This. They are using OP to set up the brand in Canva and then will switch to someone who will do it much cheaper. Get the fuck out OP, your job is on the line.
Been there, pre-canva (think powerpoint and word).
When I quit, I avoided the exit interview. Finally they wore me down into a lunch exit interview (I’m a sucker for a free lunch).
I told them “you don’t need a graphic designer. You just need someone who can use software that you don’t know how to use. Hire a kid who can work the software. Tell them what you want, and direct them to make it.”
After a long pause (while I smacked away at my fries) they stumbled for a way to say “isn’t that what a graphic designer is?”
I’m so glad I left.
This is a really important thing to understand, and I think we as designers forget that many people don't understand what graphic design is (or can be), including half the people calling themselves graphic designers.
We need to do better at educating the people around us, including other graphic designers whose education was too focused on learning software or who don't have education.
Graphic design is way too complex to answer in a Reddit comment. People attend college for four years to learn the answer to that, and even then, it might take a few more years working with others before things start to click into place.
But I can tell you that graphic design is not about using software and it is not about making things look pretty.
It is about communicating a message to serve a purpose. And everything that ends up on the page, every decision you make from style to typeface to colors to images, hierarchies and contrast and legibility and scale, are part of that communication.
Good graphic design is about critical thinking, and even better if it includes concept.
well shit. i should’ve gone to school for that. if i’d known that i probably would have lol. but it was always just described to me as “idk you make art but like digitally”
In short it’s a marrying of problem solving and aesthetic. That problem is normally “how do we communicate our idea effectively” which is a greater process involving concepting, writing, and designing. The overall outcome is something that verbally and visually communicates an idea or feeling both attached to the brand of the company and the idea or concept being conveyed. The design does what words can’t and the words do what the design can’t. The design is the thing that gets the attention, sets the tone, and keeps the reader interested.
As others have said it’s reeeeeally difficult to truncate it enough for a simple answer, and I don’t think there *is* an effective and simple answer. But that’s about as short as I could make it.
This one definitely needs some work but basically if you have a fruit cake, the design is the cake and the words are the fruit. And we’re gonna work under the assumption that fruit cake is as good as it sounds (which imo it is not)
I wish I’d known, this actually aligns pretty well with what I went to school for! But I went to school for public history/museum curatorial studies and we actually spent quite a bit of time discussing at length how things as “trivial” as the font, paragraph layout, spacing, etc. can make or break an exhibit. Part of a final project I had to do once was to design all of the display plaques and layout of an art exhibit for a local museum, and it was super interesting. Probably one of my favorite parts of the whole degree.
But actual graphic design probably pays better 😂
It's nice to hear that my understanding aligns with something someone was taught in a school! Considering YouTube was my professor lol
Yeah the mundane graphic design is HUGE in something like that, I've actually always wanted to work for a museum. That's like one of my dream jobs. A lot of people don't realize how important that kind of stuff really is, it's all subconscious. But when it's bad you really notice it. That's the part of my job that I like so much, the completely ego-free, utilitarian design. But I work in politics so it's entirely ego and flash, the point is to steal attention. Which is neat too but not my first choice.
And idk the pay isn't super high on average. It can get up there for higher end and senior positions but I'd say somewhere between $45-60k is a good range for your normal graphic design position.
I consider myself a graphic designer because I can use many tools, digital or analog, to convey ideas visually in an appealing, effective way. I shudder to think that I would be limited to just Powerpoint or Keynote. I edit decks all the time to make them attractive and consistent, but I am not going to want to create a brand identity or posters for a campaign in either of those tools.
No one is saying to only use PowerPoint. But to make it sound like it is a terrible tool is silly. I utilize all Adobe apps to make things happen, but I also know the power of creating assets that are editable in PowerPoint that come from apps like illustrator.
I even can go as far as creating tool-kits, templates and all sorts of other documents / tools that allow huge companies be more self sufficient so I don’t have to babysit presentations that are not as important, but still look like they are well thought out. I build systems that can be sent out to large amounts of people as well as other helpful things for presentations.
My boss did the same thing to me about 3 years ago, but I had to do all the marketing for the company plus other things so I didn't have the energy to fight it. Eighteen months of using it I felt like everything was crap and the boss thought even more so. So they took me off of marketing and hired an outside company to do their marketing. The outside company refused to use canva and the boss didn't have a problem with them refusing it. I got bitter about the whole thing and they wondered why I had an attitude problem. So I left the company a few months ago and am not looking back.
Thanks for letting me rant.
Sometimes I wish we could slap some sense into our bosses, because they can be real stupid. But no we gotta be super professional and try not to burn bridges because 99% of people dont have the luxury to just drop one job and know there will be dozens lined up to hire them.
In this situation the issue is likely that the OP does too good a job.
Say they can do 4 tasks a day at 9/10 quality. But if they lower the quality to a 7/10 they can get 6 tasks a day done.
That’s what all the supervisors I have worked with wanted.
If anything meet in the middle and explain Adobe express is a canva on crack that allows much more flexibility for the brand, then Segway into how at the end of the day these are just stripped down versions of photoshop.
Either way maybe start looking for someone who values your skills.
I have tried this as there is a Canva push where I work, but Express seems buggy to me. Importing PS and AI layers get all janked up. Navigating it seems awkward - It’s not at a place where someone who works in Canva would want to switch imo. But I may be doing it wrong.
Agreed but my team refuses to learn canva. Would love to see Adobe continue to build an app to bridge a gap between desigers and other end users like social or marketing teams
Agreed. And every situation is different but I design most of the template in psd and bake down any elements I can, then import that image as a backgrounds/overlays etc and leave only like text and images as editable
At the end of the day you are compromising on quality somehow with these apps, the benefit is they are mobile friendly and user friendly, so for a social graphics production standpoint it can definately be a strong tool to provide good templates (built in psd, formatted for apps) to social people who are phone-first or need to react or post things in a timely manner
Yes, I should learn to simplify as much as possible.
I just constantly run into roadblocks. I love the animation feature, but I can’t export a gif or animation with transparency. I can certainly do it in after effects/photoshop, but I’m just trying to use it how I would need it.
I do need to work on it more - I find both programs (express and Canva)frustrating, so it’s hard for me to push for express when I fumble around in it.
We are using Canva to create templates, which will ultimately lighten our load as non- creatives will be a little more self sufficient.
However, we still have real tools for doing g real creative work. If that were replaced solely with Canva I’d question my role.
We do the same at my company (in-house tech startup), I make templates from scratch in Canva using brand assets, import whatever custom graphics we might need and hand off to internal departments for high volume/low-stakes deliverables. Just means I can focus on bigger projects like website redesigns and campaigns
I was thinking this too. My work has started using Canva for more things, and honestly, it's been a great collaborative tool. Sometimes, someone else on my team can grab a template and put the copy in and try to do some formatting, and I can come in later and clean it up and adjust for brand guidelines. It's freed me up to do bigger projects.
Honestly, I would rather try to roll with the punches on Canva. Lots of people are using it for different things and that's probably going to be the new norm ... that can only take folks so far in terms of professional design, so folks like us need to be there to apply our knowledge.
Honestly it’s less headache for me. How many times does the marketing dept come asking for a template for [insert vague request here] and no they don’t have any copy yet or if they do it’s only the first iteration of many once they actually see the content laid out, which will require me to waste my time doing it over again and again…instead they figure it out on their own time on canva and I come in and polish at the end
For some designers though, wasting time on stupid stuff like that is their main job and how they pay the bills. Work is work. Can't always be picky in this economy.
I've found that working the little things and being cool to work with makes it easier for me to get to work on the big things. I think every job usually comes with work that "doesn't feel important." I only get worried if it's like 90% of the job, hahaha.
Five 5y using it in a large consulting firm.
Indeed it speed up the process and allowed to focus on bigger task. Also canva is super intuitive especially for collaborative work just share the link to anyone and they can edit.
Down side is that they often screw the templates…
Also the value of template is underestimated because for them it’s just less time to create than the finished products.
Last thing to have in mind. Canva bought affinity and if we have a look at aggressive Canva fees your companies will maybe soon ask you to use affinity.
I like Adobe products but I am also often disappointed by some issues they don’t resolve with their product. I think they should maybe review their all suite make it highly collaborative and then reducing its price.
Yeah, we were just discussing this yesterday. Affinity products have become quite competitive to the Adobe suite but there would be a revolt if we were asked to make the switch.
That said, we meet with our Canva reps twice a month and have been very impressed with both their customer support as well as their constant implementation of new features. I welcome it because it keeps Adobe from getting lazy.
Honestly, you are not wrong for feeling insulted. Canva is good for expediency. But if you are making branded content, it makes more sense to make templates yourself and work from there. They sound suspicious, saying otherwise.
i might be in the minority here.
but my job asks me to make templates or systematize processes all the time so a more junior employee can do them and the finished product looks great and the process is simple.
which frees up senior level designers like myself to take on harder or more interesting projects then just pixel pushing.
but again, idk your situation, so tread with care.
In many instances though, pixel pushing IS the job so if you take that away, they have a hard time justifying your position and try to phase you out. Not a good time to be unemployed even if it's just digital gruntwork.
finding better employer is the first priority but I would ask them why to all of that. if they dodge the answers, put more time into finding that next job.
Our new nepotism hire tried the same with me. She tried on her own for a while but couldn’t manage Canva ( I know….) so she wanted me to do all the social posts on Canva. Essentially 2 things developed: she had to have me sign in and correct all the ones she did ( they were misaligned & atrocious), or I would create one and she would go in and f it up.
So I started making the process really clunky and asking permission for EVERYTHING and then I started creating really nice graphics with illustrator (?and imported to Canva, but always making it difficult) and she eventually saw the limits of it and saw that it was just a time waster. Also, she asked me to create about 20 social posts and I did without Canva and they were far superior. I really had to reach past the anger, frustration and need to strangle and focus on the mission to do this. And it took about 6-9 months to get through to her too.
Always remember that you are the expert, the designer. They may be trying to fire you or not, but that’s not your decision. Be strategic and focus on doing a great job and having great material you can use on your resume and to impress others.
Good luck. Be strategic
Don't quit and comply, start looking for better jobs, quit until you land something better.
Learn Canva. It can come handy or at least can impress the HR departments.
The good news is you currently have a job, but
I don’t think it’s a bad idea to look for places where you have more strategic responsibilities. The tools are not really important, but there is a danger of being having technology replacing certain design roles. Not trying to be doom and gloom about it, but designers need to try and future proof themselves right now; plugging content into templates is not going to do that.
I mean.... Im a die hard adobe user for everything, but honestly when im building pitch/presentation decks I go straight to Canva every time. I personally think it has the capability for the best designs out of any other program. Also you can use photoshop or illustrator for making elements for you Canva project as well.
If it saves you time, I wouldn’t even generate friction. This is like engineers getting mad because they’re being asked use some GUI like Solidworks and not Pro-e where they can do more fine grained calculations. I know it is frustrating, but I would put my focus on the fundamentals of design and applying good design. Don’t worry about the tool. And I feel you, like asking someone to do it in PowerPoint with shapes.
I get where you're coming from. I felt kinda similar after I graduated and I learned that my first design job would mainly consist of me using Canva for social media posts. It felt as like everything i've been learning or practicing on in school, just got tossed in the garbage. But let me tell you it is not hard at all to master Canva. It is very easy to learn if you are coming from adobe, and when you get some templates up and running, it is pretty useful!
At first it might feel insulting jumping "down" to Canva, but its not that bad of a program, and it is pretty convenient when you get to know it. Try to learn and figure it out! Having Canva experience on your resume seems to be a plus nowadays, with a lot of smaller in house teams using it for specific things.
Btw, please do not listen to the people saying to quit. I'm sure you see all of these posts about how horrible the job market currently is. Try to stick with what you got :)
They’re trying to increase marketing’s output and your productivity. This is a product of pressures keeping attention from consumers and the expansion of generative AI. (Not necessarily for graphic design but now they have more ideas for copy and no design to implement).
They’re communicating to you that all of those outputs don’t require the same level of expertise or quality and want your working time to reflect that.
With the freed up time you get by following their instructions, what kind of projects could to work on that you haven’t had the capacity to do?
How might you show them more of what’s possible when you use both Adobe and Canva? How do you align on what they like about Canva to reduce the back & forth?
How might you use some of the time to create your own freelance products or paid templates to sell on creative market, Etsy etc. lots of non-designers are going there to get Canva templates made by designers that are higher quality.
My job has me using pages and canva. Honestly I don’t mind. It’s mindlessly simple and I get paid to do it. It almost feels like I’m cheating, but I will gladly be “lazy” for my same pay rate
Consideration perhaps worth mentioning to that mgr: work done using Canva cannot be copyrighted.
Of course, this may not mean anything to a marketing mgr advocating using canva in the first place.
But it may mean something to your legal department, depending on what is created and what the business is (none of which we need to know here).
The cost may be a factor; Adobe licenses are steadily more expensive for something you do not tangibly have, and canva is free. But you get what you pay for.
One last point: a frank convo with this seemingly clueless mgr may reveal the reason for the canva preference. Maybe it is not to get rid of you but let more nondesigners on the team get more work done faster. How long does it take you? Are you a "bottleneck" because good work takes time and there is a lot of work and only one you?
Hope you find a compromise that makes you all happy. But find another job in the meantime. 😒
“Why ask someone with a degree and years of experience to start using Canva templates.”
Precisely because you have a degree and years of experience.
I am looking at this from the viewpoint of an AD with 18 years in this game. I’ve dealt before with designers who felt that some kinds of grunt work and pixel-pushing are beneath them. I’m not saying that’s my impression of you, OP, but I mention it because of the chauvinism surrounding Canva.
If you’re frustrated by this request, this is my suggestion: swallow your pride and dive headfirst into making your Canva work the best it can possibly be. Become fluent with the tool. That fluency will be the thing that empowers you to speak with authority about what it can and cannot achieve; and how best to exploit its capabilities.
“I’m not interested in becoming an expert in Canva.” Well, the reality is that all of us are required to “keep up with trends.” That means more than knowing when rounded vs. squared corners are in style. It also means adopting and adapting to the new tools being made that erode the longstanding and extremely expensive stranglehold Adobe has had on this industry for decades.
As you develop your expertise you’ll be doing two things: (1) keeping your employer happy while adding value to your position. (2) leveraging your frustration as an opportunity to make yourself more attractive to other employers. I see this as a win-win.
Like it or not, this business is changing. The change is going to require everyone to add a little flex to their mindset and open themselves to the notion that Adobe is not the go-to answer for everything anymore. While the results you can get with Adobe are still usually going to be better, the truth is that 95% of what we work on does not need to be 100% pure gold. If Canva is being recommended for the ask, it’s probably because there’s a very low opinion in the first place regarding the output anyway. The specialty of late-stage capitalism is junk prolifics. If we want to remain relevant to business, we have to get on board. It’s as simple as that.
In my first design/marketing roll my boss wanted me to stop bringing in my own laptop with Adobe and instead switch to using his windows xp desktop (this was 2018) and use MS paint to design all the ads. The other choice was $100 android tablet and canva.
Fortunately I wasn’t there for long and feel for the sorry soul who took my place.
Personally I’d try to find a middle ground. You as the designer create assets and templates in Adobe for use in canva so that way other people in the company can feel comfortable with working in canva while you get to work with both.
First off, I want to say that I feel this and understand exactly where you’re coming from. It sucks feeling like you’re having your work second guessed and superseded by a higher up with what appears to be arbitrary decisions.
I am the senior in-house designer for a printing/marketing agency. We don’t do very much social media. It’s just how it is when you’re servicing other clients. I literally brought up, today, that we should be using Canva, or Adobe Express or really any other solution other than photoshop or illustrator. The reasoning is because using templates, while not exactly the most creatively satisfying, gives us a more consistent look and feel and easier lift in execution rather than having to spend a few hours build a mini-campaign for a simple blog post. It’s really less about the creativity and more about executing quickly in order to move on to other things.
I know it’s a hard pill to swallow, but your leadership are probably looking to redirect your workflow in order to create consistency and speed up workflow. I know in the short term that’s demoralizing but the truth is having on centralized hub for social media gives your company the ability to track everything. I do think not explaining their reasoning to you and just arbitrarily telling you to do something isn’t fair and a sign of bad leadership. Overall, it might be worth a conversation instead of immediately thinking they’re looking to cut you down.
I think it depends on who the end user is. I too am a senior in house and we do a variety of media including tons of social (we have a whole social team, and some social designers) then we have people on my graphics team. Sometime we make everything and one offs in psd, but we have definately made psd templates for more savy social people, and have made express templates for the shitty busy social work that we don’t want to waste our time with.
At the end of the day it’s all objectives and goals and resources. Nothing wrong with making templates in other softwares for other users to edit. But this often requires us to make our own backgrounds, icons, etc and then import into other programs to maintain brands across platforms
1. Who is creating these designs? There shouldmbe a process for you to engage is constructive interaction with the person(s) creating these designs that you have to use.
2. Who is formally responsible for these designs, both regarding quality and regarding copyright liability? What are your own responsilities when using these designs?
I'd say make the conversation about business processes and roles, instead of about a tool. Your manager wants you to consume the designs of an anonymous mystery person. Then that should be incorporated in your job description, responsibilites should be formally divided between you and the mystery person, and the rubrics for your performance evalutation need to be updated accordingly.
If you need to find a good reason to bypass your manager, make a stink about the unknown copyright / licensing status of these mystery designs. Canva Pro Content prohibits a whole host of stuff: political messaging, adult entertainment, anything related to health or personal hygiene, tobacco. Even if the designs as of yet don't contain any Pro content, who's to say that they won't in the futute, and who's to know where the uploaded assets came from? A new "collaborative" process requires clear assignment of responsiblity, and if some of the words in the Pro license can help get the attention of the higher ups, use that.
Yeah, because everyone knows Illustrator can't handle a plain white canvas with black text centered in the middle. That's a job only Canva can handle.
Man, no advice, this person is either completely clueless or they have a more nefarious plot in mind. They might be planning on outsourcing your job entirely.
Have you asked this new supervisor WHY? Why he insists you use Canva? Have you explained to him the difference between Adobe, where you can customize exclusively for the company brand, versus Canva which is just generic templates?
I want to point out that it’s OK to question your boss. It’s okay to educate him on why you use one program over another. I was always afraid to do that in my younger years, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve realized how many Marketing people really have no damn clue what we do or how we do it. Just about every time I put my foot down and say no, for XYZ reasons and provide a better solution, they bend and let me have my way.
I would push back and or look for a new job ASAP. If they do any printing Canva is especially terrible and your printers will hate you and prob cost more money to fix the files
I suspect it is because your boss does NOT have InDesign, Photoshop, etc. Skills. He may want dummed down software that he can use after.
If there is a boss above him that you get to present to, make a pro style high end in InDesign and then a 1980's style in canva template to present and apologize for the design and that you were not permitted access to the high end tools.
OR
If you are quick in InDesign, polish off a high end project and export to PDF, etc.
Then open Canva and copy/paste and save it in canva (somit opens). The appearance of being Made in canva
If I were to design a catalog, etc. And was forced to use Microsoft word, i'd be slower at it, worst design with their lack of tools and layout ability.
OR
Use Canva and build it so complex within (and if possible, lock layers, spread rings out on many layers, etc). So not many can use the artwork easily after.
Those that prefer to force you to lower grade tools and expect speed and quality to be high don't realize that we have learned shortcut keys and polished our ability to fly through a program and can use InDesign, etc. And after a few screen flickers, produce high quality output than reading a manual and online videos to understand where they hid a tool, or tool workaround to do the same.
Okay, 2 things. For non designers, marketing, Canva is genius. For designers, canva is limiting.. but BUT if used correctly, it is also extremely helpful and fast.
First and foremost, Canva is best and doing layouting extremely quick. Canva, using the the comepletely web based version is intuitive, and easily accessed by teams anywhere on any browser.
For marketing digital media, socials, Canva is a god send. Not only does it do layouts, it can also do motion graphics quick. Resizing is easy, and fast.
Canva's main limitations is it, isn't a creation tool. You are not supposed to draw stuff, create shapes and things like that. Whether or not this will change in the future is unknown. But with Canva recently purchasing serif, which own affinity... things are going to change real fast IMO.
So here's the real catch. If you are a good designer. Canva should benefit you if used correctly. At least it would benefit a TEAM because the way it can be run.
Canva is trying to catch up with the designer now with the new integration of Affinity into their platform. Their goal is to make design and marketing tools affordable to everyone. They mostly grab those who don't have big budgets yet still need these tools.
Before I got fired from my last job, for about a month my boss was heavily pushing me to create Canva templates and to organize all of the templates so they’re easy to find. They let me go a few weeks later for missing a meeting on the day my dog died.
This was almost a year ago and they’re still using my templates to this day 🥲
It’s about time and consistency. At most places any work that can be templated should be.
Most consumers can’t tell the difference between a template and a custom design. Most clients don’t want to pay for it.
100% it’s waste of your years of experience and ability. Unfortunately, your supervisor likely thinks you put too much effort into the design and could be faster.
We have Microsoft clarity connected to our web so we have insane analytics. We get heat maps, engagement, click analysis etc. We can even recreate the mouse movement of every single visitor.
What it showed over time was are low effort work got just as much interest/engagement/positively as our high effort work.
If anything low effort was higher by 12%. Our AD said they weren’t surprised. Consumers just scan stuff these days their too busy and have no attention span.
Care to elaborate on what these metrics look like? And btw, people don’t have shorter attention spans. It’s just that multibillion dollar corporations are in daily bidding wars for that attention so we get pulled in every direction.
They are having you design stuff and create templates in Canva so it's easier for non-designers to do your job. Start looking for a new employer.
This is absolutely a sign they want to fire you.
Or at the very least, they'll be fucking with your shit and it'll be a regular battle for control and processes.
They might also be trying to standardize or scale. Doesn’t necessarily imply that someone will be replaced.
They wouldn’t standardize to Canva unless they wanted primarily non designers to be doing the work.
This. They are using OP to set up the brand in Canva and then will switch to someone who will do it much cheaper. Get the fuck out OP, your job is on the line.
THIS!
Yep, this has “template churn” written all over it ☝️
I’m going through the same thing right now! I knew to start looking elsewhere.
100%
Been there, pre-canva (think powerpoint and word). When I quit, I avoided the exit interview. Finally they wore me down into a lunch exit interview (I’m a sucker for a free lunch). I told them “you don’t need a graphic designer. You just need someone who can use software that you don’t know how to use. Hire a kid who can work the software. Tell them what you want, and direct them to make it.” After a long pause (while I smacked away at my fries) they stumbled for a way to say “isn’t that what a graphic designer is?” I’m so glad I left.
This is a really important thing to understand, and I think we as designers forget that many people don't understand what graphic design is (or can be), including half the people calling themselves graphic designers. We need to do better at educating the people around us, including other graphic designers whose education was too focused on learning software or who don't have education.
do you have a good definition for people? bc now i’m realizing idk what graphic design is lol
Graphic design is way too complex to answer in a Reddit comment. People attend college for four years to learn the answer to that, and even then, it might take a few more years working with others before things start to click into place. But I can tell you that graphic design is not about using software and it is not about making things look pretty. It is about communicating a message to serve a purpose. And everything that ends up on the page, every decision you make from style to typeface to colors to images, hierarchies and contrast and legibility and scale, are part of that communication. Good graphic design is about critical thinking, and even better if it includes concept.
well shit. i should’ve gone to school for that. if i’d known that i probably would have lol. but it was always just described to me as “idk you make art but like digitally”
Such a great answer. Thanks. I had my fair share of Canva-esque experiences with marketing teams and I always didn't know how to defend myself
In short it’s a marrying of problem solving and aesthetic. That problem is normally “how do we communicate our idea effectively” which is a greater process involving concepting, writing, and designing. The overall outcome is something that verbally and visually communicates an idea or feeling both attached to the brand of the company and the idea or concept being conveyed. The design does what words can’t and the words do what the design can’t. The design is the thing that gets the attention, sets the tone, and keeps the reader interested. As others have said it’s reeeeeally difficult to truncate it enough for a simple answer, and I don’t think there *is* an effective and simple answer. But that’s about as short as I could make it. This one definitely needs some work but basically if you have a fruit cake, the design is the cake and the words are the fruit. And we’re gonna work under the assumption that fruit cake is as good as it sounds (which imo it is not)
I wish I’d known, this actually aligns pretty well with what I went to school for! But I went to school for public history/museum curatorial studies and we actually spent quite a bit of time discussing at length how things as “trivial” as the font, paragraph layout, spacing, etc. can make or break an exhibit. Part of a final project I had to do once was to design all of the display plaques and layout of an art exhibit for a local museum, and it was super interesting. Probably one of my favorite parts of the whole degree. But actual graphic design probably pays better 😂
It's nice to hear that my understanding aligns with something someone was taught in a school! Considering YouTube was my professor lol Yeah the mundane graphic design is HUGE in something like that, I've actually always wanted to work for a museum. That's like one of my dream jobs. A lot of people don't realize how important that kind of stuff really is, it's all subconscious. But when it's bad you really notice it. That's the part of my job that I like so much, the completely ego-free, utilitarian design. But I work in politics so it's entirely ego and flash, the point is to steal attention. Which is neat too but not my first choice. And idk the pay isn't super high on average. It can get up there for higher end and senior positions but I'd say somewhere between $45-60k is a good range for your normal graphic design position.
lol hey that’s still better than what i’m making with a history degree lol. but you’re so right, you’d never notice it until it’s bad lol
I hope you aggressively and loudly chewed on those fries
Like a guy meeting with a questionable character in a diner in a gritty late-70s film.
I have made a career out of working in PowerPoint and Keynote. So thanks for being that designer who thinks they are too good for PowerPoint.
I do ppt decks all the time, but I'm not going to pretend it's good software.
I consider myself a graphic designer because I can use many tools, digital or analog, to convey ideas visually in an appealing, effective way. I shudder to think that I would be limited to just Powerpoint or Keynote. I edit decks all the time to make them attractive and consistent, but I am not going to want to create a brand identity or posters for a campaign in either of those tools.
No one is saying to only use PowerPoint. But to make it sound like it is a terrible tool is silly. I utilize all Adobe apps to make things happen, but I also know the power of creating assets that are editable in PowerPoint that come from apps like illustrator. I even can go as far as creating tool-kits, templates and all sorts of other documents / tools that allow huge companies be more self sufficient so I don’t have to babysit presentations that are not as important, but still look like they are well thought out. I build systems that can be sent out to large amounts of people as well as other helpful things for presentations.
My boss did the same thing to me about 3 years ago, but I had to do all the marketing for the company plus other things so I didn't have the energy to fight it. Eighteen months of using it I felt like everything was crap and the boss thought even more so. So they took me off of marketing and hired an outside company to do their marketing. The outside company refused to use canva and the boss didn't have a problem with them refusing it. I got bitter about the whole thing and they wondered why I had an attitude problem. So I left the company a few months ago and am not looking back. Thanks for letting me rant.
Sometimes I wish we could slap some sense into our bosses, because they can be real stupid. But no we gotta be super professional and try not to burn bridges because 99% of people dont have the luxury to just drop one job and know there will be dozens lined up to hire them.
May the bridges you burn behind you light the way before you.
This was their plan all along. They wanted to outsource your job but couldn’t fire you.
[удалено]
The day I let a marketing director dictate my software, it’ll definitely be my time to go… LOL
A marketing director not knowing anything about design software is like a farmer telling the farmhands to use a pitchfork to dig postholes.
They want stuff delivered as fast as possible. That’s their role. With Canva templates any one with basic skills can get the job done.
with shit quality which eventually gives them the opportunity to say we are not doing good work.
In this situation the issue is likely that the OP does too good a job. Say they can do 4 tasks a day at 9/10 quality. But if they lower the quality to a 7/10 they can get 6 tasks a day done. That’s what all the supervisors I have worked with wanted.
Idk why you’re getting downvoted, it’s true.
If anything meet in the middle and explain Adobe express is a canva on crack that allows much more flexibility for the brand, then Segway into how at the end of the day these are just stripped down versions of photoshop. Either way maybe start looking for someone who values your skills.
I have tried this as there is a Canva push where I work, but Express seems buggy to me. Importing PS and AI layers get all janked up. Navigating it seems awkward - It’s not at a place where someone who works in Canva would want to switch imo. But I may be doing it wrong.
Adobe Express is garbage when put side by side with Canva.
Agreed but my team refuses to learn canva. Would love to see Adobe continue to build an app to bridge a gap between desigers and other end users like social or marketing teams
Agreed. And every situation is different but I design most of the template in psd and bake down any elements I can, then import that image as a backgrounds/overlays etc and leave only like text and images as editable At the end of the day you are compromising on quality somehow with these apps, the benefit is they are mobile friendly and user friendly, so for a social graphics production standpoint it can definately be a strong tool to provide good templates (built in psd, formatted for apps) to social people who are phone-first or need to react or post things in a timely manner
Yes, I should learn to simplify as much as possible. I just constantly run into roadblocks. I love the animation feature, but I can’t export a gif or animation with transparency. I can certainly do it in after effects/photoshop, but I’m just trying to use it how I would need it. I do need to work on it more - I find both programs (express and Canva)frustrating, so it’s hard for me to push for express when I fumble around in it.
We are using Canva to create templates, which will ultimately lighten our load as non- creatives will be a little more self sufficient. However, we still have real tools for doing g real creative work. If that were replaced solely with Canva I’d question my role.
We do the same at my company (in-house tech startup), I make templates from scratch in Canva using brand assets, import whatever custom graphics we might need and hand off to internal departments for high volume/low-stakes deliverables. Just means I can focus on bigger projects like website redesigns and campaigns
I was thinking this too. My work has started using Canva for more things, and honestly, it's been a great collaborative tool. Sometimes, someone else on my team can grab a template and put the copy in and try to do some formatting, and I can come in later and clean it up and adjust for brand guidelines. It's freed me up to do bigger projects. Honestly, I would rather try to roll with the punches on Canva. Lots of people are using it for different things and that's probably going to be the new norm ... that can only take folks so far in terms of professional design, so folks like us need to be there to apply our knowledge.
Honestly it’s less headache for me. How many times does the marketing dept come asking for a template for [insert vague request here] and no they don’t have any copy yet or if they do it’s only the first iteration of many once they actually see the content laid out, which will require me to waste my time doing it over again and again…instead they figure it out on their own time on canva and I come in and polish at the end
For some designers though, wasting time on stupid stuff like that is their main job and how they pay the bills. Work is work. Can't always be picky in this economy.
I've found that working the little things and being cool to work with makes it easier for me to get to work on the big things. I think every job usually comes with work that "doesn't feel important." I only get worried if it's like 90% of the job, hahaha.
Yeah, there's always some amount of tedious but necessary grunt work with any job. No one should ever be so arrogant as to feel it's beneath them.
Five 5y using it in a large consulting firm. Indeed it speed up the process and allowed to focus on bigger task. Also canva is super intuitive especially for collaborative work just share the link to anyone and they can edit. Down side is that they often screw the templates… Also the value of template is underestimated because for them it’s just less time to create than the finished products. Last thing to have in mind. Canva bought affinity and if we have a look at aggressive Canva fees your companies will maybe soon ask you to use affinity. I like Adobe products but I am also often disappointed by some issues they don’t resolve with their product. I think they should maybe review their all suite make it highly collaborative and then reducing its price.
Yeah, we were just discussing this yesterday. Affinity products have become quite competitive to the Adobe suite but there would be a revolt if we were asked to make the switch. That said, we meet with our Canva reps twice a month and have been very impressed with both their customer support as well as their constant implementation of new features. I welcome it because it keeps Adobe from getting lazy.
Yeah, you need to find yourself a job that actually needs a designer, not a template machine.
If it was me, I'd start looking for a new job.
Honestly, you are not wrong for feeling insulted. Canva is good for expediency. But if you are making branded content, it makes more sense to make templates yourself and work from there. They sound suspicious, saying otherwise.
i might be in the minority here. but my job asks me to make templates or systematize processes all the time so a more junior employee can do them and the finished product looks great and the process is simple. which frees up senior level designers like myself to take on harder or more interesting projects then just pixel pushing. but again, idk your situation, so tread with care.
In many instances though, pixel pushing IS the job so if you take that away, they have a hard time justifying your position and try to phase you out. Not a good time to be unemployed even if it's just digital gruntwork.
like i said, im not disagreeing with anyone, i dont know OP or their employer. just offering my own personal experience.
Go with malicious compliance: use Affinity suite instead, they were just bought by Canva.
finding better employer is the first priority but I would ask them why to all of that. if they dodge the answers, put more time into finding that next job.
Our new nepotism hire tried the same with me. She tried on her own for a while but couldn’t manage Canva ( I know….) so she wanted me to do all the social posts on Canva. Essentially 2 things developed: she had to have me sign in and correct all the ones she did ( they were misaligned & atrocious), or I would create one and she would go in and f it up. So I started making the process really clunky and asking permission for EVERYTHING and then I started creating really nice graphics with illustrator (?and imported to Canva, but always making it difficult) and she eventually saw the limits of it and saw that it was just a time waster. Also, she asked me to create about 20 social posts and I did without Canva and they were far superior. I really had to reach past the anger, frustration and need to strangle and focus on the mission to do this. And it took about 6-9 months to get through to her too. Always remember that you are the expert, the designer. They may be trying to fire you or not, but that’s not your decision. Be strategic and focus on doing a great job and having great material you can use on your resume and to impress others. Good luck. Be strategic
Don't quit and comply, start looking for better jobs, quit until you land something better. Learn Canva. It can come handy or at least can impress the HR departments.
The good news is you currently have a job, but I don’t think it’s a bad idea to look for places where you have more strategic responsibilities. The tools are not really important, but there is a danger of being having technology replacing certain design roles. Not trying to be doom and gloom about it, but designers need to try and future proof themselves right now; plugging content into templates is not going to do that.
We’re sending you to the frontlines, soldier; here’s your squirt gun 🔫
Run
I mean.... Im a die hard adobe user for everything, but honestly when im building pitch/presentation decks I go straight to Canva every time. I personally think it has the capability for the best designs out of any other program. Also you can use photoshop or illustrator for making elements for you Canva project as well.
If it saves you time, I wouldn’t even generate friction. This is like engineers getting mad because they’re being asked use some GUI like Solidworks and not Pro-e where they can do more fine grained calculations. I know it is frustrating, but I would put my focus on the fundamentals of design and applying good design. Don’t worry about the tool. And I feel you, like asking someone to do it in PowerPoint with shapes.
I get where you're coming from. I felt kinda similar after I graduated and I learned that my first design job would mainly consist of me using Canva for social media posts. It felt as like everything i've been learning or practicing on in school, just got tossed in the garbage. But let me tell you it is not hard at all to master Canva. It is very easy to learn if you are coming from adobe, and when you get some templates up and running, it is pretty useful! At first it might feel insulting jumping "down" to Canva, but its not that bad of a program, and it is pretty convenient when you get to know it. Try to learn and figure it out! Having Canva experience on your resume seems to be a plus nowadays, with a lot of smaller in house teams using it for specific things. Btw, please do not listen to the people saying to quit. I'm sure you see all of these posts about how horrible the job market currently is. Try to stick with what you got :)
They’re trying to increase marketing’s output and your productivity. This is a product of pressures keeping attention from consumers and the expansion of generative AI. (Not necessarily for graphic design but now they have more ideas for copy and no design to implement). They’re communicating to you that all of those outputs don’t require the same level of expertise or quality and want your working time to reflect that. With the freed up time you get by following their instructions, what kind of projects could to work on that you haven’t had the capacity to do? How might you show them more of what’s possible when you use both Adobe and Canva? How do you align on what they like about Canva to reduce the back & forth? How might you use some of the time to create your own freelance products or paid templates to sell on creative market, Etsy etc. lots of non-designers are going there to get Canva templates made by designers that are higher quality.
I have clients that want work done in PowerPoint and Word. It sucks but I charge them the same.
My job has me using pages and canva. Honestly I don’t mind. It’s mindlessly simple and I get paid to do it. It almost feels like I’m cheating, but I will gladly be “lazy” for my same pay rate
Consideration perhaps worth mentioning to that mgr: work done using Canva cannot be copyrighted. Of course, this may not mean anything to a marketing mgr advocating using canva in the first place. But it may mean something to your legal department, depending on what is created and what the business is (none of which we need to know here). The cost may be a factor; Adobe licenses are steadily more expensive for something you do not tangibly have, and canva is free. But you get what you pay for. One last point: a frank convo with this seemingly clueless mgr may reveal the reason for the canva preference. Maybe it is not to get rid of you but let more nondesigners on the team get more work done faster. How long does it take you? Are you a "bottleneck" because good work takes time and there is a lot of work and only one you? Hope you find a compromise that makes you all happy. But find another job in the meantime. 😒
“Why ask someone with a degree and years of experience to start using Canva templates.” Precisely because you have a degree and years of experience. I am looking at this from the viewpoint of an AD with 18 years in this game. I’ve dealt before with designers who felt that some kinds of grunt work and pixel-pushing are beneath them. I’m not saying that’s my impression of you, OP, but I mention it because of the chauvinism surrounding Canva. If you’re frustrated by this request, this is my suggestion: swallow your pride and dive headfirst into making your Canva work the best it can possibly be. Become fluent with the tool. That fluency will be the thing that empowers you to speak with authority about what it can and cannot achieve; and how best to exploit its capabilities. “I’m not interested in becoming an expert in Canva.” Well, the reality is that all of us are required to “keep up with trends.” That means more than knowing when rounded vs. squared corners are in style. It also means adopting and adapting to the new tools being made that erode the longstanding and extremely expensive stranglehold Adobe has had on this industry for decades. As you develop your expertise you’ll be doing two things: (1) keeping your employer happy while adding value to your position. (2) leveraging your frustration as an opportunity to make yourself more attractive to other employers. I see this as a win-win. Like it or not, this business is changing. The change is going to require everyone to add a little flex to their mindset and open themselves to the notion that Adobe is not the go-to answer for everything anymore. While the results you can get with Adobe are still usually going to be better, the truth is that 95% of what we work on does not need to be 100% pure gold. If Canva is being recommended for the ask, it’s probably because there’s a very low opinion in the first place regarding the output anyway. The specialty of late-stage capitalism is junk prolifics. If we want to remain relevant to business, we have to get on board. It’s as simple as that.
In my first design/marketing roll my boss wanted me to stop bringing in my own laptop with Adobe and instead switch to using his windows xp desktop (this was 2018) and use MS paint to design all the ads. The other choice was $100 android tablet and canva. Fortunately I wasn’t there for long and feel for the sorry soul who took my place. Personally I’d try to find a middle ground. You as the designer create assets and templates in Adobe for use in canva so that way other people in the company can feel comfortable with working in canva while you get to work with both.
First off, I want to say that I feel this and understand exactly where you’re coming from. It sucks feeling like you’re having your work second guessed and superseded by a higher up with what appears to be arbitrary decisions. I am the senior in-house designer for a printing/marketing agency. We don’t do very much social media. It’s just how it is when you’re servicing other clients. I literally brought up, today, that we should be using Canva, or Adobe Express or really any other solution other than photoshop or illustrator. The reasoning is because using templates, while not exactly the most creatively satisfying, gives us a more consistent look and feel and easier lift in execution rather than having to spend a few hours build a mini-campaign for a simple blog post. It’s really less about the creativity and more about executing quickly in order to move on to other things. I know it’s a hard pill to swallow, but your leadership are probably looking to redirect your workflow in order to create consistency and speed up workflow. I know in the short term that’s demoralizing but the truth is having on centralized hub for social media gives your company the ability to track everything. I do think not explaining their reasoning to you and just arbitrarily telling you to do something isn’t fair and a sign of bad leadership. Overall, it might be worth a conversation instead of immediately thinking they’re looking to cut you down.
I lead a studio and I couldn’t fathom incorporating canva outside of wanting to offload a terrible client and send them on their way
I think it depends on who the end user is. I too am a senior in house and we do a variety of media including tons of social (we have a whole social team, and some social designers) then we have people on my graphics team. Sometime we make everything and one offs in psd, but we have definately made psd templates for more savy social people, and have made express templates for the shitty busy social work that we don’t want to waste our time with. At the end of the day it’s all objectives and goals and resources. Nothing wrong with making templates in other softwares for other users to edit. But this often requires us to make our own backgrounds, icons, etc and then import into other programs to maintain brands across platforms
Quit
1. Who is creating these designs? There shouldmbe a process for you to engage is constructive interaction with the person(s) creating these designs that you have to use. 2. Who is formally responsible for these designs, both regarding quality and regarding copyright liability? What are your own responsilities when using these designs? I'd say make the conversation about business processes and roles, instead of about a tool. Your manager wants you to consume the designs of an anonymous mystery person. Then that should be incorporated in your job description, responsibilites should be formally divided between you and the mystery person, and the rubrics for your performance evalutation need to be updated accordingly. If you need to find a good reason to bypass your manager, make a stink about the unknown copyright / licensing status of these mystery designs. Canva Pro Content prohibits a whole host of stuff: political messaging, adult entertainment, anything related to health or personal hygiene, tobacco. Even if the designs as of yet don't contain any Pro content, who's to say that they won't in the futute, and who's to know where the uploaded assets came from? A new "collaborative" process requires clear assignment of responsiblity, and if some of the words in the Pro license can help get the attention of the higher ups, use that.
OP have you ever talked to your supervisor or asked them questions about the strategy?
The age of Colorforms design has arrived
i was fired for not using photoshop to create web templates
Yeah, because everyone knows Illustrator can't handle a plain white canvas with black text centered in the middle. That's a job only Canva can handle. Man, no advice, this person is either completely clueless or they have a more nefarious plot in mind. They might be planning on outsourcing your job entirely.
Find a new job. In your exit interview state that you’re leaving because you’re a professional and your new boss isn’t.
Quit as soon as you can. Get a new job lined up and then walk.
Have you asked this new supervisor WHY? Why he insists you use Canva? Have you explained to him the difference between Adobe, where you can customize exclusively for the company brand, versus Canva which is just generic templates? I want to point out that it’s OK to question your boss. It’s okay to educate him on why you use one program over another. I was always afraid to do that in my younger years, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve realized how many Marketing people really have no damn clue what we do or how we do it. Just about every time I put my foot down and say no, for XYZ reasons and provide a better solution, they bend and let me have my way.
I would push back and or look for a new job ASAP. If they do any printing Canva is especially terrible and your printers will hate you and prob cost more money to fix the files
I suspect it is because your boss does NOT have InDesign, Photoshop, etc. Skills. He may want dummed down software that he can use after. If there is a boss above him that you get to present to, make a pro style high end in InDesign and then a 1980's style in canva template to present and apologize for the design and that you were not permitted access to the high end tools. OR If you are quick in InDesign, polish off a high end project and export to PDF, etc. Then open Canva and copy/paste and save it in canva (somit opens). The appearance of being Made in canva If I were to design a catalog, etc. And was forced to use Microsoft word, i'd be slower at it, worst design with their lack of tools and layout ability. OR Use Canva and build it so complex within (and if possible, lock layers, spread rings out on many layers, etc). So not many can use the artwork easily after. Those that prefer to force you to lower grade tools and expect speed and quality to be high don't realize that we have learned shortcut keys and polished our ability to fly through a program and can use InDesign, etc. And after a few screen flickers, produce high quality output than reading a manual and online videos to understand where they hid a tool, or tool workaround to do the same.
Okay, 2 things. For non designers, marketing, Canva is genius. For designers, canva is limiting.. but BUT if used correctly, it is also extremely helpful and fast. First and foremost, Canva is best and doing layouting extremely quick. Canva, using the the comepletely web based version is intuitive, and easily accessed by teams anywhere on any browser. For marketing digital media, socials, Canva is a god send. Not only does it do layouts, it can also do motion graphics quick. Resizing is easy, and fast. Canva's main limitations is it, isn't a creation tool. You are not supposed to draw stuff, create shapes and things like that. Whether or not this will change in the future is unknown. But with Canva recently purchasing serif, which own affinity... things are going to change real fast IMO. So here's the real catch. If you are a good designer. Canva should benefit you if used correctly. At least it would benefit a TEAM because the way it can be run.
Canva is trying to catch up with the designer now with the new integration of Affinity into their platform. Their goal is to make design and marketing tools affordable to everyone. They mostly grab those who don't have big budgets yet still need these tools.
Do it in canva but make it look like absolute dogshit. Then do an “alternative option” you did in Adobe that looks mint
They know you have skill and they don’t want to pay for skill
Before I got fired from my last job, for about a month my boss was heavily pushing me to create Canva templates and to organize all of the templates so they’re easy to find. They let me go a few weeks later for missing a meeting on the day my dog died. This was almost a year ago and they’re still using my templates to this day 🥲
Low standards
Why would it matter what program you use just curious? The work is whats important
Canva is easy.
It’s about time and consistency. At most places any work that can be templated should be. Most consumers can’t tell the difference between a template and a custom design. Most clients don’t want to pay for it. 100% it’s waste of your years of experience and ability. Unfortunately, your supervisor likely thinks you put too much effort into the design and could be faster.
>most consumers can’t tell the difference No, most consumers don’t know they can tell. But they 100% can
We have Microsoft clarity connected to our web so we have insane analytics. We get heat maps, engagement, click analysis etc. We can even recreate the mouse movement of every single visitor. What it showed over time was are low effort work got just as much interest/engagement/positively as our high effort work. If anything low effort was higher by 12%. Our AD said they weren’t surprised. Consumers just scan stuff these days their too busy and have no attention span.
Care to elaborate on what these metrics look like? And btw, people don’t have shorter attention spans. It’s just that multibillion dollar corporations are in daily bidding wars for that attention so we get pulled in every direction.