Canva

Canva is a graphic design platform that Blake students often use for their projects, this article focuses on the opinions of students on Canva and what goes on behind-the-scenes with Blake’s provided Canva premium. 

Although Blake has used Canva for a long time, Blake has used other graphic design websites, including Piktochart. Nat Gilsdorf, the upper school instructional technology coach & student innovation coordinator capitalizes on this idea: “We used to use a service called Piktochart for years…but they actually changed their business model right around the same time Canva approached us to make it so then you would have to pay to print your product and a lot of the other alternatives are the same…So, that’s a big part of why we like Canva.” Not only does Canva allow features that would have otherwise been restricted from other services, but Canva also offers an additional unique factor. 

Many students may have noticed the premium feature on Canva and the additional benefits it provides, however, little is known about how Blake originally got Canva in the first place. While a typical user would pay around $120 per year for premium, Blake received it for free. Nat Gilsdorf further explains, “They gave it to us, for free…Canva launched their education program last year and I think as a part of trying to advertise and get people involved in canva, they gave it out to a bunch of schools so we actually got the canva premium.” As a result of this education program Canva provided, all Blake students have access to benefits that would’ve otherwise cost money. 

So, what do Blake students think about Canva? Tony Liu ’25 states, “[Canva] is helpful because it’s really easy to organize all your information that the teacher usually makes you put on for like a presentation.” Liu also believes that no other alternatives are better. On the contrary, Daniel Hasday-Erbsen ‘26 disagrees with Liu’s statement, stating, “Canva is more [for] educational use and making like posters… whereas photoshop is actually good at editing and if you want to make something more professional…it’s more useful.” Although there are conflicting opinions on Canva, the school is still able to access the benefits of premium–for free.