Sometimes I Use Canva
People sometimes ask me what I think about Canva, the online design tool for non-designers. They probably expect me to poo-poo its elementary design tools and suggest that it takes work away from real designers. However, I’ve found Canva to be a great resource in a pinch!
Not Quite a Logo Redesign
I recently designed a ‘quickie’ website for our new neighborhood barber shop. Berkshire Barbers had a shop sign, but didn’t really have a logo. Designing a logo wasn’t part of the project scope (nor was it in their budget), but the website needed some branding love. Enter Canva! I was able to modify one of their ready-made barber-ish logo designs to create a professional mark for this website in about 20 minutes. To me, this was totally worth the brief effort, as it resulted in a better website design.
Of course, if you visit the site, you’ll see that we ended up using the style of the vinyl sign…for now.
Berkshire Barbers’ storefront sign.
Quickie logo created using Canva.
That Logo Really Tied the Site Together
A dear friend of mine is a masterful songwriter and performer (and my guitar teacher!). Although she understands that her current website could use a makeover, I’m still trying to get her to buy into my redesign — especially since scheduling live performances is still a precarious endeavor. She had no logo, and there was no plan to design one. Once again, Canva was a great resource. I assembled a simple logo that provided a visual springboard for the site design. (If you know Linda, please tell her how much you love this redesign.)
Spouse As Client
My husband is a high school teacher and wanted some (non-cat-related) inspirational signs for his classroom. He provided the text for several posters. While I love a good poster design challenge, I didn’t have much time to create these. Canva helped make it happen.
While these were created from existing Canva templates, the platform definitely has limitations. Creating exactly what I envisioned involved professional design finesse and additional software. More on that in my next blog post!
