Getting to Know Canva | Social Tools Suite
In this instalment of the MAC5 Social Tools Suite, we’re talking about the online Aussie image and graphic design tool Canva!
A Bit of Background on Canva
Canva launched about four years ago in Australia by a graphic designer named Melanie Perkins and her co-founder Cliff Obrecht. Perkins and Obrecht were running a successful company called Fusion Books, which was an online service for yearbook design when they realized that their tool had the potential for much broader use.
Today, Canva has one hundred employees and over ten million users.
The appeal of Canva is in the software’s simplicity. The basic service is free to use, and there are hundreds of templates and layouts to choose from, whether you are designing a Facebook post, a concert poster, a menu or most any other marketing material that a small company might need.
Stock images and some overlay or text designs on Canva will run you about $1 each but if your image has none of the elements that Canva charges for, your design is free to download!
Graphic Design Simplified
Where once a small business owner had to wrestle with powerful and pricey software such as Adobe In Design or Photoshop now she can create a variety of images sized appropriately for various marketing needs in a matter of minutes.
The drag and drop design is so simple even the most technophobe entrepreneur can handle it easily. The dashboard was designed for maintaining organization, by giving the user the ability to save uploaded images (think your logo, product pictures, outside stock images) into specific files with Canva. If you decide to go the paid route and invest in Canva for Work ($120/year USD) you can create a Brand Kit with the specific colour codes and type fonts that you use in your marketing material – ideal for teams who need to maintain consistency throughout their marketing materials.
The download options include PDF, jpeg and png formats and in Canva for Work you have the option of incorporating crop marks and bleed lines for printing – your printer will love you for it!
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My Favourite Canva Feature
One other feature available in Canva for Work is the magic resize – this is my favourite feature as it allows the designer to resize a design to any preset size such as the correct specs for a Facebook ad, a postcard or something custom. Gone are the days of recreating images for each social media platform, now just one click of the mouse an you have a gorgeous image ready for Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and your printer!
Canva doesn’t replace professional graphic design services
– but it can come reasonably close and save you a lot of money over time.
Canva Will Continue to Grow
Canva’s core user base has always been bloggers and social media managers but with the introduction of Canva for Work, the service is becoming an integrated part of more and more organizations. Hailed as Australia’s fastest startup Canva is proving over and over again that business owners want the ability to create their own images and graphics quickly and easily.
Social Tools Suite
Thanks for reading but what about you? Is there a specific tool you like to use in your own small business marketing or perhaps there’s one you’d like to know a little more about? Our Social Tools Suite blog series, was created to give clients an overview of some of the most popular tools out there for simple use in every day business life. If there’s one you’d like to know more about, drop us a line here !