: Is Canva "true" graphic design? I'm brand-new to graphic design and this website; I hear graphic design is a nice field for those who want to be creative, but want to get some good freelance

@Sims5801359

I'm going to go out on a limb here and answer this question perhaps a little unconventionally: Graphic design is not a product, but a process. It is not the end result or the aesthetic quality of the graphics you produce, but, rather, the learned cognitive, spatial, numerical and typographical choices the designer makes. Typically, in the world of graphic design as a profession, that process involves five broad steps:


The design brief
Research and brainstorming
Sketching/Prototyping
Rendering in graphics editor
Packaging/presentation


Canva is not conducive to any of the above steps of the graphic design process, except, perhaps, as a rapid prototyping tool (#3). So, based upon that analysis, I would contend that, no, Canva is not graphic design. Perhaps a better term might be digital illlustration.

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@Si6392903

I have never used that App. In fact It is very unlikely I'll ever use a phone or tablet to make "Graphic Design".

But also, doing something in Photoshop, Illustrator or Corel does not mean the resulting work it is Graphic Design.

Deliver something in PNG or JPG does not mean is designed at all. Graphic Design is a process of visual comunication, not a file.

On the other hand, Graphic design has being done since long before computers were invented.



Edited:

Ok, I looked for the App.

It is a template system. Is like having pre made food for the microwave.

Does using that turns you into a Graphic Designer? Does the microwave food makes you a Cheff? No.

Does the App and the microwave free us from an ugly and tasteless world? It helps.

The point here is:


want to get some good freelance experience before I would go for a GD degree


Do you want to consider you a Cheff heating pre made food in a microwave? It could be a business. Some Franchises do that. But do you want to learn how to design, well...


Is this TRUE graphic design?


Yea, in a sense. But not made by the user, but the people that are designing the system, the templates, the photos, the fonts.

The final user is doing a bit, making some last step decisions, adding cheddar cheese or not. But somehow people always find ways burn boiled water. So read the first version of my answer. Xo)

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@Kevin459

This question is rather opinion based, but here's mine...

If you're making decisions about how something looks (images, text size, colour, etc, etc) then you are designing it. So using template based systems like this is definitely a form of design.

It could (and may well) be argued that this is a fairly light form of design because you are being guided and hinted towards something that looks pretty good while avoiding the potentially poor results that can come from having total freedom to make terrible mistakes. Also, you are being given a head start by not starting with a blank canvas, which is scary. However, if you are just getting started with graphic design then this is exactly what you want IMO.

You'll know when you are ready to graduate onto more 'proper' design methods and software when you start to feel constrained and frustrated by the limitations inherent in the template based systems. That's when it's time to learn Illustrator or Photoshop (or similar) and start pushing envelopes and making mistakes.

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