About
Turn design bottlenecks into automated workflows
Cantravo exists to make AI design tools accessible and ethical for Canadian creative teams—reducing grunt work so designers focus on strategy and craft.
Founded in Toronto in January 2022 after founder Mira Tan spent 3 years building design systems at Shopify and saw teams drowning in repetitive asset production. The first project automated 600 social media graphics for a DTC brand in 48 hours using Midjourney and Python scripts. Word spread, and 12 clients signed on in the first 6 months.
We start every project with a 2-day process audit: shadowing your designers, timing manual tasks, and mapping bottlenecks. Then we build the smallest viable automation—usually a Figma plugin, a ComfyUI workflow, or a GPT-powered template—deploy it in 1-2 weeks, measure results, and iterate. No bloated consulting decks; just working tools and documented processes.
Our path
- 2022Cantravo founded; first Midjourney + Figma API project for Toronto DTC brand
- 2023Scaled to 8-person team; launched AI Design Audit service with 19 clients
- 2024Built 5 custom Figma plugins; first enterprise contract with national retailer
- 2025Opened Vancouver office; trained 200+ designers in AI ethics workshops
- 2026Published open-source ComfyUI templates; 47 active clients across Canada
What we stand for
Every AI model includes bias audits, training data docs, and opt-out mechanisms. We follow Canada's AIDA and refuse projects automating decisions without oversight.
Clients get Notion wikis, Loom videos, and GitHub repos for every workflow. Your team can maintain the systems we built if we disappeared tomorrow. No vendor lock-in.
We measure success in hours saved, assets shipped, and costs reduced. Every project includes a 90-day ROI report with time-tracking data and concrete savings.
We open-source 60% of our tools, run free monthly meetups in Toronto and Vancouver, and sponsor student projects at OCAD and Emily Carr. Rising tide lifts all.
I built Cantravo because I was tired of spending 70% of my time resizing assets and chasing brand compliance. AI tools like Midjourney and GPT-4 have flaws, but used responsibly they give designers leverage. My goal is to help 100 Canadian teams adopt AI by 2027 without sacrificing ethics or craft.