Canva - a Light Design App for Non-Designers

A little poster I did for
my frontend loving friends

Design is one of those things that looks deceptively simple but that can be hard to get right. It can be daunting to get started. As I happen to be interested in the topic, I tried out a little iPad app known as Canva. They provide the same app as a web service and the app and the service are kept in sync.

I know there are tons of design apps out there. What makes Canva interesting from my point of view are the free tutorials they provide. You simply walk through these tutorials by using the app. They highlight some basic concepts of design and give certain confidence to a beginning designer. Even better they have whole workshops available.

The app provides features from a casual vector editor, makes it easy to manipulate photos on the go and contains an easy to search photo gallery. It seems to me that is where they make their money out of. Non-watermarked photos seem to cost dollar a piece. Fortunately you may upload your own imagery to the service so I don't find that restricting.

I am sure you will start hitting the limitations of the app at some point, especially if you are a professional designer. For an enthusiast it is a good option as it combines many of the common tasks into single app and allows you to get something decent looking done fast. Even if you don't end up using the app just going through those tutorials is probably worth the time investment.