The Joys of Using Canva for Quick Graphic Design Projects
No one values and appreciates a professional graphic designer more than I do. Their creativity combined with their mastery of the utterly confusing Photoshop and InDesign wow me. I’m self-taught on (and pretty good at, if I do say so myself) Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and lots of tools. Even WordPress hasn’t been that tough to learn. But Photoshop stopped me dead in my tracks.
Of course with graphic designers, as with all services, you get what you pay for, so a good one costs money, which can be hard to come by at many nonprofit orgs. And by “a good one” I mean a designer that is creative, thoughtful, organized, and available. Unless you have a graphic designer on staff – lucky you! – then you’re working with a freelancer who has other clients and you may not be the top priority at all times. For me that used to mean that I couldn’t always be as flexible as I’d like with my marketing.
Imagine my delight at discovering Canva. (And, no, I don’t get anything for saying that other than the satisfaction of sharing a great discovery.) The Canva founder, Melanie Perkins, saw the frustration caused by Photoshop and filled a need. She and her co-founder built Canva, an online design tool that allows marketers to create quick and simple designs. It offers templates you can follow or you can build a design from scratch, then download as a PNG, JPEG, or PDF – you can even design a PDF that’s high enough quality for print. It’s FREE for nonprofits, but I guarantee that you’d be happy to pay the $12.95/month once you see what it can do.
I’ve been able to turn expert-looking designs around in minutes, and I’ve even designed graphics for clients in Canva that they’re now using for their new corporate brand (though I don’t recommend that!).
Here are some examples of designs I’ve done using Canva:
I’ll always recommend a professional graphic designer to clients who want to design a new brand, a website, a product package, or for other big, important projects. And CGC has some very talented designers on call. However, it’s great to be self-sufficient when I need to be, to know I can create quick social media graphics, email headers, flyers, and even infographics that are needed quickly and on a budget. Canva gives me this freedom. Check it out at about.canva.com.
But if you do need a professional, and I know you do from time to time, we can help. Check out our Graphic Design services.