Get ready to expand your mind, explore your creativity, and experience Canva. I use the word “experience” confidently here, as there’s no other way to describe how engaging and immersive this platform can be.

With 10 million plus users worldwide, Canva is the leading graphic design platform that is freely accessible to anyone with a web or mobile device, and a passion to create. Founded in 2012 in Sydney, Australia, Canva provides a plethora of creative design resources and tools to help those just getting started, up to advanced creatives. Much simpler than Adobe’s design tools, Canva is a significantly faster and more affordable way to streamline your creativity.

Professionally, Canva is the perfect solution for designers, marketers, entrepreneurs, educators, and small business owners who need captivating high-quality designs in a snap. Personally, Canva will brighten up your vibe and allow you to more eclectically personalize your projects.

So what all does Canva have to offer? Tools include graphic templates for social media, personal, business, marketing, education, and so on. These templates are narrowed down very specifically by asset type, making them a great place to start if you’re aware of what you’re designing for, but haven’t a clue what layouts or technical specs are needed. Canva also gives you a library of photos, fonts, illustrated icons, creative layouts, and so much more to discover.

Working with others? Canva gives you the ability to collaborate directly with your team, sharing access to your custom brand kit and storage folders, ensuring everyone is on the same page.

Although most of Canva’s best tools are free, a paid option called Canva Pro is available, featuring more advanced capabilities.

So how can you get started? All you have to do is sign up, and start creating! Need a bit of guidance? Check out Canva Design School, featuring engaging courses and tutorials that guide you through the design, creation, and optimization process. Each video is short and to the point, no more than 2 minutes each. If you’re really enamored by Canva and want to learn absolutely everything you can about the platform, all of their offered videos combined take about 4 hours to power through.

Below are the courses and tutorials offered by Canva Design School, which I’ve organized into my recommended order to maximize your immersive learning experience:

Courses

• Graphic Design Basics
• Branding Your Business
• Social Media Mastery
• Presentations to Impress
• Personal Branding
• Canva in the Classroom

Tutorials

• Getting Started With Canva
• Designing With Canva
• Branding With Canva
• Presenting With Canva
• Canva Pro
• Canva For Education

If that’s not enough, there’s always the Canva community! Canva creatives like you are always happy to help each other out through platforms like Twitter, Facebook Groups, and more.

Last, but certainly not lease, Canva’s blog is jam-packed with content focused on Design, Marketing, Branding, and Photography.

Now is the time for you to experience the power of Canva, and for Canva to experience the creativity you power it with. Happy creating!

For brand marketing and creative individuals, it’s incredibly important to stay on top of the latest trends or platforms, and constantly look to improve the ways in which brands engage with humans. With that, I’ve narrowed down a few of my favorite creative and advertising outlets offering free educational resources to help upgrade your skill set, and make you a well-rounded creative marketer. Even better, you can back up those new skills with a valid certification that will elevate your resume, credibility, and career!

1. Facebook | Creative Strategy Professional Certification
   The Facebook for Business platform offers a full range of training services on their Facebook Blueprint learning portal that will improve your digital marketing skills across all of their products, including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. While there are currently eight Facebook Blueprint Certifications available to help you set yourself apart as a proficient and advanced-level certified professional, I recommend the Facebook Creative Strategy Professional certification, as the topic is more unique than others. It’s ideal for strategy professionals who develop insight-driven creative briefs and advertising strategies that increase performance across all of the latest Facebook products.
   Course: Creative Strategy Learning Essentials
   Course Duration: 2–3 hours
   Resources: Study Guide, Practice Exam
   Cost: Learning is FREE, the certification exam is $150 via Pearson VUE.
   Exam Duration: 90 minutes
   Follow-Up Certifications: Go for the Certified Media Planning certification, and/or the Certified Media Buying certification.
2. Amazon | Sponsored Advertising Certification
   Chances are, you’ll likely encounter a time where one of your brands or businesses ventures into selling on Amazon. Luckily, they offer an Amazon Advertising Learning Console, equipped with all you’ll need to gain a better understanding of their products and services. Currently, the certification learning path is geared toward Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands, often managed by advertisers or agencies using the advertising console or Seller Central. Overall, you’ll be fully immersed in retail readiness, sponsored ads strategy, and campaign optimization.
   Course: Sponsored Ads Foundations
   Course Duration: 2 hours
   Resources: There is no practice exam, so I recommend diving right in to the certification exam, and hoping for the best, as you can always retake it.
   Cost: FREE!
   Exam Duration: 120 minutes
   Follow-Up Certifications: This is the only marketing certification offered at the moment, but with Display Ads in beta, I’d bet a secondary or updated certification will be available in the future. With that, there are a variety of other Amazon Advertising products available to advertisers, like Video & Audio Ads or Custom ad solutions, though many are managed services with a minimum spend. Either way, you can learn more about these offerings in this Amazon Advertising overview.
3. Google | Analytics Individual Qualification Certification
   Before diving in to Google Ads, it’s best to get started with Google Analytics. In Google Analytics Academy, you can learn analytics with free online courses that will teach you the framework of Google’s measurement tools that will allow you to expand your business insights through intelligent data collection and analysis. With Google Analytics, you’ll get a much better picture of your customers and traffic sources, with tips on how to re-market using this data, and use it to optimize your creative work.
   Course(s): Google Analytics for Beginners, and Advanced Google Analytics
   Course Duration: 2 hours
   Resources: While there is no in-depth practice exam within the program, other sites offer their own version. Here is Google’s overview of the courses and examn: Skillshop | Google Analytics Individual Qualification.
   Cost: FREE!
   Exam Duration: 1 hour
   Follow-Up Certifications: Google Ads! There used to be one solid AdWords certification before AdWords rebranded to Google Ads. From there, Ads certifications were broken out into individual certs focused on each area of Google’s advertising products. The most important are Ads Measurement (4.7 hours), Ads Search (3.7 hours), and Ads Display(2.6 hours), but feel free to back up that knowledge with Shopping ads (3.1 hours), Ads Video(4 hours), and Ads Apps(2.8 hours).
4. Shopify Partner | Product Certification
   You’ve likely worked with brands or businesses utilizing Shopify to sell online, and their growth is only going to continue to surge. Shopify Partner Academy offers courses and study guides to develop valuable commerce skills. To get started, you’ll sign up to become a member of the Shopify Partner Program, a community of developers, designers, and marketers, which will allow you to get an affiliate kickback any time someone purchases a paid account. Within the Partner Academy, I’d recommend their Product Certification, which will outline everything from Shopify’s core capabilities to creative design principles.
   Course: Courses to prep for the certification include Shopify Fundamentals, Shopify Plus, Store Operations, Design & Theming, Development, Shopify POS, and App Development.
   Course Duration: about 8 hours
   Resources: Shopify Partners Academy
   Cost: FREE!
   Exam Duration: 1.5–2 hours
   Follow-Up Certifications: Another great certification offered by Shopify is their Business Certification, which is geared more toward immersing yourself with the Shopify Partners Program community, with tips on how to market yourself and your Shopify services.
5. Twitter | Video Ads Badge
   Twitter Flight School is a robust learning portal that provides educational resources for Twitter Ad Fundamentals, Getting Started with Ads Manager, and Creating & Executing Video Campaigns. There used to be a more general Twitter ads badge, but the only one available currently is the Twitter Video Ads Badge, which explores how advertisers are optimizing content to create video ads that grow brand reach across Twitter.
   Course: #TwitterFlightSchool Video Badge
   Course Duration: 2–4 hours
   Resources: Twitter Video Formats, Creating Video for Twitter, and Launching a Twitter Video Ads Campaign.
   Cost: FREE!
   Exam Duration: 1 hour
   Follow-Up Certifications: There are no additional badges or certifications available at the moment, but keep an eye on Twitter Flight School for their next announcement!
6. HubSpot | Inbound Marketing Certification
   Hubspot is a marketing software that offers training and career advancement through HubSpot Academy. In addition to courses dedicated to their own platform, they also offer courses and certifications focused on a myriad of marketing and sales specialties. While Inbound Marketing doesn’t sound like the most creative topic, the learning path actually includes content strategy, blogging, social media, growth strategy, lead nurturing, sales, and customer marketing.
   Course: Inbound Marketing
   Course Duration: 4.5 hours
   Resources: Inbound Marketing course
   Cost: FREE!
   Exam Duration: 75 minutes
   Follow-Up Certifications: Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing.
7. Canva | Certified Creative
   As creative marketers, branding and design are at the forefront of everything we do. Often times, we may be limited on design talent, and the responsibility falls on us to come up with the latest visual communication assets. Canva offers simple, yet captivating design tools and templates for just about every social media platform, marketing material, document, and more. Canva Design School breaks down the best of their capabilities with engaging resources to have you designing in no time. The Canva Certified Creative opportunity is more of an ambassadorship than an accreditation, but one that you’ll be proud to represent once you get to know the platform!
   Course(s): Graphic Design, Branding Your Business, Social Media Mastery, Presentations To Impress, and Personal Branding.
   Course Durations: 4 hours, collectively
   Resources: Courses — Design School
   Cost: FREE!
   Exam & Certification: There’s no completion exam, but you’ll complete design tasks within the coursework. To become a Canva Certified Creative, you’ll either need to be invited or submit an application.
   Follow-Up: In addition to courses, Canva Design School offers short and helpful tutorials, categorized by topic: Getting Started With Canva, Branding With Canva, Designing With Canva, Canva Pro, and Presenting With Canva.

Round out your experience with this mix of courses and certifications to keep your skills up-to-date with the latest creative and digital marketing technology!