The Visual Economy Report 2023

The

Visual

Economy

Report

Man hand holding smartphone isolated on white with clipping

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

850

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