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| Michelle Le Feve |
By: Michelle Le Feve, Courtland Consulting
[Editor’s Note: This article is the second in a three-part series of articles that focus on the availability of technological resources to help courts collect information and perform efficiently. While certain products are highlighted, this is not an endorsement of one product over another.]
Through my work with Courtland Consulting, I share knowledge of new tools and technology trends with many courts, agencies, organizations, and businesses. These technological advances can help people do their jobs more efficiently and market programs and services more effectively. This Technology Trends article is the second in a series that I am writing to share how people and companies are taking advantage of new online tools to collaborate and work on projects, saving time and money.
The tools that I describe in this article are considered Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), which allows people to subscribe and use application software in the cloud. All of the examples in this article offer: a license-free or “freemium” version, free trial, and/or low-cost monthly fee.
Easily Turn Your Ideas into Stunning Graphics
With social media and internet usage increasing by leaps and bounds, we are all inundated with e-mails, Tweets, "likes," and texts, etc., which makes it more challenging for any particular company or agency to attract our attention. One important way to stand out from the noise is to use graphic design for engaging visual content and imagery. In fact, Facebook, which still reigns as the top social network with 1.94 billion monthly active users worldwide, reports that their posts with images receive 2.3 times more engagement than posts without images. Similarly, Twitter updates that include images generate 150% more retweets than plain-text updates. The reason that visual content has such an impact is because what we see has a profound effect on what we do, how we feel, and who we are. (Sources: Zephoria Digital Marketing, BuzzSumo, Buffer, and Thomson Reuters.) Maybe graphic design and marketing are foreign concepts to you, but you might find that one of your staff or coworkers is a design whiz when the right tools are available.
Whether you need social media covers, a printed poster, or presentation images, there are online graphic design and content creation tools that can help turn your ideas into striking designs without spending the time and money to hire an outside design or marketing agency. This can increase your reach and awareness with the audience you want to engage.
Major benefits to using online graphic design and content creation tools include:
· Easy to use with minimal learning curve;
· Designed to serve both beginners and pro-designers in creating simple and quick designs;
· Preset and customized design sizes and templates available (e.g., postcard mailer, flyer, Facebook banner, etc.);
· Images can be edited with filters and text captions.
I have chosen to highlight three of my favorite online graphic design and content creation tools, which are: Canva, Pablo by Buffer, and Visme. I have used these tools for a myriad of projects, ranging from presentations, reports, and e-mail marketing images to blog posts, social media, and various print designs.
Canva has a drag-and-drop feature for uploading photos and images to your design and allows you to create a design completely from scratch. When you save the Canva design, it is saved to your account profile, which you can later access from the web. This is extremely convenient when reusing graphic designs for other project purposes (refer to Figure 1).
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| Figure 1 - Canva - Create a design and saved designs in account. |
You can utilize Canva’s library of free font styles, templates, and over 200,000 free photos and illustrations. Not all the available images are free, but those that require a purchase are clearly marked (see Figure 2). Canva also has an array of templates to choose from including reports, certificates, presentations, brochures, calendars, newsletters, and more.
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| Figure 2 - Canva - Free and paid images available |
For print materials, Canva has a preference for adding crop marks and bleeds to your design file if you need it, and you can export the final design artwork file to a high resolution PDF for printing or JPG and PNG image files for the web.
The paid version of Canva for Work offers several additional features compared to the “freemium” version, including more storage space for saving designs in your account; exclusive access to 300,000 free photos, illustrations, and templates (see images in Figure 2 designated “PRO”); set color palettes for your brand; and saving your templates.
Buffer is a leading social media management tool with over 3 million registered users and allows you to schedule, publish, and analyze all of your social media posts in one place. You can update multiple social media profiles simultaneously with Buffer, and it allows you to schedule posts in advance. As an important extension of Buffer, Pablo was developed as a free graphic design tool to allow fast and easy image creation with the perfect size and format for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. This takes the guesswork out of image sizing for each different social network and you can choose from a set of typography and formatting options. I have also used Pablo for creating quick images for presentations.
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| Figure 3 - Pablo - Intuitive interface |
With over 600,000 images available to use for free, Pablo has a lot of features for an online photo editing tool and it does not require a login to use the tool. Go to https://pablo.buffer.com and check out the following features for Pablo and refer to Figure 3:
· Intuitive and easy-to-use interface;
· Standard social media graphic size options available;
· Drag-and-drop feature for adding images;
· Upload images or graphics;
· Filter photos with a contrast, blur, or tint;
· Share your graphic design on social media; schedule using Buffer or download the final design artwork file as a PNG file.
Visme has over 750,000 users and is a content creation tool that also does graphic design. Visme offers templates for infographics, presentations, social media cover images, and custom dimensions for designs. Similar to Canva, you need to first create a free Visme account from their website at www.Visme.com.
Then you choose what type of design content you would like to create using Visme’s user-friendly interface (refer to Figure 4).
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| Figure 4 - Visme - User-friendly interface |
Visme offers privacy control over content to be public, private, or password-protected. In addition, Visme has over 100 fonts, millions of free images, and over 6,000 image icons. The presentation templates include different slide layouts for you to choose from and an easy-to-use Presentation builder.
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| Figure 5 - Visme - Presentation template design |
With the paid version of Visme, you can also use the Graph Maker feature to help turn data into beautiful visuals using over 20 chart types and hundreds of templates. The charts can be populated with static or dynamic data by uploading an Excel or CSV file. Visme is simple and straightforward for the novice, and powerful and flexible for professionals and organizations of all sizes.
Taking Advantage of the Opportunity
Tools such as Canva, Pablo by Buffer, and Visme open the creative process to anyone – even those without graphic design training. With a variety of templates and different types of content and images, these tools can help you increase awareness and attract attention to have your key messages stand out. Companies who develop these new SaaS tools are fiercely competitive with each other and they are designing these easy-to-use products that are affordable and include the features we need. With a little time investment on your part, you can learn on your own.
I hope you find this article beneficial with learning and exploring new avenues to help support and manage the important work you do for your court, counties, and communities. Feel free to send me your thoughts or how you have used any of these tools. Look for the last Technology Trends article in the winter issue of The Pundit.
Meet the Author: Michelle Le Feve is a creative type who works as a project manager, communication specialist, writer, speaker and trainer. She is passionate about helping people learn new skills using technology to improve efficiency in the workplace. She loves being a mom, good conversation, and a strong cup a coffee. Connect with her by email at lefevem@courtlandconsulting.com or Twitter @MichelleLeFeve.
Website links for tools and resources mentioned in this article: www.Canva.com, https://Pablo.Buffer.com, https://Buffer.com, https://blog.Bufferapp.com, www.Visme.co, https://smallbiztrends.com, www.buzzsumo.com, https://zephoria.com, https://tax.thomsonreuters.com, www.expandedramblings.com.
Article Disclaimer: With some of these tools, the freemium version only offers limited features vs. the paid version with more bells and whistles. You can review the package differences on each product’s website. Product packages and pricing are subject to change based on its provider. If you have issues connecting to these tools from your court, county, or state office network, then you will need to work with your IT Department for approval/access. As an alternative, these tools have free mobile apps that you can install or use via a web browser on your tablet or smartphone. Do not ever publish confidential information when using any free software tools.
