Design tools and wine have something striking in common: they’re both industries plagued by snobbery. Case and point—Canva and boxed wine. Both stand as quiet rebellions against this pretentiousness, each offering a radical proposition: what if accessibility didn’t mean sacrificing quality? What if ordinary people could create impressive work without emptying their bank accounts?
“One Step From Crayons and a Coloring Book”
Was I eavesdropping on some designers? Yes. Was this a ridiculous statement? Absolutely. First of all, have you seen what adults pay for coloring books these days? I suspect adult coloring books funded half of Amazon’s growth in 2016. Second, this dismissal perfectly encapsulates the elitist nonsense both Canva and boxed wine constantly battle.
Imagine walking into a creative meeting with your polished Canva presentation only to watch everyone’s expressions subtly shift. This is the equivalent of bringing a box of Black Box Cabernet to a wine tasting and watching people physically recoil before they’ve even tasted it—pure prejudice masquerading as discernment.
The Logo Truth Bomb
Here’s a quiet industry truth: logo development. Brands pay thousands—sometimes millions—of dollars for logo design, yet many perfectly functional, appealing logos are built in Canva every day for the cost of a modest monthly subscription.
Is a million-dollar logo design process truly producing work that’s 50,000 times better than what you could create in Canva? Of course not. What you’re often paying for is the strategy, research, and consultation behind that process—not just the final deliverable.
That’s an important distinction. Because the value of a great agency doesn’t live in the software—it lives in the thinking. The tool is just a tool. The real magic is in understanding the client, defining the brand voice, and building systems that scale and stay consistent. Canva doesn’t replace that—it makes it easier to activate.
The $20 Democracy
Both Canva and boxed wine represent the democratization of previously exclusive domains. Does a Canva design follow 100% of design principles? Maybe; maybe not. Would the majority of customers notice the difference between Canva-created materials and those made with industry-standard software? I used to assume they would. Now? Not so much.
The difference is one costs you $20 per month—coincidentally, around the same cost as a box of Franzia. For the price of a single fancy bottle of wine or one hour of a professional designer’s time, you get access to an entire world of creation.
Perfectly Acceptable Technology We’re Ignoring
Here’s what a high end vineyard won’t tell you: boxed wine technology is actually superior to bottles in many ways. The bag-in-box system blocks out light better than glass bottles, preserving flavors and preventing oxidation. The packaging is lighter, more cost-effective, easier to transport, and provides significantly better value per ounce for consumers.
So why do we really need bottles? For the satisfying “pop” of a cork? For the illusion of tradition? It’s the same with Canva—we’re rejecting accessibility because of some mystical belief that suffering through Adobe’s learning curve somehow makes the end product more legitimate.
When you strip away the pretense, both boxed wine and Canva represent logical innovations that solve real problems. But we reject them because we’ve been conditioned to equate difficulty with quality. Time with value. Complexity with intrigue.
Ending the Stigma: A Modest Proposal
Next time someone scoffs at your design tool of choice or your convenient wine packaging, remind them that accessibility is the greatest innovation of all. Then ask them to identify which materials in your presentation were made with Canva and which with Adobe. Watch them squirm as they realize they can’t actually tell the difference.
And to the agencies out there—I get it. You’ve built your reputations on taste, judgment, and polish. That doesn’t go away because the tools got easier. But let’s not confuse brand craft with software superiority. Your value was never in the tech stack—it’s in your strategic brainpower, your eye for coherence, and your ability to guide clients toward clarity.
So raise your plastic cup filled with surprisingly decent boxed wine and toast to Canva—the design tool that, like its vinous counterpart, delivers far more than elitists give it credit for.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go create a brand-ready visual system in 15 minutes while drinking wine from a box. And no, the clients won’t notice. But they will appreciate the consistency.