Canva Ups the Ante: The Ultimate Design Tool Just Got Even Better
Am I excited or AM I EXCITED? You tell me!
Just last week, the coolest all-in-one design platform just dropped a whole motherhood of AI tools, with a glossary of brand new workspace features. I did a bit of a dive into it this weekend, and I’m happy to report that your creative juices are going to flow a whole lot easier after using this tool!
Here’s a brief review of my favourite features and some detail on what I thought about each update.
First things first, Brand Management:
I loved using the Brand Hub that’s been added to the Visual Worksuite. I added in Chutzpah Creative’s visual assets - our logos, fonts, colours and design guidelines. This is a game changer because - no more endless Slack messages and update to freelance designers or digging through the lost archives in old hard drives and shared drives. I’ve done this so many times in spite of trying my utmost to be hyper-organised, and I’m just already super grateful for just how much time and energy this Brand Hub is going to save me. I’m in the process of onboarding a new client for social media management and adding in their brand assets to a new folder was super easy.
All of your company’s brand assets can be added in ‘Brand Folders’ for specific campaigns and projects. And - wait for it- your life is going to be even easier because there’s a section to add in pre-branded, re-usable templates for repetitive tasks like email campaigns that need those branded templates.
I know what you’re thinking: ‘All this can be done in Google Drive’- TRUE. But, in Canva? As owner of the brand I can set up permissions to make sure that any content created in Canva remains true-to-brand. What does that mean exactly?
No unauthorised fonts, or outdated colours. You can also approve workflows in Canva - this means you avoid those crazy multiple drafts being saved and reviewed somewhere else.
Magic Everything:
There’s also a cool new tool called ‘Magic replace’ which can easily replace an old logo, or graphic with just one click. This is just one of the several AI-powered tools recently added to the Canva Visual Worksuite.
Not surprisingly, they’re all pre-titled ‘Magic’! Magic Eraser, Magic Edit, Magic Presentation, Magic Design and others.
I was able to generate a brand new image completely through AI by suggestion a design description - and then after dropping the resolved image that AI generated in the ‘Magic Design’ section, it immediately created everything from a testimonial template, Facebook banner, Instagram story and..wait for it - a CV! You can then go on to choose what you need, change the style, tone and presentation as need and also amend the text with AI. Mind blown.
Not only that, if you're struggling to find the right words, don't worry - Canva's AI-powered copywriting assistant can generate written content based on a text prompt, perfect for presentations and website copy.
Animation:
There’s another feature which allows the creation of an animated feature (under Magic Design) I played with this very briefly but definitely going back to tinker with this more and see what we can create.
Beat Sync:
Beaming ear to ear because of this feature! Canva has truly arrived. I’d list this as the next level for all things video creation. With TikTok styled videos now becoming super popular with audiences across different niches, this feature is bound to create fans because it very easily auto-matches the soundtrack to your footage and you can also manually move things around for more control. Don’t have your own music? No problem. Canva’s library of royalty-free music is ready available and you also have the option of uploading your own track.
Canva Translate:
Canva's design platform has introduced a new translation feature that can automatically translate text in your designs to more than 100 languages.
Canva's innovative approach is grounded in a mix of AI models, combined with their own cutting-edge systems. And with 953 new fonts, non-workspace-specific tools, and new editing features for layouts, layers, styles, and gradients, Canva's design platform is better than ever before.
I have to end this blog by saying this. Canva, the beloved design tool of small businesses worldwide, has truly outdone itself.
The sheer magnitude of its growth, evolving seamlessly with the times, is nothing short of awe-inspiring.
As I write this blog post, a staggering 110 million users per month attest to its unrivalled popularity. And get this: since the launch of its groundbreaking visual worksite in September 2022, an additional 30 million users have joined the ever-expanding Canva community. It's truly a testament to the ingenuity of its creators and the loyalty of its users. Just amazing.
So over to you, my creative friend! Are you as stoked about these new features? What’s your favourite and how are you going to change your design process? Drop a comment below and let me know!