The founder of a startup shares how using Canva for design resulted in a culture shift where design aesthetics took precedence over marketing strategy.
Canva reversed the traditional design process, leading to designs dictating the message instead of the other way around.
The ease of creating designs with Canva made it challenging to prioritize, as everything appeared equally simple and important.
Over time, Canva led to unintentional brand changes through constant small design tweaks.
Using Canva, even weak marketing ideas can appear presentable, leading to a cycle of superficial redesigns instead of addressing core issues.
Canva's templates can discourage exploration of new ideas that don't align with existing layouts, limiting creativity and innovation.
The tool's simplicity can mislead team members into believing they understand marketing, affecting the value placed on marketing expertise.
Despite the drawbacks, Canva can be beneficial for quick online presence establishment, precise design executions, brand consistency efforts, internal alignment, and temporary projects.
Canva should be used strategically and not as a substitute for deeper marketing understanding and critical thinking, treating it more as a supportive tool than a comprehensive solution.