Crumbs, Craft and Creativity Take Flight in Handmade Canva Campaign

May. 20, 2026

To stand out in today’s creative landscape, great design is more important than ever - yet many people still feel it’s out of reach. Whether it’s creating content for work, promoting a local business, or sharing personal moments, tools can feel overly complex or reserved for experts. Graphic design platform Canva’s latest campaign challenges that perception, showing that with the right tools, anyone can bring their ideas to life. Even a humble pigeon.

Created by independent creative agency DUDE, ‘Wild Design’ is a new brand campaign for the Italian market, designed to build awareness of how the free-to-use design platform can empower non-designers to create - whether it’s a social post, a flyer for a local event, a professional logo, an important presentation, or a video edit of their summer holidays.

Launching across TV, connected TV, social, digital, OOH/DOOH and radio, the campaign introduces an unlikely creative hero: an inventive pigeon named Picci1, whose story unfolds in a richly detailed, handcrafted world. 

The hero 30-second film, set in a typical Italian piazza, follows Picci1 as he perches above a struggling trattoria with poor design and no customers. While other pigeons jostle for the last remaining crumb, he seizes the opportunity to step in as an unlikely creative director, using Canva to create a new visual identity, marketing materials and communications in moments. The rebranding turns the empty restaurant into a thriving local hotspot - meaning more crumbs for the pigeons and proving that great design can make a difference for everyone.

Produced by UK studio A+C and directed by former Aardman Studios animator Dan Richards, the film uses stop-motion to bring the story to life with charm and heart.  Every element - from Picci1 himself to the tablecloths and food - was physically built using a tactile, textile-inspired approach. The puppets, sets and props are all handcrafted, giving the campaign a warm, imperfect feel that mirrors Canva’s belief that creativity should feel accessible, not intimidating.

Wild Design will roll out across multiple touchpoints. Three 15-second cutdowns highlight key Canva features, while a second film will launch mid May.

The campaign also extends into radio and OOH. A documentary-style radio execution playfully examines the pigeon’s unexpected creative abilities, while outdoor executions see him “take flight” across Italy’s cities, showcasing Canva’s Magic Charts, Magic Eraser, video editing tools and more with comic, character-led scenarios. 

Thanks to a combination of charming characters and painstaking craft, the campaign positions Canva not just as a design tool, but as a platform where creativity, no matter how humble its starting point, can truly take flight.

Wild Design launches in Italy across TV, connected TV, social, digital, OOH/DOOH and radio, marking Canva’s first major top-of-funnel campaign in the market, with a second wave rolling out in mid-June.

Oli Bussell, Canva Creative Lead commented:

“We wanted to genuinely surprise people. Stop motion was a unique way to show up in the Italian market – and at this level, it's a serious undertaking. It embodies care, craft, and design: values that resonate deeply with Italian audiences and ones that Canva is proud to champion. Canva operates all over the world, but great creative work always has a local pulse to it. This campaign has that. It's handbuilt, considered, and rooted in a real cultural context. We believe design should be within everyone's reach, and sometimes the best way to prove that is to hand the tools to a pigeon and see what happens.”

 

Lorenzo Picchiotti, DUDE COO & Partner added:

“Canva has a mission that is both simple and ambitious: to make design accessible to everyone. To tell that story in Italy, we looked for the most unexpected point of view possible and we found it among the cobblestones of an Italian piazza. And precisely because the project is about design, craft couldn't be anything but central. Hence the choice of stop motion, which in 2026 is a genuine statement. We wanted every frame to be a declaration of love for design.”

 

Media was handled by OMD.