Global graphic design platform, Canva, today released its inaugural end-of-year ‘Makers and Shapers’ Report, highlighting how users from around the world reacted to some of the biggest history-making events that took place in 2020.

From businesses navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, through to the catastrophic natural disasters that ravaged the Philippines, Canva’s global community of 40 million active users have designed and shared everything from social media posts to online presentations — to amplify, educate and inspire people with their message.

Explore the major trends from Canva’s data below, to understand how Filipinos, and those across the world, have used visual communications to help reach their goals this year:

COVID-19: The World Pivots As Misinformation Spreads

The impact of COVID-19 has been felt across the globe. Since March, Canva saw over 2.9 million search queries for COVID-related templates as the world came to grips with responding to the pandemic. Canva’s community turned to the design platform to create awareness posters, social media material, and WHO-approved health information in a bid to help #StopTheSpread of misinformation and keep communities COVID safe.

Canva’s in-house design team created more than 2,100 corona virus templates, backed by accurate information from the World Health Organization, that were made freely available amid the uncertainty, shared by news organizations, government bodies, and consumers across the globe.

Globally, over 14 million COVID templates were downloaded, with the top five most active countries using these templates among some of the hardest hit in terms of COVID-19 casualties, including USA, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, and Colombia. 

Two of the most-used COVID-19 templates

Society Moves to a Virtual World

2020 was the year of the Zoom background, as more people were forced to shift to remote working, learning, and entertainment. Over 195,000 Filipinos downloaded templates for Zoom backgrounds, as meetings and gatherings were mostly held online. Leading the charge, users in the USA downloaded 1.3 million Zoom backgrounds alone — that equates to 1 in every 253 people across the country using a Canva Zoom background design this year. Globally, over 4 million Zoom backgrounds were created and downloaded on Canva.

With getaways to some of the world’s most adored holidays destinations off the cards this year, it seems most  Canva users have expressed their dreams of a “tranquil” getaway through their Zoom backgrounds, with the top three most downloaded templates globally including a tropical beach, a peaceful waterfall, and a serene underwater seascape.

The most popular Canva Zoom background in the Philippines

Visual templates such as presentations were crucial in helping people communicate and collaborate remotely, with businesses, teams, educators, and students, all shifting to remote work.  

Canva for Education, launched earlier this year, saw rapid uptake as online learning and virtual classrooms became the new norm. With over 700 new templates published to the education platform this year, the top five downloaded education templates for the year were:

2020: The Year of the Side Hustle

With many businesses impacted by COVID-19, the pandemic also sparked a new wave of innovators and creative entrepreneurs. 2020 saw people of all ages pivot to launch their mini side hustle, passion project, or new business, using Canva. 

In the Philippines, around 3.3 million logos were created to date while the whole world registered record-breaking results: 

• More than 65 million new logos were designed on Canva — that’s more than 7,400 new logos created every single hour (or over 123 every single minute) around the world
• Over 12 million business cards were printed globally through Canva Print — which is more than the entire population of Belgium! 

Saving The World: Climate Change

Canva’s climate change collection templates were downloaded more than 2.6 million times as climate activists shared their passionate campaign messages via posters, social media material, and event flyers. 

Greta Thunberg and David Attenborough were also among some of the most searched-for climate-related queries on the Canva platform.

Canva partnered with youth-led group, Future Coalition, to create assets for the 2020 Earth Day Digital Strikes. The colorful templates created by Canva’s in-house designers were used by thousands of digital strikers around the world.

Touching Tributes 

And for those we lost in 2020, mourning fans paid their respects to passed icons through compelling and nostalgic design tributes. Kobe Bryant (January 26), Chadwick Boseman (August 28), and Ruth Bader Ginsberg (September 18) were among the most searched-for figures on the Canva platform this year as fans, supporters, and the media reacted to their passing with touching visual tributes on social media and beyond.

… And Finally, Some Fun Facts; 

• Canva saw record growth in 2020, reaching over 40 million monthly active users.

• For those who love their fonts, the top three most used font types in the Philippines for 2020 were: Glacial Indifference, League Spartan, Anton
• On the bright side: Canva users were sharing the love in 2020, with the Heart textbox and Love symbol among the most used stickers this year.

Most used stickers in the Philippines were:

Primary colors were on point this year, being the most used colors in the Philippines:

1.) #FFDE59

2.) #FFDE16

3.) #004AAD

Over 540 ‘Canvanauts’ joined the Canva team in 2020.