THE local headquarters of graphic design company Canva is looking at doubling their workforce, especially their design and operations team, by 2020 as the country continues to be 鈥渄esign hub鈥 for the company.
鈥淣inety-nine percent of the over 50,000 templates available on Canva is made in the Philippines,鈥 Yani Hornilla-Donato, Canva PH country manager, said during the launch of their first Christmas campaign on Nov. 18 at their offices in Makati City.
From their 220 employees, Ms. Hornilla-Donato expects it will 鈥渄ouble鈥 by 2020 though she said they may reach it before long as 鈥渉istorically there鈥檚 a 20% increase in workforce by the end of the year.鈥
The company is looking for more designers especially with the introduction of their Canva for Enterprise tier and more customer service representatives because of the service鈥檚 growing number of users which Ms. Hornilla-Donato pegged at 鈥渙ver 20 million monthly active users.鈥
鈥淲hen we launched [the enterprise package] one of the things that makes enterprise stand out is that we have a template service where we have dedicated designer to recreate the client鈥檚 existing templates,鈥 she said.
The enterprise package was launched in October and is priced at $30 per team member per month for a team with a minimum of five members. No localized pricing is available for the Philippines just yet though Ms. Hornilla-Donato said they will introduce it soon.
As a freemium app, users can use Canva for free though more storage and a bigger selection on templates, stock photos, and fonts can be accessed for P505/month.
In 2020, aside from growing their design and customer service team, she said that they will be focusing on 鈥渋ncreasing brand awareness in the Philippines.鈥
And that鈥檚 where its Christmas promotion comes in as Canva PH recently launched 鈥淐anva Pasko,鈥 a design competition where five weekly winners will have their works on a billboard along the Guadalupe northbound part of EDSA.
鈥淔or times when words arent鈥檚 enough, we鈥檙e encouraging every Filipino鈥o mark the occasion with a very special tribute 鈥 design a beautiful card on Canva for free for a chance to see it displayed on a huge billboard in EDSA. Sitting in traffic has never been so meaningful,鈥 Ms. Hornilla-Donato said in a release.
The campaign, open to Filipinos 13 years and above, runs until Dec. 18. Five entries per week starting Dec. 2 will see their Christmas cards on the digital billboard.
To enter, one must visit the contest homepage () and register for a free Canva account to design the entry using pre-made Instagram portrait templates. Entries must be submitted on the website and register their contact details through the link provided. Entrants may also post their submissions on the Canva PH Facebook and Instagram accounts and include a caption about the entry.
To date, Ms. Hornilla-Donato said they have received over 300 entries which is more than the company鈥檚 projection.
