7 Reasons Why Canva Is The Game Changer You Need

For busy professionals and design novices, taking that first dip into the design pool used to mean either one of two things:

1) Installing and eventually struggling with learning Photoshop, or 2) making do with whatever free graphics editing software was available on the internet—regardless of how unremarkable and so-so the end results would always turn out (Picmonkey*, anyone?).

If you’ve never heard of Canva before or if you only have a vague idea of what it is, then allow me to be the bearer of good news. To put it clearly, it’s a surprisingly simple online graphic design tool that allows you to create all sorts of images for virtually any purpose. Take note: it’s simple, but is miles away from being plain.

I invite you to read through this short and succinct list of the Top 7 reasons why I love Canva. And I invite you to try it out yourself, too! Pretty soon, you’ll be saying, “Wow! This is pretty freaking amazing!” Trust me. I’ve been there.

1. Ready-made sizes are available for different social media needs.
Once you decide to get started, Canva’s interface will greet you with templates like the ones shown above. Whether it’s a for Facebook cover photo or an Instagram post, Canva carries a correctly-sized template for that specific purpose. No more second-guessing (or guesstimating) for you

2. A great deal of design templates for you to choose from
After deciding on a size comes the “difficult” part—choosing one among the gazillion design templates to take advantage of. Just kidding. The number of templates probably don’t reach a gazillion (whatever that actually means), but there are just so many options that it seems to be the case!

Also, it’s technically not difficult at all—hence the quotations marks. You literally just have to click on a design and move on to the next step. I guess what I’m trying to say here is this: Canva has made available so many artistic possibilities that it can get taxing to choose just one. But hey, that’s undeniably still a huge plus!

3. Simple and intuitive controls
Aside from a myriad of design templates, one of Canva’s key strengths is its amazingly-simple user interface. The controls are easy to use and master. You certainly don’t need to bother watching hours and hours of video tutorials to get great results (*Cough* Photoshop *Cough*).

4. Canva is free (mostly)
Canva is a FREE tool. Need I say more? The only time you’ll have to pay is if you decide to use a photo from their stock image library—which is not required at all, given that there are a lot of free images that are available for use. There’s also the Canva for Work upgrade for hardcore designers, which comes at a fee of $9.95 per month. With that being said, the paid images are only a dollar each. So in the end, Canva still maintains an effective-yet-low-cost appeal.

5. All of your works in one place
As a cloud-based tool, Canva stores all of the images you have created on a page that is sorta like an archive. The fact that I can download my works is great, but knowing that all of my creations are on one page and ready to get edited (or duplicated!) for customization is such a huge time-saver.

6. Collab friendly
Aside from letting you directly save your work, Canva also gives you many ways to share your designs with team members, clients, or friends. You can let them view and/or edit your image by directly inviting them via email or through a personalized link. It’s obviously a huge convenience, whether you’re collaborating with someone halfway across the globe or you’re merely showing it to your teammate who’s currently five desks away from you (Lazy? What lazy?).

7. “Your Brand” feature
We all know that when it comes to successful branding, consistency is key. Canva recognizes this need. I’m extremely grateful because I can save fonts, color palettes, logos, and other design elements that I can use again and again to maintain the consistency of my designs–and thus, the identity of my brand. Having to manually search for that exact perfect color each time is now a dilemma of the past.

And there you have it, the biggest reasons why I love Canva. I personally vouch for it as a designer, but it obviously is a great tool for beginners as well. What do you think? Are you ready to try it out yourself?