I came across Canva a while back and have to admit I felt more than a little out of the loop for not knowing about it sooner. It’s an awesome little online app that lets you create awesome little graphics. (It even comes in an iPad app if you prefer.)
All those fancy quotes on cool background images that are all over the internet? No – the whole world hasn’t become professional graphic designers and left you in their dust. Tons of them were created in Canva.
Templates galore
Canva has dozens and dozens of templates that are appropriately sized for various purposes such as social media posts and profile banners, graphics for use in your blog posts (take this one with a grain of salt because the dimensions that make sense for your site might be different than what Canva provides), letterhead, ebook covers, and on and on.
Low and no cost customized graphics
Canva comes pre-loaded with over a million graphics and graphic elements. Many of them are entirely free to use, but some of them cost just a little bit of money, so you can get a professional looking graphic for just a few dollars when all is said and done.
How it works
What you do is you build up the graphic you’re creating starting with a base template that’s the dimensions you need. Then you can scroll through and choose one of their fancy, pre-built layouts that is pre-loaded with graphics and words and you can customize and tweak those to fit whatever situation you’re trying to create the graphic for. I’ve found that their pre-built layouts can serve as a great starting point for creating something unique.
Or you can start with the blank template and use their elements such as stock photographs, background, shapes, lines, etc. to build up your own design. Then you add your text or stylized text blocks (they have tons of both to choose from), save your graphic, download it (if you’ve used any non-free elements, you’ll pay the couple of bucks at this point), and then you’re off and running.
Not that I want to put myself out of business
I do a lot of custom graphics for clients and put a lot of effort into making sure their graphics match their company branding, but if you want to spice up your online content and social media posts with some fancy, inexpensive, yet personalized images, and you’ve got that DIY streak in you, Canva can be a great tool to add to your marketing arsenal.
