Become A Designer with Canva

If design was easy, everyone would be great at it.

You may or may not agree with that statement, but the fact is that design is a part of everyday life. More and more people have to do something design-related, so it's not unusual that apps which make design simple appear in ever-increasing amounts. After all, not everyone has the skills for creating stunning designs, and most people don't have time to learn them.

That's why we have software. From generating color schemes in the browser to building professional-looking presentations on your tablet, design has never been easier than it is today. Canva is just one such app – it enables anyone to become a designer. Let's take a look at how it does that.

Canva's approach to making design accessible (and fun!) to all types of users is multi-layered: they provide the platform and tools for creating graphics, offer stock resources (both free and premium) to be used as building blocks, and help you learn and improve your design skills through detailed tutorials and tips about visual marketing.

In three words: Canva is awesome.

To start using Canva, all you have to do is sign up, either via Facebook or by email. It's free and quick; you can start working on your design project immediately.

Your start page on Canva shows all the designs you've created, lets you preview Editor's Picks and kick off a new project. You can choose one of many predefined image sizes and shapes or input custom dimensions for your design. From your start page you can also invite friends to join Canva, as well as access Canva's charming tutorials.

Selecting a design type and size will lead you to the editing area. Here you can manipulate your design in all imaginable ways: add shapes and icons, change layouts, write text in cool fonts, apply patterns and insert photos. The search option helps you find relevant material in Canva's stock repository.

Canva's beautiful and intuitive interface invites you to use it. There's no steep learning curve like you might have encountered in other graphic design tools – Canva is all about simplicity. Luckily, this simplicity does not entail scarcity; in other words, just because it's simple, Canva isn't deficient. Quite the opposite: it's actively developed and new features are added constantly. Photo Filters are among the most recent ones.

In case you're not satisfied with the materials that Canva provides, you can always upload your own images and use them in your design. These images, like those inserted from Canva, can be modified just like in any other photo editor. Once you're done, Canva helps you share your work by providing direct links to social media. You can export your design to PDF or share it as an image. It's practical and uncomplicated, just like it should be.

To make sure that your designs don't end up like a tumbleweed in a ghost town, Canva makes it possible to connect to other users, work together or showcase your projects. If you're a professional designer, you too can join Canva. Their platform offers great opportunities for finding new clients, selling your graphics and broadening the scope of your work.

Although Canva fits the oft-derided WYSIWYG design paradigm with its drag-and-drop method, I don't see it as a “dumbing-down design” kind of product. On the contrary, it's a valuable tool for both the advanced and the beginners in the field of design. Professional designers can use it as a venue for promotion and the average user as an effortless way to create an amazing Facebook cover image, for example. With Canva, design is a win-win.

Ivana Isadora Devcic is a freelance writer, copyeditor and translator fluent in English, Swedish, Croatian and Norwegian. She's a Linux user and KDE fan interested in web design, productivity and personal branding. Ivana tweets about the world around her as @skadinna.