If ever a brand were to bring to life and lean into confetti, it would definitely be Canva.

Some designers look down on Canva, but I’m not one of them. In fact, I use it myself sometimes. If it can streamline the parts of design work that is super easy but tend to be a time suck, then I’m all for it because it frees me up to work on other projects.

Other than the strange rap sets, cheesy corporate skits and musical interludes, there were some really exciting announcements.

Here are some of my key takeaways:

• Implementation of generative AI
• Easy mockups
• Bulk Create: enhance workflows
  • Import a CSV file of text and have it applied to graphic assets with that data (i.e., titles, subheads and copy)
  • Integrate Google, Amazon and Meta to make and publish ads easier
  • Easily update/replace logos on graphic assets
  • Make brand kits
• Marketing Work Kits: a series of templates to support marketing tasks
  • Campaign strategies
  • Building user personas
  • Making content calendars
• Affinity is a new Canva partner – joining forces to democratize design.
• Canva Enterprise: centrally manage your brand at scale across an organization
  • Limit fonts and colors that can be accessed
  • Give approvals before designs get published
  • Set people in your organization into the right teams for specific access

A few quotes of note:

• “Empower the world to design.”
• “Brand building a garden that changes with the seasons.”
• “Brand is owned by every person at the company.”