Do you prefer to DIY or outsource to professionals?
I’ve spent a long time designing for clients and customers who were on the latter side of the fence. Except, presently speaking, there is no fence anymore.
Design has become so democratized (long overdue) that it’s more of a personal or professional and strategic choice, than an obligation.
Cue, the non-designer title.
This isn’t a patronizing title to segregate the trained and aesthetically discriminating from those who apparently ‘can’t’. Actually, I see it as the most empowering new design niche for those who choose not to educate because it simply isn’t necessary- given all the tools, tutorials, and knowledge hubs available to one and all. Some free and some paywalled (mostly affordably). It’s never been easier to upskill from the comfort of your WFH desk or couch.
Based upon my observation of what’s been happening over the last 5-10 years as a graphic design generalist and freelancer, I needed to unpack this.
I’m segmenting my findings in separate articles – there’s just too much interesting data to discuss in one.
I wanted to see who and where the non-designers are exactly – not just from my point of view.
So, I posed a few instinctive questions and did the research.
In this Part 1 article, I’ll unpack the following:
- What is a non-designer
- Where are they found
- Why do they exist
- What problem do they need to solve
- How can we solve it
PS. You may be wondering why I’ve decided to discuss this market.
Well, I’ve identified it as a niche based upon my own experiences as a marketing designer both employed and self-employed.
This actually led me to conceptualizing the domain designfornondesign.com
Don’t forget to check out our Domains for Sale page – it’s currently up for grabs.
But before you do that, let’s discuss and understand firstly, who this market is and how profitable a niche it might be.
Who is a ‘non-designer’?
A non-designer is someone who does not possess formal design training or theoretical education, but may be involved with producing designs or materials requiring basic design skills.
They could be tasked to create marketing materials or be self-initiated to create visual branding for their own personal projects or business.
Then there’s the professional, either employed in a corporate or start-up firm whose job it is to create or manage the production of marketing or corporate materials for communication purposes.
One can drill down into many more scenarios, the point being that there are so many opportunities for design thinking, design principles, and technical skills to be applied. So, naturally, this surfaces a type of individual that needs to know not only how to communicate in design terms (working with a designer to solve the visual problem), but also to be able to solve that problem themselves.
In a nutshell, these people are:
- Those who need to design and produce visual material on their own for personal projects or business
- Those who need to create or manage the production of communication materials on a regular cadence as part of their employment.
- What both have in common is a lack of formal training and that they choose not to re-educate. Instead, they are open to upskilling less formally.
- In other words, this market is looking for solutions to problems they can resolve immediately and with the least effort.
- Their primary concern is communication – being able to visually communicate their idea/s, successfully.
Caveat: Non-designers also take it a step further. They don’t just want to solve a basic problem. They are also sophisticated and aware of the nuances of professional design and how it affects the quality of communication.
When budgets are a constraint or the individual is self-initiated, the inclination to seek out that quality is a priority. But, how does such an awareness evolve? It can be based on the instincts of an individual as well as exposure via socials and the general media to what is trending, or part of our popular consciousness.
People learn from one another – absorb a lot more subconsciously about what is good and not ‘good’ than they’d like to admit. I believe this has influenced and grown the number of self-taught designers and self-styled creatives out there. Coupled with the accessibility of tutorials and design education on YouTube and more.
Why shouldn’t there be an alternative to the gatekeeping world of professional design?
I have to say, as a pro designer, operating in the new democratized design world has been a thousand times more enriching.
This niche needs more accessible ‘know-how’ in design thinking and skills made available to them, so they can make their collateral easy to ship.
Market size & demographics:
How many people are making their own designs without having graduated from design school? I actually thought it was much less, but check this out:
Analysing the entrepreneur and content creator niche – let’s round it off to the Creator economy:
- 58% design their own branding assets.
- 16% of this segment have actual, formal design education.
Clearly, the majority is self-taught, learning via YouTube and TikTok tutorials.
So what are the employed professionals doing? What’s their ‘design’ life like?
This is where it gets interesting for me….where I see a lot of business potential.
50% of business professionals create presentations (most likely, Google Slides, PPT, Canva) at least once per week – that’s substantial because their usually multiple stakeholders involved in the total content of that presentation.
78% of marketing professionals create their own collateral – you can imagine the amount of content creation (even though they don’t form part of the creator economy) they have to produce – they publish multiple times per week; between 50-75% of that content is visual.
Remember, it’s not only promotional content, but also business-related materials intended for communications to teams and stakeholders – charts, graphs, and presentations. And all of it is a mix of text and visuals. A good basic design can help get that communication ‘over the line’.
In summary:
- Approximately 84% of creators/designers in entrepreneurial/content roles do not have formal design training.
- About 58% of entrepreneurs and content creators design their own visuals.
- Over 50% of business professionals create presentations weekly.
- 78% of marketing professionals produce and publish visual content frequently, with a strong focus on visuals in business communication.
Sources
How Non-Designers are Creating Their Own Brands | Adobe Express https://www.adobe.com/express/learn/blog/diy-branding-design-report
16 Visual Content Marketing Statistics for 2024 [Infographic] https://venngage.com/blog/visual-content-marketing-statistics/
Top Presentation Statistics for 2025: Insights … https://www.decktopus.com/blog/top-presentation-statistics-for-2021
Common scenarios & use cases:
I briefly mentioned above where the non-designer might be found and why they do what they do.
Here’s a bullet list to consolidate 3 sub-niches within the broader non-designer market. We can see what kind of problem needs to be solved for each.
‘Personal’ non-designer needs to:
Create presentations or slide decks for community groups, recreational clubs, educational purposes, or events.
Produce social media posts, design invitations and announcements for personal networks.
Design branding for personal projects like blogs, YouTube channels, or portfolios.
‘Professional’ non-designer’s daily/weekly tasks might include:
Preparing business presentations, reports, charts, and infographics to communicate data or ideas to stakeholders; it might also be relevant in corporate, internal training settings.
Designing marketing materials like brochures, flyers, newsletters, or internal communications – they’ll most likely be using Canva, Adobe Express, or even PowerPoint – though by now most likely Canva.
Building visual content for internal and/or external (clients or customers of their product, eg. SaaS) training, instructional design, or explainer documents.
Creating or customizing company social media visuals and posts for brand awareness – these are ongoing asset requirements as social media only lasts between 6-48 hours for immediate engagement.
Enhancing email campaigns or digital communications with visual elements – the business value of email marketing cannot be overstated. Hiring a professional designer to do this is a waste of money in my opinion, so I see a definite gap here to serve Non-Designers with design skills as it relates to email marketing as a niche type of design.
‘Entrepreneurial’ non-designers often do these:
Design their own set of brand identity assets such as: a logo, logo assets for use as profile images on socials, business stationery such as a bus card, electronic letterhead assets, website graphics, and many more.
Producing visual content for personal branding and marketing on social media such as pins, posts, and images for newsletters.
Creating product catalogs, promotional materials to promote their brand, or online course visuals (digital products which would form part of their income stream).
Building interactive tools like quizzes, tutorials, or step-by-step guides for customers – entrepreneurs value this as a way of creating more awareness for and engagement with the brand. So, definitely seeing a stronger need for this.
Repurposing blog or written content into engaging graphics or tutorials to increase engagement – this is one of the easiest ways to monetize, so if a non-designer needs to know how to do it quickly and effectively.
Non-designers currently use or require:
- Customisable templates
- user-friendly tools (software)
- basic design principles (’smart’ techniques or hacks)
- To produce effective visual content for the above scenarios.
Why do they need it?
Visuals that are easy to understand (clarity) and compelling are essential to get the message across – that’s all it needs to do.
It needs to convert a user to a buyer as well as convert an employer to an action-taker in a corporate setting. It’s all about good communication in word or visual shape or form. And it needs to work well for PR or internal communications, marketing, brand building, and education across industries and contexts. Non-designers need to and want to do this without formal design skills. And why shouldn’t they be empowered to do so?
Sources
28 Graphic Design Essentials for Non-Designers To … https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/graphic-design-essentials-for-non-designers
Visual Content for Personal Branding: Business Owners … https://www.juliayatel.com/visual-content-for-personal-branding/
14 Types of Visual Content To Use in Your Content Marketing … https://www.brafton.com/blog/graphics/14-types-of-visual-content-you-should-be-using-in-your-content-marketing-strategy/
Content Design: A Non-Designer’s Guide https://penfriend.ai/blog/content-design
How to build visual design skills without a design background https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nate-vostretsova_thoughts-visualdesign-professionaldevelopment-activity-7375869842991640576–Wc3
Popular tools & adoption:
The most widely used design tools by non-professionals in 2025 are currently:
- Canva
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Google Slides
- Other beginner-friendly platforms
From my experience, especially in the corporate world, Canva (Canva Pro has the most features and user benefits) stands out as the winner.
It has an extensive and growing template library, drag-and-drop simplicity, and AI-powered features that assist users with little or no design training.
The company is very creator-friendly, so the amount of templates made available for free and paid is ever-growing and never disappoints. There’s a solution to everything. I personally love how you can find a customisable template for data viz with built-in automation, ie. You plug your own values and the chart automatically adjusts to correct, without you having to click and drag a single thing. Now that’s smart-working; that kind of automation is a key factor when thinking about how to serve Non-Designers.
Canva has a free plan and paid tiers. The free plan is robust enough to get started if you’re new to it. Millions of users globally rely on it to produce social media assets (graphics), company presentations, posters, flyers, all kinds of branding materials, you name it…it’s all there.
PowerPoint and Google Slides seem to be the standard in all companies whether you’re a startup or a large organisation. Larger companies pay for Microsoft 365 so they can have all apps available to their employees.
In smaller companies, Google Slides is cheaper (see table below) or free and a staple. Most users are familiar with or using it on their smartphones, tablets, or laptops at home anyway.
These two dominate in the professional and educational sectors for creating slide decks or presentations, with frequent use by over half of professionals weekly or more.
What’s the most popular non-designer tool?
Stats point to Canva’s widespread adoption as the go-to software tool for non-designers due to its ease of use and versatility.
Users delight in its thousands of templates, collaboration tools, and intuitive interface and of course, now, it’s integrated AI-assist with image generation. Another favorite of mine is its social media scheduler which I cannot overstate the usefulness of – this is automation and efficiency that reduces stress and overwhelm for Non-Designers working solo.
PowerPoint is the standard tool for business presentations, while Google Slides is excellent for collaborative, cloud-based presentation work, especially in remote and educational settings. It; ‘s very popular for collaboration as it pertains to live edits and stakeholder inputs.
Summary of popular tools and usage:
| Tool | User Base / Usage | Pricing (2025) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canva | 220-240 million users worldwide | Free plan $0, Pro $12.99/month or $120/year, Teams from $14.99/month for 5 users | Rapid growth; millions of templates; AI features; 54% market share in online presentations; 30 billion designs created |
| PowerPoint | Used by over 50% of professionals weekly | Included with Microsoft 365 subscription starting at $6.99/month or $69.99/year | Standard in business; widely entrenched in corporate environments for presentations |
| Google Slides | Widely used in education and remote work environments | Free with Google Account; part of Google Workspace business plans starting at $6/user/month | Strong collaboration tools; integrated with Google Workspace; popular in schools and remote teams |
Other tools: Affinity Designer offers more advanced features but is less common among true non-professionals.
Sources
9 Best Design Tools for 2025 (Ranked & Compared) https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/design/best-design-tools
20 best graphic design software tools in 2025 https://webflow.com/blog/graphic-design-software
Top UX and UI Design Tools for 2025 https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/ux-design-tools-definitive-guide
11 Best Graphic Design Software & Tools 2025 (Free And … https://www.newperspectivestudio.co.za/wp/best-software-tools-for-graphic-designers/
Top 15 Best Tools for Design in 2025 https://www.chiefreinventionofficer.com/blog-page/top-15-best-tools-for-design-in-2025
Key challenges & frustrations:
Surveys and studies reveal that people without design training face several common challenges when creating visual content. The biggest struggles among non-designers include:
Based on the data, non-designers face mostly the same challenges. Here’s a list of the ones that stand out:
- Lack of design knowledge: Non-designers often struggle with the basic principles fundamental principles such as color theory, typography, layout, and balance.
- Struggle to use software tools: Design software can be quite complex making it overwhelming for newbies.
- Inconsistent branding and style: Users risk producing visuals with inconsistencies in layouts and messaging.
- Time wasting use to a lack of know-how: Non-designers spend a lot of time fixing layouts or visual discrepancies because they don’t know enough ways of working smartly with design tools.
- Communicating with clarity: Translating communication, in written form, clearly into visuals, whether infographics or slide decks.
- Lack of confidence and imposter syndrome: Non-designers are concerned that their designs might come across as unprofessional or unpolished. Many worry about their design work appearing unprofessional (what is professional?) which can hinder their willingness to create or publish visuals.
- Overuse of templates: Non-designers are tempted to use template design without much customisation, leading to ‘sameness’ of materials.
Not having this knowledge makes it challenging to create effective communications, ie. content might not read as well as it could.
Given that, it can limit their ability to leverage the right tools to full capacity.
Without knowing the fundamentals (colour theory, basic typographic techniques), users risk producing visuals with inconsistencies that compromise the way the message is received. It can dilute the message or the resonance of it.
If they knew how to get to a desired solution quickly and with more ease, the execution and delivery would speed up. That’s gold for productivity levels. Are there more fail-safe guidelines or tried-and-trusted hacks we can serve this niche?
Turning words into visuals
Translating concepts clearly into visual representations of them, is a challenge for anyone. Doing it consistently throughout a presentation or turning written ideas into a visually informative infographic is a feat.
Is there a way of creating a simple, yet meaningful infographic using a visual formula engineered for a non-designer?
They subconsciously measure it against existing marketing and promotional materials in the public domain, possibly created by professional designers.
While templates provide a starting point, overuse without taking advantage of customization tools, can result in generic or ineffective visual content.
These key pain points highlight a need for easy-to-use tools, accessible design education, and clear guidelines tailored for non-professionals.
The challenge is not just in technical skills but also in cultivating creative confidence and understanding how design supports communication goals.
In summary, non-designers struggle predominantly with foundational design concepts, software usability, consistency in visual identity, efficiency in creating visuals, clarity of message expression, and the psychological barriers around design creation.
Sources
The biggest challenges for studios in 2025, and how leaders plan to … https://www.creativeboom.com/insight/the-biggest-challenges-for-design-studios-in-2025-and-how-leaders-plan-to-tackle-them/
Design Thinking: Levelling the playing field for non-designers https://uxmag.com/articles/design-thinking-levelling-the-playing-field-for-non-designers
The UX Reckoning: Prepare for 2025 and Beyond – NN/G https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-reset-2025/
Conclusion
Non-designers need to be able to work without the assistance of a pro designer. Perhaps even without the financial scope to outsource one.
They might have time constraints or simply have a preference for effective visual solutions that communicate well.
The last bit is the operative phrase. It must communicate well or even enhance it to reach their goal, whether it be monetary, celebratory, or persuasive (social awareness or humanitarian).
In Part 2 we’ll take a look at how the market is trending as well as my favourite, the skills gap analysis. We’ll drill further down into how we can best serve this niche as well as the multiple sub-niches I know are buried inside it. We’ve only scratched the surface.
If you liked this article, you’ll love this one.
A handy design tool for current non-designers:
If you struggle with typography, download this Typescale Cheatsheet – it’s a proven system for scaling type (headline, subheading, body copy) to give it that pro’ aesthetic look. The results are displayed in the graphic below – polished but easy to execute.
It’s text that reads well – you know exactly where to look and what to read first. No subjective decision-making, just follow the pre-calculated values. You’ll speed up layout-creation in half the time, no design thinking required. It’s literally done for you. The calculations are completely beginner-friendly and foolproof, I guarantee it.
Disclosure: While this publication uses AI tools for data collection and analysis support, the research questions, hypotheses, and core insights are the human author’s original work. AI assists with information processing, but all conceptual thinking, interpretation, and conclusions reflect the human editor’s and human writer’s professional expertise.
