Canva has become a major asset for many small businesses and gained lots of popularity. However, how does this impact professional designers? And furthermore, how great do we think Canva really is? In all honesty, I love and use Canva for certain things, but there are some design aspects that Canva can never replace. Let's explore the advantages and disadvantages Canva brings to the table.
First off, what do I recommend using Canva for? I would truly recommend using Canva primarily for marketing and social media only. While it may not fully replace the expertise of a skilled graphic designer, Canva offers a professional look for simple marketing tasks and social media campaigns. There are a number of reasons why Canva should be added to your marketing needs.
Reason #1: Canva is highly user-friendly, anyone from a beginner level to a top-notch designer will appreciate the efficiency of Canva because you make designs through an easy drag and drop interface, and to add to the ease, Canva also gives the opportunity to collaborate and work on
the same project with your teammates simultaneously. Canva is integrated in many other media platforms so transferring and publishing work is very efficient.
Reason #2: Canva is extremely affordable and time-efficient. They offer many beginner templates, stock images, and customization options. So you can get a perfect size, font, picture, and more for social media posts. Canva also offers a paid subscription with more options, but the free options are very reasonable and essential. This is great because you can easily copy and paste your own photos and logos in, however, if you need a simple image and icon, there is no need to search the web because Canva already offers lots of basic options.
Reason #3: Canva offers insights and performance tracking for your designs. This is a great connected service because having insights is very important to marketing. Marketing is mainly understanding your audience and creating the most creative and efficient journey for them. So the insights, and campaigns that Canva offers are great for understanding how to market your product or service.
Overall, Canva is a great start for your marketing needs because Canva highlights the creative personalization, but on the other hand, Canva doesn't offer the professional needs that a logo or website needs.
Now let's talk about the disadvantage of Canva. Canva only offers the fundamentals of design options. When creating a logo or something similarly complicated, you need to maintain your brand. With a professional graphic designer such as myself, it's amazing to sit down and talk about the unique goals and ideas you have for your business and bring them to life. Unfortunately, Canva is designed based off templates and already used ideas. So in order to bring your personality into your business, you need a designer that can start from scratch and communicate exactly what you want. Anyone can have an eye for art, but designers hold in-depth knowledge of important principles such as color theory, typography, branding and etc. which is something that is not offered on Canva. Our Design software is more complex too, Canva won't be able to see the attention to detail or have complex features such as interactive design or custom illustration. I can not stress to you how important consistency is with design. Especially because there are so many
platforms that portray your design, it is so important to have a graphic designer to keep brand consistency. Lastly, graphic designers also hold amazing connections. Owning a small graphic design boutique of my own has given me the opportunity to connect with dozens of other important project management positions. Whether you need a a printer or an industrial designer, most graphic designers, including myself have these connections to further help you.
I could go on and on about my love for Canva, like I said, it's a great tool for simple projects and beginners. But in order to have the professionalism that your business needs, you need consistency, complexity, communication and so much more. And the best way to earn all that is to reach out to a designer with those skills. I am always here to offer my clients templates and help you through canva from a professional standpoint because I love both. Thanks for reading my blog, I hope this helped give you a better perspective
In summary,
Use Canva
social media (consider hiring a designer for custom templates)
print collateral on a budget
other small marketing needs
Use a Designer
logo
branding - custom icons, patterns, illustrations
web design
to help you get started in canva with custom templates
invest in larger marketing & print projects
Thank you! I'm always here to help so please reach out!