The content creation tool Canva is a must-have for many communications and marketing professionals. Anissa Kadi, who teaches a course on Isarta to learn how o use if effectively, goes over the advantages of this revolutionary graphic design platform… and very addictive!
Do you know Canva? This graphic design tool is one of the most useful and powerful ways to get started in business. Let’s start with a little story about its history.
For once, Canva is not a Silicon Valley success story but… that of Australia. One of its co-founders, Melanie Perkins, started working on the project in 2007, while studying at the University of Western Australia, frustrated by the difficulty of learning and using software like InDesign or Photoshop.
With Cliff Obrecht, her classmate and partner – who will become her husband -, they created a first design start-up called Fusion Books and then Canva. The success of this company is now valued at over 40 billion dollars. At only 34 years old, Melanie Perkins has become one of the richest women in Australia!
Easy to use
Behind this beautiful story, there is of course a product that has many advantages.
It couldn’t be simpler,” enthuses Anissa Kadi, who has been using it for six years and runs a training course on the subject for Isarta. It works with the principle of the drag and drop and one can make an almost infinite number of formats. For example, you can create a logo at a lower cost, which can be very useful for start-up entrepreneurs or small businesses.”
This simple of use makes it easy to define your brand identity and to develop it in different visual media: advertisements on social networks, business cards, advertising documents, etc. And this, without any prior technical knowledge.
The tool is designed so that you don’t need any graphic design skills. However, having a sense of aesthetics is still a plus. The platform will propose already harmonious models and it only remains to modify the colours or the images for example”, indicates the founder of the new marketing and communication agency Aux Pluri’Elles, which aims to support people from minorities to start a business.
Nevertheless, Canva is not intended to replace traditional designers or agencies.
Complementary to graphic designers
It’s good for starting out or for occasional needs, but it doesn’t replace the work of a graphic designer. You can quickly make visuals on your own, but since it’s the same options for everyone, then you find the elements in other publications and graphic creations,” explains Anissa Kadi.
In other words, it’s not the best way to stand out from your competitors. Another limitation that the trainer sees is printing.
You can print your business cards for example at a low cost and with a good quality. But the problem is that you can’t print any format. Only certain models are pre-configured for printing.”
Anissa Kadi says it all the same: Canva is central to her business process. She uses Canva for her business presentations, submissions and social media posts. Especially since the platform is constantly changing and adding options and features almost twice a month.
In her training, she proceeds in two different sessions. The first one consists of designing her brand identity, color palette, fonts and setting up her Canva account to automatically generate content.
Then, during the second session, the objective is to learn the different options offered by the platform and create exclusive content for your brand. Two sessions that will help participants structure their graphic creation and create consistency in their communications. A great way to get your first foot in the world of graphic design for your company!
