I don’t know what is the specifics as to why, but when I see a poster or something, I can instinctively feel if it is made with Canvas. I don’t know if it is the font, colours, how generic the templates are, or if it is the stock images, but I instantly feel a repulsion towards said graphic design. It doesn’t matter what style or vibe it’s going for, but I instantly hate it.
A graphic designer friend who taught Photoshop literacy always said that any idiot can use graphic design software. The technical skills for using an app or piece of software have not been an obstacle for a long time. Knowing a piece of software, no matter how advanced or simple, doesn’t make someone a good designer, not even knowing it really well. There are technical elements that are actually agnostic to software, like composition, balance, communication, symbology, color theory, etc. But more importantly, and what they usually spent the most time on, it’s also a matter of taste. Like with music, taste plays a very important role in good design. Sort of like drawing, with enough practice and guidance anyone can draw really well. But knowing how to draw won’t make a person a famous artist. There are so many more things than the technical use of a tool.
You put it in a great way. It’s not the same to be an expert wall-painter than it is to be an expert oil-painter.
TBF, there was a time when Photoshop was a collegiate course around the world. Now? All but the most niche aspects are automated, and any human user of software offering personal agency in its UX is part of the actual product: mapping humanity’s stats.
Canva has a “style” as much as the Marketing Dept has a soul among them. This is the result of countless hours of testing and refinement: not a masterpiece, but it sells like a MFer. Just wait until “AI” gets a real piece of the action.