The design and branding process takes time, thought and skill, so it’s no surprise that when it comes to getting designs and graphics done quickly, people will look to find an easy, quick fix solution. Cue Canva, a simple, online design program which gives anyone the tools to create professional designs in minutes. Does it sound too good to be true? Well, that’s because it is! Let’s explore why Canva will never be a good substitute for a proper graphic designer.
If it sounds too good to be true then it most certainly is
If you’re a blogger, social media manager or business owner who wants to create marketing collateral quickly, then Canva might present as the answer to all your problems. It’s a web-based design tool which allows people who have no graphic design experience to very quickly create designs, from logos to social media graphics and flyers. It’s packed with trendy fonts and templates, so that all you have to do is to drop your text in and you can have a brand logo ready in half an hour. However, like we said above, if it sounds too good to be true then it most certainly is. Behind the quick fix illusion of Canva, there are actually quite a lot of drawbacks.
Creating the branding and marketing collateral for your business is one of the most important processes you’ll ever go through. You only get one chance to make a great first impression and the branding you choose will be the cornerstone for your whole business image and the foundation for your success. There’s a time for a quick fix solution, and there’s a time for doing things properly. We very much suggest doing design properly, with the help of an experienced graphic designer, for the reasons we’ll take a look at below.
Limited options for a saturated market
Firstly, Canva offers a range of pre-designed templates and asset libraries for users to pull images from. However, Canva has more than 4 million users. That’s over 4 million people using the same selection of templates for their branding, flyers, logos and social media posts! Whilst the templates are stylish, they are being used over and over again. If you use Canva for your designs, then all the other Canva users will know it. If it’s seen by non-Canva users, they might not know where your branding was generated, but they’ll know that they’ve seen a lot of very similar designs before.
Your highly visible marketing collateral needs to be original, unique and well thought through. Your core brand assets, like your logo and business cards, are the first thing customers will see and they are what a customer will remember you by. Do you really want a design that’s eerily similar to lots of other companies branding? At Creative Fire, we take the design process seriously, using it as a valuable opportunity to bring your personality into your branding and creating brand recognition. Trust us, you don’t want Canva recognition.
No substitute for experienced, skilled graphic design professionals
There’s also the more technical side of things to think about. Your highly visible marketing collateral needs to look aesthetically pleasing, but it needs to be crafted with fundamental design knowledge in mind. Graphic designers are trained in how best to prepare a piece of design work for print or digital. Without this knowledge, you could find yourself in hot water. Are the graphics optimised? Are the file types adjusted correctly? Using a graphic that isn’t optimised properly on your website can slow down that page and harm your SEO. Having a flyer printed without properly adjusting the file for CMYK printing can produce unexpected and odd colour results. If you incorrectly configure the margins on an image destined for print, that could cause issues with sizing and stretching, it could even chop off areas of graphics or text. It’s situations like these where an experienced graphic designer’s input is absolutely vital, as a designer will cover all these things off for you!
Another issue with Canva is that it is one hundred percent based online. That’s great if the internet is working as should be, but if your internet goes down, or Canva goes down for maintenance, then you have no access to your images and designs if you haven’t backed them up. So, if you quickly need to edit an image or create something, you won’t be able to.
“Canva makes you a graphic designer in the same way a microwave makes you a chef”
Our firm belief is this at Creative Fire; if you need help creating something that is crucial and central to your brand (such as creating your branding) or logo, then get a designer on board. Jon-Stephen Stansel, a Social Media Strategist, sums things up pretty well – he said, “Canva makes you a graphic designer in the same way a microwave makes you a chef”. On this one, we have to admit that we agree!