Canva boss warns Gen Z about future of the workplace at SXSW London
A senior leader at Canva, the world’s most-used design platform, has used an appearance at the SXSW London event to warn Gen Z about Gen Alpha and the future of the workplace.
Canva’s Head of Europe Duncan Clark suggested that current Millennial and Gen Z workers should already be thinking about how to work effectively with Gen Alpha, those born between 2010 and 2024, the eldest of whom are now 15 and soon to enter the workforce.
“In the time we wonder how to publish something they will have already published it,” Clark said at the Shoreditch event. Speaking about the emergence of design skill sets among young people, he called visual literacy “the new language of work,” and urged employers to think visually to stay ahead. “Not every company has understood this yet but as we hire this new generation we’re going to understand… that everything is visual.”
SXSW London: Gen Z should swat up on Gen Alpha, says Canva boss
Gen Alpha demand content faster than Gen Z and are more internet-literate than ever, said Clark, who also said he believes the forthcoming generation will work faster than current Millennial and Gen Z employees.
A billion designs are made per month on Canva, the design platform that launched in 2013 and founded in Perth, Australia. The brand’s user base is growing significantly month-on-month. They had 130 million users in 2024 and 220 million in 2025, but earlier this year a round of redundancies were seen as a bellwether for AI’s dominance in the design space.
SXSW originated in Austin, Texas, in 1987 as a festival of ideas. The London event, in its inaugural year, features hundreds of talks, workshops, masterclasses and live music and cinema events with thought leaders, entrepreneurs, and creatives. It takes place throughout Shoreditch until 7 June. Sadiq Khan opened the event by pitching London as an international AI hub.