Canva is one of my most commonly used and recommended tools. It’s incredible how quickly Canva can help me put together a last-minute social media post or one-off asset for my business. It can be a super valuable tool in your business too.

If you haven’t used Canva before, it’s an online design software for people who aren’t designers. It has single-handedly brought accessible graphic design to the masses – and it’s an ever-growing company created by a woman (woohooo to women in tech!). Melanie Perkins came up with the idea for Canva after being frustrated with the existing design tools available to her. And hey, I can’t blame her. It’s taken me over ten years to get the level of mastery I have today in Adobe’s suite of creative software.

As amazing as Canva is, there are certain limitations to what you should be using Canva for. Here’s a breakdown of how you should and shouldn’t be using Canva for your business.

The DON’Ts: Avoid At All Costs

Use a templated Canva logo.

A good logo needs to be unique to help you stand out from the crowd. Great logos need to be crafted with strategy – taking your ideal audience, long-term goals, and values into consideration. If you can find it on Canva, so can everyone else.

You can’t trademark a Canva template logo. Canva owns this content and will continue to distribute it to other users – meaning there could be multiple businesses using your visual identity. This is damaging to your brand recognition and could cause distrust between you and your client base if they recognize “your” logo being used by someone else. You and your business deserve more than this!!

The last reason why a template logo is never a good idea? Canva is not professional design software and there are limitations to the quality and detail Canva designs can offer. If you ever choose to expand your logo into a full brand identity, most professional designers will not work with a Canva logo.

The DO’s: Where Canva Shines

Canva shines when it comes to implementing your brand! I love recommending it to my clients and often develop editable social media templates for busy founders who don’t have the time or mental energy to make posts from scratch every day. Here are some ways Canva can help save you time, money, and effort in your business.

• Social media content that is perfectly sized for the platform of your choice, and the type of content you want to post. Interested in building a library of Instagram story backgrounds to keep on your phone? Canva is your software.
• Branded documents to share with clients. Add your colours, your brand fonts, and a logo: now you’ve got a document that is more beautiful than anything you could’ve whipped up in Microsoft Word.
• Keeping your entire brand suite easily accessible on your phone. By utilizing Canva Pro’s brand kit feature, you can upload all your logo variations, your brand fonts, and digital colour codes. This makes it super easy to adhere to your brand guidelines when designing for yourself on-the-go!
• Accessing stock photos you can use for free. We have days when we don’t have the perfect photo on hand. Canva allows you to use free stock photos in your designs without ever leaving the app.
• Finding inspiration for your original designs by looking through similar content ideas. Canva offers thousands of free templates for social media, signage, and common documents – find one that you like, and add in some design flairs that make it totally you!

There’s many ways you can use Canva for your business, as long as you are using it smartly. Avoid BUILDING your brand on Canva – and use it to implement your brand instead.