Most small to medium size businesses run into an issue every now and then: we want to create something visual but we don’t know how. Of course, we don’t because that’s part of what we do but not everyone is in our industry and knows the in’s and out’s of Photoshop and Illustrator. But even those versed in the Adobe Suite often run into issues of tight deadlines. Rushing a project in a complex program like Illustrator could lead to disaster. Especially, if you have no idea what you’re doing.

I recently stumble upon Canva, an online and mostly free graphics creator, which is meant to take the complexity out of creating online and offline graphics for marketing, display and social media. With a boat load of free graphics and templates for commonly created projects like Facebook cover photos and flyers, Canva seriously makes simple graphic design a breeze. It was lauded by the Webbys as “The easiest to use design program in the world” and I can second that. While not completely free, certain graphics and elements in Canva are pay per use and usually go for around a dollar, Canva is easily the cheapest and easiest way to start communicating visually with your audience. You can upload your own files to use as well and download the photo a PNG or high-quality PDF or share it straight to socials. It even offers a design blog for tips and tricks for beginners and professionals alike.

This graphic above took literally three minutes to create. So it’s time to stop with the excuses and start with the creating.