For most modern churches, design matters. Unless you are still using old hymn books, don’t have a newsletter, and certainly don’t use social media (in which case I’d really wonder why you check out ChurchMag) then I’m sure you’ll be aware of those little elements of design that go a long way.
The sharp looking slides to accompany the sermon, the great looking social media graphic to invite people along, the useful handout with good information about the church service and the strong blog post image which reinforces the message of the sermon.
Designing these graphics can easily be a full time job especially to make top quality graphics, but for the smaller church who doesn’t have a design specialist there is a new tool that can really help you. Canva for work.
Wait a Minute? I’ve Heard of Canva
We’ve talked about Canva (and the iPad app for Canva) before, but Canva for Work adds a host of new features that I’ve been craving on Canva for a while as well as more features I didn’t even know I wanted till I heard about them.
Essentially, Canva for Work has the same core functionality as Canva, an incredible easy to use service to create a wide variety of graphics with the option of on site purchases for design elements.
However, Canva for Work adds in four new features that speed up time designing elements making it a church (or bloggers) dream.
Canva for Works Standout Features
1. Team Members
The first feature is team members. This means different people can log on using their details and all work on the same design standards for the same team. Handy.
2 Branding guides
Branding guides means you can quickly access the same fonts, colors and even upload a logo for your use. This means your graphics will stay consistent and on brand. You aren’t fixed to only these options (which is good as you may want to change font for a kids ministry notice or change color depending on the theme), but it saves time looking up those commonly used elements and helps your design projects obviously appear as your design elements.
3. Save Brand Templates
You can now save your own templates so you can use them later. If one of your design team comes up with a good design, they can share that with other people to quickly edit later. You could hack this by just editing a previous design in Canva, but now you have the option to keep both a template, which can be edited, and the graphic you made in case you need it for another occasion.
4. Organize Images into Folders
If you are using Canva a lot and uploading a lot of images (guilty) then the ability to organize them into different folders is priceless.
5. Magic Re-sizing
Honestly, this is my favorite feature. Up till now you’ve had to completely remake a design from scratch (but with your uploaded elements still on the system) for different social networks or graphics sizes. Now you can just select an option, perhaps move a few elements around, so they are optimized as best as they can for that network and then you are done! This is vital if you want to make the most out of every social network you are on.
Is it Worth the Money
Canva for work comes in at $9.95 a month (if you pay for a year up front) or in other words $119.40 a year. That’s a decent chunk of money, but it will certainly save you a lot of time if you need to make a wide variety of social media graphics and slides (which let’s face it, many churches do).
Learn more about Canva for Work.
Michael Halbrook says
If you’re a registered non-profit, there’s also this… http://support.canva.com/hc/en-us/articles/206659968-Can-my-nonprofit-get-a-discount-for-Canva-for-Work-
Eric Dye says
Awesome!