From Perth to the World: How Melanie Perkins' Canva Transformed the Way We Design Forever

Once upon a time, design was intimidating. It lived behind expensive software, complicated tools, and professionals who spoke in the language of pixels and layers. For the rest of us, trying to make a poster or presentation meant hours of frustration or begging a designer friend for help. That is—until a young university student from Perth decided enough was enough.

Melanie Perkins was studying at the University of Western Australia when she noticed something striking. Her fellow students, bright and creative as they were, struggled endlessly with design programs that were meant to make their lives easier. What should have been a fun process—creating layouts for projects or portfolios—became an exercise in patience and confusion. Melanie, who was teaching design at the time, saw a problem worth solving.

Her first attempt at a solution came in the form of Fusion Books, an online platform that allowed students and schools to design and print their own yearbooks. It was simple, sleek, and, most importantly, accessible. Users could drag and drop elements, add text, and collaborate online. The model worked beautifully in schools across Australia and even gained international traction. More importantly, it proved that design didn’t have to be complicated—it just had to be user-friendly.

That small success lit the spark for something much bigger. Melanie, along with her partner Cliff Obrecht, began dreaming of a platform that would let anyone, anywhere, design anything—without needing a degree in graphic design. But turning that dream into reality wasn’t easy.

For a long time, investors didn’t get it. The world of tech start-ups was saturated with software companies, and a design tool built from Australia wasn’t exactly what Silicon Valley was waiting for. But Melanie and Cliff were relentless. They kept refining their pitch, polishing their vision, and eventually met Cameron Adams, a former Google designer with the technical know-how to bring their concept to life. Together, the trio became the founding team of Canva.

By 2012, the idea had a name and a mission: to empower the world to design. A year later, Canva launched publicly—and immediately struck a chord. People who had never opened Photoshop suddenly found themselves making social media posts, presentations, and invitations that looked professional. Small businesses used it for branding, teachers used it for lesson plans, and freelancers used it to build portfolios. It wasn’t just a tool; it was liberation from complexity.

The magic of Canva lay in its simplicity. The interface felt intuitive—drag, drop, type, done. There was no steep learning curve, no jargon. And because it was cloud-based, anyone could collaborate in real time. This accessibility quickly created a loyal user base. Within the first year, hundreds of thousands had signed up.

Canva’s growth wasn’t fuelled by flashy marketing or celebrity endorsements. It spread because people talked about it. Designers, entrepreneurs, and social media managers shared their creations, each design carrying a quiet little watermark: “Made with Canva.” It became the digital equivalent of word-of-mouth advertising.

As its popularity grew, so did its capabilities. Canva moved from a simple online editor to a full-fledged design ecosystem. It introduced thousands of templates, an enormous library of images and fonts, and even a print service for those who wanted physical copies of their creations. In 2015, the company launched “Canva for Work,” which made it easier for teams to create consistent branding and marketing materials. It was the perfect bridge between creativity and collaboration.

By 2017, Canva was profitable—a rare milestone for a tech start-up still in its early years. Its user base spanned the globe, from bloggers to corporate giants. In 2018, the company achieved unicorn status, valued at over a billion dollars. But Melanie and her team didn’t stop there. They continued to refine, expand, and innovate. Canva became available in more than a hundred languages and reached millions of users in nearly every country.

The platform’s evolution mirrored the changing needs of the digital world. It added video editing, website creation, and presentation features, allowing people to craft entire visual identities without leaving the platform. Later came enterprise solutions for large organisations, as Canva shifted from a fun online tool into a serious player in the world of professional design.

Of course, success didn’t come without hurdles. In 2019, Canva suffered a data breach that exposed millions of user records—a sobering moment for a company built on trust and creativity. But they handled it with transparency and tightened their security, earning back the confidence of their users.

Through all of this, Canva’s core philosophy never changed: design should be for everyone. The founders have often spoken about their desire to democratise creativity, to make visual communication as simple as writing an email. That belief has guided every update and new feature, from the introduction of AI tools that generate designs from text prompts to the constant improvement of templates and resources for education, business, and non-profits.

Today, Canva is used by more than 200 million people around the world. It’s a staple for small businesses, teachers, marketers, and anyone with a story to tell. Its templates shape the look of social media posts, presentations, and campaigns across the internet. And remarkably, it all began with one observation in a university classroom—that design was too complicated, and it didn’t need to be.

From a modest start-up in Perth to a global tech phenomenon, Canva’s rise is a testament to what happens when creativity meets clarity of purpose. It’s not just about design anymore—it’s about empowerment. Because when you give people the tools to express themselves, you don’t just make better graphics. You make better ideas visible to the world