Journal 18 – Canva

The first time I heard of Canva was from a previous roommate of mine who used to do some minor graphic design work for his music promotions. At the time, I did not think much of it because as a graphic designer, my comfort zone has always been Adobe Illustrator. Lo and behold, the name Canva pops up again at NYPIRG at my internship when Jenna tells me that it was what she used to create NYPIRG’s social media graphics. Therefore, I thought to myself that is just a beginner’s app and I did not really need it, but my curiosity was peaked.

Canva Logo

According to Wikipedia Canva is a graphic design platform used to create social media graphics, presentations, posters, documents and other visual content. Their most notable feature is that unlike Illustrator, the app includes pre-designed templates for users to use.

I decided to use the mobile version of the app and to my pleasure, it had a much more easy user interface compared to Illustrator. The app opens to the home page which immediately features a diverse range of template options based on the project you would like to create, whether it be social media, presentations, video, prints, marketing, office and more. Furthermore, when you click on a specific template option, it then provides you with various template options within the general one. For example, the prints template and it offered me with a wide range of print related templates such as stationery, clothing and marketing. I decided to create a tshirt and it was a really smooth process.

When beginning a t-shirt project for example, you are greeted with at least 2000+ templates to choose from featuring well designed logos. Then, when you click the + icon at the bottom left, you have access to design options such as elements (lines, shapes, graphics, stickers, photos etc.), text, featuring various fonts, and more. The only downside to this is that many of this options are not free you have to make in-purchase apps to access them. When clicking on a design element such as a logo, you then get really interesting options such as animate, effects and colors that allow you to really get creative with your design.

Once you are done, the export process is easy and straight to the point and your design is ready.

Once you are done, the export process is easy and straight to the point and your design is ready.

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