Are you trying to get someone’s attention? Add a graphic to your Tweet, LinkedIn post, or e-mail. Trained digital artists can easily create beautiful custom graphics using tools in Adobe’s Creative Suite like Photoshop or InDesign. But what about the rest of us?
Let me recommend Canva; a simple online graphic tool that helps you express your creativity without requiring much time or experience. And...drumroll...it’s free!
Canva starts you off with a wide selection of templates, such as this one:
Look how easy it is to swap elements and fonts to create whatever you like, even a promotional graphic for an imaginary big night out such as this:
With Canva it is simple to create a series of fresh graphics to promote events on social media. Canva offers a variety of free or low cost graphics searchable by topic:
Or you can easily upload any number of files of your own, like these headshots below, and lay them out as needed:
Use fixed Canva shapes to create your own elements like this calendar to countdown days before a deadline:
You can also adjust the level of transparency and overlay different backgrounds to achieve special effects:
Here is how transparency settings were used to make Early Birds disappear:
The examples I have shown are sized for email headers but Canva also provides templates with the ideal dimensions for all varieties of social media, presentation pages, postcards, business cards, tri-fold brochures and any custom size you need. One limitation is that the free version of Canva does not give users an easy way to resize the same work across multiple formats. Canva for Work, which currently costs $9.95 when paid annually or $12.95 per user per month, has a special Magic Size feature that automatically resizes existing graphics saving a lot of time.
Canva for Work also allows you to upload your own corporate fonts and build custom templates to assure brand uniformity. But even without these options Canva supplies a good number of typefaces, as shown here:
The free version of Canva also makes it surprisingly easy to work with teams. With one click you can either share a work in progress with your team members or even make the design public. It is simple to make several iterations of your design and then decide which version to download in a .png format. As in Google Docs, Canva saves instantly as you edit, reducing the chance of lost work.
So, no excuses remain. You can wow your friends and family with some very solid invitations and birthday cards or let your new found talents shine in a business setting. Get Canva and get busy!