Can Graphic Designers Use Canva?

Nowadays, you’ll find many types of software to design logos, ads, letterheads, business cards, brochures, and more.

Canva is among the most popular because it has many pre-made templates available. This leads many to wonder and ask, “Can graphic designers use Canva?”

To answer the question, let’s look at the advantages and disadvantages of using the software in creating your graphic designs.

We’ll also introduce Design Cuts, an online platform where you can find additional design elements you can use.

Canva for Graphic Designs

Texts, images, and any visually appealing items easily catch people’s attention, and they will almost always remember them.

That’s why companies, organizations, and even political strategists look for the best person to create marketing or campaign materials for them.

With the right phrase, image, and color choice, people can quickly attribute them to a politician, celebrity, product, service, brand, or company.

This is where Canva comes in.

Established in 2013, the online design and publishing platform continues to help millions of users worldwide bring their creative ideas to life.

You will find thousands of available professional images, templates, and content to use as your design base and then tweak however you want to achieve your design goals.

You can then save your creations, present, share, download, or print them.

Another feature of Canva is that you can collaborate with a team of fellow designers or critiques to ensure your final design is appealing.

You can use the Free account, but Canva recommends that graphic designers use the paid Pro account.

That’s because it is designed specifically for graphic designers and graphic designing agencies or companies.

Why You Should Use Canva

Although aspiring graphic designers are the ones who will greatly benefit from using the Canva platform, experienced designers also sometimes use it for the following reasons:

Intuitive Design

Do you have no graphic design experience? Or, have you been creating designs manually but want to learn the hoops of designing using technology?

Regardless of where you stand, Canva is the perfect software for you! It’s easy to navigate, thanks to its simple drag-and-drop interface.

Plus, there are tons of instructional videos and tutorials you can find on its website or around the internet.

Time-Saving

Since Canva provides a design base and has user-friendly features, those who need to accomplish projects requiring quick delivery can use the platform.

For instance, you have a client who has a last-minute event that needs to be advertised on several social media platforms.

Experienced graphic designers can create a catchy, slightly unique social media infographic within 10 minutes, while newbies might take around one hour.

That’s why this software is also ideal for creating YouTube thumbnails, blog graphics, and email marketing graphics.

Create a Brand Kit

Like the Canva Pro account with a Brand Kit feature, you can also offer your clients a “brand kit.”

This kit is perfect for those looking for a template they need access to regularly for their events, promos, and the like.

The problem is that hiring an in-house graphic designer would cost them more than having a ready-made template they can edit.

Seems too good to be true? Not really.

In fact, there are already a number of graphic design companies or agencies that offer such services.

The gist is that you create a template that speaks to their brands, such as one that bears their logo, company name, or business color.

However, you design it in a way that they can easily add and remove particular elements such as texts and images without ruining the template.

Why You Shouldn’t Use Canva

As you develop your designing skills or gain experience and more clients, most professionals don’t recommend using Canva as your primary or only software of choice.

At this point, you’ll definitely charge more, and using the platform will:

Make You Look Amateurish

The platform doesn’t fully authorize you to edit a design, limiting your freedom to make it as unique and creative as possible.

It’s best that you only use their templates and designs as inspirations to create your own using other programs like Adobe Photoshop.

Restricts Your Creativity

Since the platform has everything you need, the more you use it, the less time you spend thinking outside the box.

All you would be doing is adding, removing, and editing particular parts or elements.

As mentioned, Canva limits the number of ways you can edit the templates and designs.

Too Recognizable

With the platform’s popularity, don’t be surprised to find designs that look almost as close to what you created.

Most designers would also recognize that the tool used in creating a graphic design is Canva.

Worst, your client might have hired you because they’ve been using Canva and want something 100% unique that would represent their brand.

They will more likely recognize that you used the software and think they’ve overpaid you.

Can Graphic Designers Use Canva?

Based on the top advantages and disadvantages we just discussed, graphic designers can undoubtedly use Canva to accomplish their projects, but it isn’t recommended.

Use it as inspiration while enhancing your skills and for small projects that won’t be used for a long time and aren’t too business-critical.

Examples of these are infographics and event invitations.

You may also consider using the platform for your blog images, videos, and GIFs.

On the other hand, it’s best not to use the software for graphic designs that will be used for assets critical and central to a business or brand.

Examples are logos, brochures, signage, packaging, and business cards.

How Design Cuts Can Improve Your Designs

Although there are limitations to using Canva in terms of editing, the platform allows you to add more elements you obtained from third-party websites to the design.

Design Cuts is one of the best online sources for this. The fonts, templates, graphics, and other items you’ll find are also made by creative designers like you.

Even better, all the products are sold at an affordable price.

Add that to the fact that they offer promos, such as getting more than 20 free products on your first purchase of fonts and seasonal discounts.

The marketplace also has a Learning section where you can find tutorials and podcasts that can help improve your designing skills.

Lastly, you can become one of Design Cuts’ sellers, as Canva allows you to sell your creation on the platform.

This is perfect for those still improving their skills but already want to make a small profit while doing so.

Just note that Design Cuts will take 50% commission from your sales, and you need to have your designs approved before you can sell them.

Doing so ensures you don’t sell something you don’t own, such as a Canva template with no unique elements.

After all, Canva has policies you need to follow when selling designs made using the platform.

Using Canva for Graphic Designs

So, can graphic designers use Canva?

Whether you’re planning to use Canva to design materials for your own business, products, or services or make designs to sell or for clients, remember that the platform has limitations.

Also, ensure you read their terms of use and policies.

The main takeaway is to make your design as unique and creative as possible, especially if you will sell them.

Therefore, purchasing design elements from trusted sources like Design Cuts is advisable.

Good luck!