How to Get Professional Designs Without Spending a Fortune

When I was a high school counselor, we had a tight budget, so I took on a senior intern whose sole job was to create all the media I needed to support the school counseling program–flyers, social media posts, infographics, brochures, and so much more. My intern was lovely and kind, yet I had to change nearly everything they’d created. Misunderstandings in vision, last-minute changes to the plan, and lack of resources made it almost impossible to use the intern to their fullest potential. Ultimately, I found a new supervisor for my intern and did the work she’d been asked to do on my own. (I know I should’ve done a better job of building capacity for her, but in my defense, I was busy and just needed the forms.)

I would’ve loved to have discovered a platform like Canva back then, but it was still just a fledgling company, not the powerhouse it is now. The templates are easy to use, and it all looks so professional, unlike my word docs and clip art flyers from back in the day. I cringe at the idea of the documents I had created.

Check out this flyer I made for sharing with families as a follow-up to a water safety video I created this past year. It was so easy and fast to put it all together once I had the concept in mind.

Pretty great, right? No way I could’ve created something that looked that good a decade ago.

If you’ve not started using it, give it a whirl for free. Canva has thousands of free photos, templates, and graphics. It truly elevates your school counseling program materials to the next level, or at least it did mine.

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