Unit 4.1 Introduction

During the past several lessons, you’ve been working in what I call “capital A” Applications. Photoshop, InDesign, and even WordPress to a degree, are applications that do a lot of “stuff.” They are big, robust, systems that give you the freedom to build and manipulate canvases of any shape and size. While understanding these products and the language that comes with it is great, we are simultaneously living in a world where photo manipulation is mainstream through applications such as Instagram which have streamlined the editing process. These “small A” apps give end users more constraints such as a limited number of templated filters. Yet in situation where you have a specific targeted outcome, such as a very specific size, look, and feel, the ability to quickly create your work can be a worthy tradeoff.

For this lesson, we will be exploring a new, web-based design application called Canva. Throughout this lesson, I want you to consider:

• What are some of the affordances that an app like Canva brings?
• What limitations does an app like Canva have?
• How can a public relation practitioner leverage tools like Canva?

In this lesson, you are going to be asked to design a suite of social media assets for a new, integrated PR social media campaign. These pieces will include:

• Facebook Cover
• Twitter Cover
• Facebook Post
• Instagram Post