To Affinity and Beyond?

Last week, there was a mighty disruption in the design space when design app company Canva released the latest version of its newly acquired professional design software Affinity, for FREE. The day after the announcement Adobe, the big dog of design tools (and makers of Photoshop), saw their shares almost halve.

Hands up, I'm a card-carrying Affinity user; I left the Adobe ecosystem and its cloud-based subscription service in 2019 and haven't looked back. Back then, it felt like something to stay quiet about to be considered a professional designer, a bit like the term 'working from home' before the pandemic.

What's the catch?

I used to be a big Adobe fan, most designers my age are (40+...ish). I'm old enough to remember how game-changing Photoshop was when a boxed copy cost £2,000. I sympathised with their move to the locked-in subscription model thirteen years ago, knowing before that just how rife piracy was among young design students to get hold of it on CD-ROM.

Also, when Adobe released InDesign, a desktop publishing package that was so good that rival company Quark Express disappeared without a trace in two years. Quark was so big it didn't see Adobe as a threat, and when they did, it was too late.

The new Affinity has paid options. It comes with Canva's AI tools (urgh, no surprise) as a subscription extra, but you don't need that to use the tools. The App, the tools, are free.

So what's the play? Canva's have openly said they want to take on the 'locked in, cloud-based, big brother' subscription model, and have even taken a jab at Adobe AI training practices in a recent promo video. Well, the most obvious hook of 'free' is access.

Student loans

Consider design students. Most are taught with Adobe, leave university (hopefully) with a lovely degree, but then lose access to their student account. If they want to keep designing with the software they've been trained on, even before they get a job, they need a new paid Creative Cloud Adobe subscription. A great deal for Adobe to get 'em early, not so great for students. Now, young designers have a valid alternative at a time when the cost of living is high and rents are high. I'd be surprised if many don't turn to Affinity.

UK-based Affinity has been around since 2014 as a paid app (£150 for the lot), slowly making a name as a legit software alternative. When Canva bought them up in 2023, designers were worried about Canva's plan, expecting a locked-in subscription. To understand why Canva has gone the other way, we can look at what their goals have been so far.

Adobe have the excellent drawing tool Fresco app for free, everything else is subscription-based, which is understandable as a biz model. This applies to anyone, regardless of their role, from pro designers to marketers and social media managers.

Canva has made headway in the 'non-designer' space, giving teams of marketers and social media managers tools to help get work out the door faster.

For years, professional designers have baulked at Canva's simplistic tools. I've been a very reluctant adopter of Canva. As a designer, I don't like it. From a client's point of view, however, I totally get how accessible it is. It's not intended for professional designers. Affinity then, is Canvas' gateway drug of sorts - professional tools that segues into the marketer's ecosystem. As Canva said in last week's launch, 'Affinity is for designers, Canva is for teams'.

This has happened before.

Video editing app DaVinci Resolve put up posters in music venues in the US and UK. Quite a move. It had a download QR code and was also given away for free. The owning company (Black Magic) make video editing hardware, cameras and desks. They decided to release the accompanying software for free to coax users into their hardware ecosystem. DaVinci Resolve started as a simple video editing tool, and due to its success, it's now an industry standard option and a very good mascot for the brand.

Canva have been upfront in their recent launch and seems to understand it's not how good Affinity is but how much they can be trusted not to backtrack or bait and switch.

I don't think we'll see a sudden change (apart from the sudden drop in Adobe shares last week), but in the next couple of years, I suspect more young designers going freelance due to the lack of jobs, will adopt designing in Affinity to get themselves started.

4/11/25

John Cooper is a designer & comedian. His studio has a very odd name. Rocket Steps

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