I’m not a graphic designer. I’m usually one of the first to ask designer friends to “make something look pretty” or “make my document not-ugly”, but recently I got access to an early beta of Canva – a web based image and graphic editor.

Canva gives you a suite of basic designs to work from for a number of popular social networks and basic design types. It’s ridiculously easy to use and you can even undertake some tutorials to teach you a little bit about basic design. Considering I don’t have access to any high end design software the fact that I can access Canva from anywhere with internet access has been extremely useful.

It’s a really quick and easy way to make basic social media images and graphic designs. It doesn’t completely replace asking my designer friends to make my design work “un-ugly”, but now at least I don’t need to bug them so often.

Canva is a really useful tool for those of us clueless about graphic design. It’s free (though some elements are paid) and it’s well worth having a play with.

-JB