You don’t have to be a designer to use Canva.
A design background can help create digital designs, but it is not necessarily required. With the advent of user-friendly design software and online tutorials, it is possible to learn the necessary skills and techniques to create digital designs without a formal design education.
That being said, having a design background can provide a solid foundation in user experience design, design principles, color theory, typography, and layout, which can help create more effective and visually appealing designs. It can also help to have an understanding of design software and tools.
Ultimately, creativity, a keen eye for detail, and a willingness to experiment and learn are the most important factors in creating successful digital designs. So, while a design background can be beneficial, it is not the only path to creating high-quality digital designs.
What is Canva?
One such product is Canva, an online platform that allows you to create designs for various purposes, whether advertisements, book covers, or just putting posters on your wall.
Trusted by companies like Total, Baxter, HubSpot, and Warner Music Group, Canva holds a highly regarded reputation in the design industry. It is a one-stop shop for all your design-related issues.
Featured images made in Canva
How Does Canva Work?
Canva allows you to sign up and make an account completely free of cost. You can log in through your Gmail, Facebook, or email.
Once logged in, you will be greeted by the Canva dashboard, which features a search bar and a personal activities column on the left-hand side.
Once you click on the search bar, a dropdown menu will guide you in whatever you want to design. You can select pre-made templates for Instagram and Facebook posts and create customized works of your heart’s desire.
Need Help?
If you need help designing or navigating through the website, you can click on the “learn” button at the head of the page.
This option will redirect you to a page with tens of video tutorials on the different aspects of Canva. You can click on any one of them and learn how to print designs, save designs as PDFs, or even publish your designs.
Learning is made super easy through the available tutorials. The best part is that most videos are under a minute long, saving you a lot of time and effort.
Once you click on the desired template style from all the available options, you will be redirected to a page with a blank canvas that you can edit and start working on.
I made this GIF from a template in a couple of minutes.
Here, you will find various animations, images, videos, fonts, and graphics to work with. You can customize the canvas in whatever way you want.
With Canva, you can also layer multiple pages to create new effects for your posters. Once you finish your design, you can download it in whatever format you want or schedule it for upload by connecting your social media outlet to the file.
You can save the project file onto your dashboard and continue working on it later. Canva allows you to feel comfortable and choose the option that best fits your personal or company requirements.
Pricing
Canva offers its users three different pricing plans with distinct features. Each plan offers a free trial so you can make an informed decision before purchasing.
Check out the pricing for Canva here.
Additionally, Canva offers its premium versions for free to registered nonprofits and schools. The details for each of the individual user plans are listed below:
Free Plan
- Billed at 0$ monthly and annually
- 8000+ free templates
- 100+ design types (social media posts, presentations, and others)
- Hundreds of thousands of free photos and graphics
- Create designs with custom dimensions
- Full collaboration access, including team sharing, edit access, and built-in commenting
- 1 GB cloud storage with 2 folders
- Two-factor authentication
Pro Plan
- Billed at $12.95 per month and $9.95 per user per month for a yearly subscription
- All free plan features
- Customized logos, colors, and fonts in 1 brand kit
- One-click design resize
- 60,000+ free templates
- 60+ million premium stock images, videos, and graphics
- Upload your fonts and logos.
- Custom templates
- Customizable download quality
- 100 GB cloud storage with unlimited folders
- 24/7 support availability
Enterprise Plan
- Billed at $30 per user per month for a yearly subscription
- For other billing options, contact the sales team
- All pro plan features
- Customized logos, colors, and fonts across multiple brand kits
- Control what team members can see, upload, and access with brand controls.
- Built-in workflows to get approval on designs
- Protect any part of your design from team edits
- Advanced template locking
- Unlimited storage
- Unlimited folders
- Single-sign on (SSO)
- 24/7 Enterprise level control
Example use cases for Canva
Pros and Cons of Canva
Pros
- Canva offers a very interactive and user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate.
- It offers pre-made templates, even in the free version.
- The software offers a free trial period for each of its plans to make an informed decision when paying for the subscription.
- It makes it easier for social marketers to strategize media schedules
- Designing flyers, brochures, posters, and other marketing content becomes readily available.
- It can create a series of Instagram stories, save it, and even upload it at a scheduled time.
- Canva is a multi-purpose platform that can help create marketing content, photo editing, and custom template designing that can be used for whatever you want.
- This platform is also great for teams as it allows collaborative functionality and can easily manage workflow operations.
- There are many options for digital editing, design, and collaborations that can optimize the quality of your work.
- Canva has 24/7 support, making it easier for users to remain productive.
Cons
- Pre-set image sizes are sometimes too large or out of frame when posting content.
- The mobile app does not hold the same functionality as the desktop version.
- The free plan does not come with 24/7 support.
- The free version does not assure quality templates.
Final Thoughts
Canva is one of the best platforms for digital designing out there.
Trusted by thousands of multinational companies, it is a leading contributor to shaping the graphic design industry. It is a fantastic platform for your business, education, or personal use.
Whether you’re an individual, a small team, a start-up, or a large company, Canva is bound to help you optimize your workflows by designing quality content and saving you many hours of your day.
It is very easy to use the platform and does not require any specialized training or complex knowledge of other software.
Everything on the website is visually appealing and graphically represented. The video tutorials are just the perfect assortment of 1-minute guiding lessons on Canva.
They even give you a free trial and a forever free plan, which makes it convenient for college students or independent creators to enter the field of digital design.
Its ability to schedule posts for Instagram and Facebook is also remarkable. It saves time and effort, and you don’t have to worry about anything.
Overall, the software is so easy and relevant that you must try it. It’s worth your time.