word for it, check it out for yourself, you won’t be disappointed. I can’t begin to describe to you how much easier it’s made life for me and I’m certain it’ll do the same for you.