Amy Weisenburger & Associates
Top Creative Tools of 2020
What's available for free!
First on the list is Canva! If you aren't using it already, dig in as you are behind the rest!
Canva is a digital tool for creative design (or graphic design for the average Joe) that can be used to produce tons of different forms of advertisement and website resources. Founded in 2012 in Australia by Melanie Perkins, Canva was created on a basis of simplicity and concern for brand consistency.
It currently hosts over a 1/2 million paying customers with varying degrees of creative knowledge; from amateur design skills as to professional developers, Canva benefits people and businesses at every stage of development. The product has flourished as of late, utilized by a series of well-known Brands, including GreenPeace, The Huffington Post, and Pinterest.
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Canva takes their mission statement to heart as they strive “to deliver superior quality products and services for our customers and communities through leadership, innovation and partnerships”. By providing a simple drag-and-drop feature and easy manipulation of images, templates and Logos; as well as customization tools that allow the user to resize, change transparency, color and font, this product ensures a wide array of creative abilities while also guaranteeing the ability to stay brand compliant.
If not for business, you'll certainly use it for personal!
#2 Lumen 5
Lumen 5 thrives in its ability to focus on individual problems instead of overall creative needs. This is a niche software platform that allows one to easily add flair to any article or online creative piece. It is best utilized by individuals with lesser video editing experience who desire a fast solution to creative needs. While extremely useful in its own right, Lumen5 is not best for users with advanced editing experience, as it is limiting in its arsenal of abilities to users well versed in video management.
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Lumen 5 added templates for social - that are updated to the latest 'n greatest requirements. Not a bad choice for local business building and maintaining their social - but note that the FREE is limited to low quality (or shall we say "lower" quality video. The paid plans are a better option but I recommend trying the free first, to see if you like the navigation / video builder.
#3 Wideo
Wideo was founded in 2012 in Argentina by Agu De Marco as a solution to his business venture slideshow needs. With this in mind Agu fashioned the platform to be tools oriented, allowing the creation of animated videos and presentations with style. Where Lumen5 focuses exclusively on video creation, Wideo expands upon this principle to include the formation, editing and sharing of presentation-based resources that can be used for client demos, networking events and more.
With the ability to form and upload directly to Facebook or Youtube from the platform (or download the resources as MP4 files) the user can create quality slideshows in a fraction of the time and cost it would take to hire a designer. World renowned brands such as Sprint and Staples use this platform for all of their demonstration needs.
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Wideo hosts templates for product, marketing, eCommerce, start-ups and more. They include an array of features, with animation effects for scene transitions and intros/outros, even including the ability to duplicate and manipulate objects while removing those undesirable ones. Its library hosts over 100 video templates, a soundtrack library and a wide array of export, management tools that allow the user to download in full HD and upload directly to your favorite video sharing platform.
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