GRAPHIC DESIGN THOUGHT / 001
I DON'T HATE CANVA.
Which apparently is a criminal offence in some design circles.
01 / BEFORE I KNEW
Before I knew what graphic design was, I was already doing it. I just didn’t know there was a name for it.
Growing up, I loved putting together posts and designing things on the computer. I wasn’t thinking about typography, hierarchy, visual systems, or anything remotely professional. I just liked creating things.
Everything I made was in Pages on my Mac.
Not Illustrator. Not Photoshop. Literally Pages.
I used shapes, text boxes, colours, and the eyedropper tool. I basically thought I was unbelievably talented for making things in a program that was pretty much Microsoft Word with better vibes.
And honestly? I loved it.
02 / SOFTWARE DETECTED
THEN
I FOUND
CANVA.
I don’t even remember how I stumbled onto Canva because it was so long ago. But I remember thinking:
Wait. Everything I need is just... here?
Need an image? Boom. It’s right there. Click and drag.
Need shapes, colours, text, graphics, or stock photography? Boom. All in the same place.
Need to remove a background, edit a photo, or erase something? Forget opening Photoshop because Canva does it right inside the document.
It genuinely felt like the best all-in-one creative tool I had ever used.
03 / DESIGN SCHOOL
Then I went to college for graphic design.
Suddenly I was learning Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, and all these proper design programs with way more features, tricks, and control.
I genuinely thought they were so cool.
But when it came time to actually design a poster, a presentation, an invoice, or even rough concepts, I kept quietly reverting to Canva.
And I felt so guilty about it.
At least one teacher, and probably closer to two teachers every year, would eventually go on a rant about Canva. There was always some version of:
“Anyone who uses Canva thinks they’re a graphic designer.”
Then other students would agree. Canva sucks. Don’t use Canva. Canva is for people who want to be graphic designers but aren’t.
I even went to a graphic design networking event where people were saying absolutely no Canva.
I could not believe how serious everyone was about hating a piece of software.
04 / THE ACTUAL POINT
I can understand part of the argument.
Any random person in any field can open Canva and create a cute poster or a fun layout.
But the average person still can’t automatically create good design just because Canva opened successfully.
If I told my mom to open Canva and create an event poster, she would have no idea where to begin.
Even after I taught her where everything was, she would only be able to design based on what she already knew.
She would not suddenly understand hierarchy, colour theory, typography, spacing, balance, or how to guide someone’s eye through information.
Not to hate on my mom’s creative abilities. You know what I mean.
Sure, anyone can go into Canva and make a business card or a poster.
Will it be as strong as something made by a trained graphic designer?
Probably not.
So who cares?
Any graphic designer could still look at the average person’s design and heavily improve the layout, typography, colour, spacing, and communication.
Canva didn’t erase any of those skills.
THIS IS ALSO
HOW I FEEL
ABOUT AI.
The world is changing, and I’m going to use the tools I like to make my work better.
RANT PENDING05 / FINAL STATEMENT
I spent a lot of school feeling guilty whenever I defaulted to Canva.
Sometimes it was simply more user-friendly. I could focus on making the design instead of dealing with importing, placing, sizing, resolution issues, and five different windows.
I know I’m not designing with the “big boys” yet. I know there are projects where all those technical details absolutely matter.
I’m also sure there will come a time when I don’t automatically default to Canva as often.
But I’m done treating it like a dirty little secret.
Canva is a tool. A really good one.
It has almost everything I need in one place. It’s fast. It’s fun. It lets me create without fighting the software first.
Does Canva replace a designer’s knowledge? No.
Does opening Illustrator automatically make someone a better designer? Also no.
And yes, for proper documents and editorial layouts, InDesign wins all day. Canva kind of sucks for that.
But for everything else?
RULES.
CANVA, IF YOU’RE READING THIS...