The star was the giant wordmark bursting from its frame—a physical nod to every client’s classic request. But the fun didn’t stop there. One billboard was sideways with the caption “16×9 meant 9×16,” playfully referencing those last-minute flips. Another showed an actual e-bike “dragged and dropped” onto the board, while the “background remover” ad vanished its backdrop entirely, revealing raw brick—a perfect wink to anyone who’s painstakingly cut out a tricky PNG at 3AM.
What made this campaign sing wasn’t just the clever stunts but the sense of we’ve all been there. Waterloo is Europe’s busiest station — thousands of designers, marketers, students, and brand managers pass through every day. For a few weeks, that daily rush turned into a gallery of inside jokes that felt more like creative therapy than a product push. And of course, it all fed back into a tight loop of short videos, user snaps, and behind-the-scenes clips splashed across LinkedIn and TikTok — Canva’s audience in their natural habitat, pointing, laughing, and sharing the headache.
Stink Studios called it a “playful antidote” to the typical bland SaaS billboard. And they nailed it. By leaning into the collective sigh of working creatives, Canva did what the best design software does: it solved problems and made people smile at the same time.
It’s easy to talk about “empowering creativity.” Harder to actually speak the language of the people you’re selling to. With this campaign, Canva skipped the corporate speak and went straight for the daily grind — showing, not telling, that their tools exist because creative chaos never really goes away. It just gets easier to handle when you’ve got a platform that knows the joke and builds the fix.
So next time someone says “make the logo bigger,” don’t get mad. Just think of Waterloo Station and remember: sometimes, the best design brief is the one you blow up for everyone to see.
Make the logo bigger, make the people laugh — that’s how you win the brief. — Julian Vega
