The digital revolution has powered a visual revolution unlike anything we’ve seen in human history
The explosion of visual content is changing how we live, work and communicate. The proliferation of digital media we consume in our personal lives has created a demand for compelling, shareable visual content in the workplace – and shrinking attention spans have made it a business imperative.
To help organizations better understand the drivers and impact of visual communication, Canva launches The Visual Economy Report. We surveyed 1,600 business leaders from the US, UK and Australia about how they’re approaching design principles to drive business efficiency, creativity, audience engagement and greater economic impact.
This is the era of the
visual economy.
Thriving in it requires organizations and their employees to think and work differently.
Zach Kitschke CMO, Canva
Survey sample
Canva commissioned Morning Consult to survey 1,600 business leaders from the US, UK and Australia
US
850
UK
375
AUS
375
Visual communication
has become a strategic imperative for business leaders
With time, attention, and productivity at an all-time premium, communicating visually is fast becoming the most impactful way to communicate in the workplace. Business leaders around the world are showing a strong preference for the use of visuals, aware of the many business benefits on offer.
The majority of global business leaders agree that visual communication methods increase efficiency (90%), enhance collaboration (89%) and carry more authority than other methods of communication (85%).
to speed up and streamline our
creative team's processes. It helped
our creative team shift their time from one-off bespoke requests to high-leverage brand systems and programs. We’ve saved over 21,000 hours of design time in just six months after the
internal adoption of Canva
Canva has been a valuable tool
Roxy Young
CMO, Reddit
Communicating visually
is key to both
hybrid work and customer engagement
With teams and workplaces more global than ever, visual communication is enabling productivity, team culture and collaboration. Organizations want teams to be able to collaborate, share ideas and scale the creative process wherever they are in the world.
Nearly all global business leaders (89%) agree that visual communication methods have helped remote and hybrid team members connect with each other.
believe visual communication tools help customers stay engaged with presented materials
Design literacy
has become a
must-have
The need to create and scale content is greater than ever before. Every business is now a content business making design literacy critical for all employees. What was once considered a specialized skill has become foundational for billions of everyday professionals worldwide.
Design is now expected of non-designers. Nearly two-thirds (61%) of global business leaders say those in non-design roles are expected to have extensive design knowledge - think the ability to create new graphics, GIFs, and presentations from scratch.
Canva has been an invaluable tool
for our business, transforming how our creative and social teams work with one another by making it easier for staff to create new designs in a way that maintains brand consistency. It’s also enabled our team to scale best practices when it comes to visual communications across the company, ensuring that we can create compelling content across all of our social and owned channels
Marissa Kraines
VP, Global Head of
Social Media, Salesforce
Businesses demand
more from their
visual communication platforms
Visual content can be the gateway to increasing brand equity. Despite this, businesses are plagued by consistency, workflow and quality issues with their design platforms. Nearly two-thirds of global business leaders (64%) say that their company lacks a streamlined visual design software platform and over half agree their content is neither aesthetically pleasing (53%) nor consistent (56%).
With the stakes as high as ever to deliver visually-compelling content that breaks through, businesses can’t afford to fall short of meeting today’s design expectations.