Melbourne printer PMI has partnered with Sydney-based online graphic design software company Canva to launch a new print and delivery service in Australia called Canva Print.
Canva, founded in 2012, offers a drag-and-drop interface that provides access to over a million photographs, graphics, and fonts. The website attracted 750,000 users in its first year and more than ten million users around the world have now utlised its online tools for web and print media design and graphics to deliver everything from posters to business cards.
“PMI Image Works is incredibly privileged to partner with Canva,” says PMI Corp CEO Chris Zapris. “I’ve known Cliff and Mel [Canva co-founders Cliff Obrecht and Melanie Perkins] for more than a few years and we caught up again late last year and decided Canva Print would be a great fit for both of our businesses.”
The deal was signed earlier this year. People can log on to the Canva website and create their own high quality digital designs for a range of products then with one click the order is sent to PMI’s manufacturing facilities in Melbourne.
PMI, based at Fitzroy and established in 1998, is one of Australia’s top HP sites, running five HP Indigo presses as well as a number of HP wide format machines. The company also has photo lab, direct-to-garment and dye sublimation services.
‘The mind boggles when you talk about the potential because we’ve already seen that Canva Print is gaining amazing traction from its user base,” says Zapris. “We’re printing posters, business cards, fliers, postcards, invites, letterheads and we’re looking at extending into other product lines.”
Zapris describes the potential of the business as ‘infinite.’
“We’ve never been part of a business like Canva that has so many users, most of them from the design community, both professional and non-professional. The critical things that will make this a success include the beautiful design template, the simple one-click ordering process, super-fast door-to-door delivery and a 100% customer satisfaction guarantee.”
The Sydney startup, which now has more than 200 staff in Sydney and Manila, plans to have its software available in 100 different languages by the end of the year.
The partnership with PMI is Canva’s second tie-in with a print manufacturer. Earlier this year, Canva partnered with US print giant RPI Print.
The company was valued at $US345 million in September 2016.