I Think I Can(va)
- Bailey Edrington
- Mar 23, 2017
- 2 min read
Let me just start by saying Canva has saved my design life several times. I started using it earlier this year in my Social Media Marketing class, and it has now managed to make itself useful in my PR Pubs class as well.
What I love about Canva is how it streamlines the design process with sleek and chic ready-made designs. It takes the guesswork out of the process and allows me to tinker with how a piece looks holistically rather than stress about the ins and outs of navigating the program itself.
Though Photoshop and InDesign present endless possibilities with their capabilities, I am more enticed by Canva's ease of access and user-friendliness. For me, working with Photoshop is akin to being dropped in the center of Paris, France and instructed to make my way to a specific villa in the French Countryside. Bear in mind, I have the French vocabulary of a two-year old and my geography skills are less than stellar.
Canva, on the other hand, reminds me of grabbing coffee with an old gal pal on a sunny Sunday afternoon: easy, sure to be filled with some laughs, maybe even some gossip about old frenemies (*cough* Photoshop) and just overall pleasantly enjoyable.
I also enjoy the fact that most of Canva is free and I can access it from anywhere! I use it for personal projects, such as designing thank you notes and letters, and I use it to design cool PowerPoints and projects. And though I see the inherent value of learning Photoshop and InDesign, I have to say I'm not sure how well I will be able to teach myself in the future.
Having a professor walk me through how to navigate Adobe Creative Suite has been the most helpful thing, and I'm glad I now know the basics. However, due to its lack of intuitiveness, I'm not sure how well I will be able to master Adobe on my own.
With Canva, I can click around and find just what I need. I am fully aware of its capabilities and its weaknesses. It's significantly more user-friendly, and for my intents and purposes, that is absolutely wonderful.
As far as continuing to design for We Are Beautiful, I designed three social media pieces on Canva for their upcoming Mid Spring Dream Fashion Show. I created Instagram, Twitter and Facebook (in that order below) compatible posts and my goal was to keep them as cohesive and campaign-like as possible. Here is what I came up with:
The idea was to stick with the feminine blushes and greys and whites that WAB is known for, but also keeping the pieces trendy and modern because fashion is involved.
Truth be told, these designs would not have come to be without the help of Canva, which might be the nearest and dearest design tool in my PR heart.
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