If you’re anything like me, you doubted Canva when it popped up a few years ago and everyone and their brother was starting to say how amazing it was.
I logged in and tried it. The controls weren’t what I was used to (Adobe products), the interface seemed slow, and I wasn’t in love. But, then I started working for Worthy Marketing Group and had my mind changed. Here’s why we are loving Canva.com in our daily work:
we create a lot of Facebook [FB] ads
Canva provides templates with the correct size for FB ads along with samples and (some) stock images. When we’re working quickly to get client approval for ad copy and images, it is great to be able to correctly resize an image for an ad without having to look up the correct size (FB likes to change things!) and therefore it’s easier to present our client with a comprehensive promotion plan and start their ads sooner.
we work with some clients who have an “eye” for design
You know the type, perhaps you’re even one of them! We often have clients who have their own sense of design and want to tweak small details of an ad or social media image. By creating files in Canva and sending them to the client with an editable link, we both have access to the most current version of the file, allowing them to also make changes which can cut down on days (really!) of sending the image back and forth for edits and approvals.
everyone on our team knows where to find a file
We store all our client files in a central Google drive, but in the past when we have used Adobe products we’ve been stuck (sometimes) having to spend time hunting down a source file because only the jpg or pdf file was saved in the client folder (that’s what the client approved) and the editable source file lived on the designer’s local computer. With Canva, our team stays more organized.
we can use it on our phones
We are creating more and more for stories on Instagram and Facebook–and sometimes you just need to do something on the go. Not all Canva sizes are available on the phone (or iPad), but we’re generally able to do what we need to do for stories and quick approvals or edits on the phone app.
we can easily resize
One of the main reasons we have a Canva for work (paid) account is that we can resize files quickly and easily. This is especially great if we are making social media graphics with lots of text that would be cut off on Twitter (although keep in mind we still recommend clients use a simple square, in general). Note: this feature is not seamless, but again, it saves time because Canva knows the size of each output and we aren’t having to check the recommended dimensions each time we want to make a similar file. This also helps with project hand-offs as we sometimes use images and fonts in an ad campaign first, but later want to use it on a flyer or a website banner. Canva makes this easy, again, keeping everything in one central place.
can’t do it all
Note: we still use InDesign, Photoshop, Acrobat Pro, and (occasionally) Illustrator. Here’s a quick list of things we don’t use Canva for:
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- Complicated composite images
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- Photo retouching or recoloring
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- Logo design
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- Booklets or multiple-page documents
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- Forms
- Watermarking
Do you use Canva? Love it? Hate it? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this program.