By Justice Akujuobi
Just because you are not an expert designer does not mean you cannot create visually appealing content for your brand or business. Thanks to all the bunch of user-friendly tools that make graphic design, novices-like creators seem like ten-year art directors.
Not so long ago, only printers and publishing houses had the most need for a graphics design artist. The ability to create aesthetically-pleasing posters, leaflets, cards, e.t.c would have felt like rocket science to the layman, but fast forward to 2020 and there is a chance you would find a graphics designer in every room of ten (probably just exaggerating there).
The growth in graphic design has been largely due to apps and software like Canva .
Available on mobile and web, Canva is one of the more popular graphic design tools as it is easy to use and has features that allow creators to create designs in multiple forms such as; posters, videos and animations. It does not matter if you are trying to create designs from the scratch or trying to tweak templates to suit your taste, Canva is your plug.
Too much ado about Canva? Maybe not. While Canva dominates, there are other apps that can be ideal for your graphic design needs. Some of these apps include:
1. Adobe Spark Post
If you crave a sleek, professional, and minimalist tool for creating designs, this tool got you covered. Adobe Spark allows you choose from multiple templates scattered over various industries such as health, fashion, architecture etc. You can edit custom templates of text and video, add your choice images or use some of their royalty-free images to fine-tune your design. Spark Post is a little uptight with their constraint on image size adjustments though, this is probably one of their weaknesses.
Pricing: You can create tons of designs for free, you can also upgrade to the premium side of things at N3,610 monthly and a discount price at N36,000 annually.
2. Over for Instagram
If you ever want to be blown off your feet by a graphic design tool, hop on the Over for Instagram train already. Do not be misled by the “for Instagram” title, you get to resize your designs to suit your resolution needs.
Over helps you bring your ideas to life effortlessly, through its easy to tweak features. Their hand-curated videos, graphics and fonts get updated daily to keep things fresh.
If you are looking to create a unique brand identity online from the comfort of your mobile device, look no further. Over makes it possible to tweak anything, from layer to background all the way to design elements size and feel. They did not get recognized by Apple as App trend of 2019 for playing around.
Pricing: Whilst you can design for free, an annual charge of $69.99 for the pro version represents a major coup.
3. Desynger
This tool is probably the closest thing you would find to your beloved Canva, and is readily available on web, iOS and Android.
Get started with a template for the social media network of your choice, or start from scratch. From there, build your design with Desygner’s library of royalty-free images and design elements such as shapes and icons. You can even create your own collection of brand assets, readily stored with Desynger’s other design assets.
Some content creators say it is simpler to use compared to Canva, however, it provides lesser templates in free mode.
Pricing: While it has free features, an upgrade plan cost $6.95 monthly. Not bad.
4. Envato
In content creation and branding, the only thing better than a seamless design tool would be visually appealing resources, images, mock-ups, illustrations etc.
Envato provides stunning resources that allows you easily edit and fit images, text and illustrations on ready-made designs.
For example, if you are a content creator responsible for curating content for fashion brand or brands that are into professional branding, Envato provides millions of easy-to-use templates that are both sleek and visually appealing, making you seem like the professional graphic designer that you might not be (no need to make a face, at least you are smart).
Pricing: There are free downloadable templates, but if you want to step up your options you can get the individual at $16.50 monthly.
5. Snappa
If the majority of your content revolves around text, you ought to consider this tool.
Snappa goes all-in for this design, building its app around making vibrant, polished share images as quickly and easily as possible. While this may make Snappa feel slightly minimalistic if you’re used to more complicated apps, it does what it sets out to do well.
If you are looking for the perfect arrangement of text, be it on a grid-view or presentation style then you have to try Snappa, available on the web only.
Pricing: Snappa allows only 5 free downloads or shares monthly, for $10 monthly you get unlimited access.
Knowledge is power, as a content creator or small business owner, having these tools readily available to create content would leave your lesser informed audience thinking of you as the next Steven Harrington.
Do you have any questions about these steps highlighted above? Send us an e-mail at info@blackinkm.com or DM us via any of our social media platforms highlighted below.
