Have you ever heard of Canva? Used by millions of people around the world, Canva is a delight in the world of marketing for those that are not experienced in using design programmes such as Photoshop or Illustrator. It is an online programme that allows you to design professional layouts and stunning graphics that you can share across any channel.
Canva offer a basic account for free with a variety of tools, or a Canva for Work account costing $12.95 (£9.91) per month, or $119.40 (£91.40) annually. The paid account allows you to upload custom fonts, set colour palettes for your brand, save templates, access 300,000 free photos, illustrations and templates and more. From a marketing perspective, creating a strong brand consistency is much easier with the paid account.
How do you use it? With ease! Canva state on their website that it takes only 23 seconds to learn, but we have put together a short easy guide to explain the process. First things first, click here to access the website: www.canva.com and create an account – either through your Facebook or Google account or your email.
Once logged on, designing your own graphic couldn’t be easier. One important aspect to ensure you know is the dimensions of the graphic you are wanting to create. Depending on where you want to use your graphic depends on the size. We’ve put together a free quick and easy guide for all social media graphic dimensions if and when you need them here. Canva allow you to customise your dimensions in the top right hand corner of the webpage, or alternatively you can select from the template sizes.
After you’ve selected your dimensions, there are a number of features Canva offer depending on your account subscription. The elements available on each tab on the left-hand side of the web page are explained below:
- Layouts: Browse from a large range of professional template designs that you can tailor to your own requirements. Edit the text, change the image or amend the colour scheme to what best suits your brand.
- Elements: Add shapes, icons, frames, charts or more to your graphics. This section is particularly important if you are wanting to create infographic designs.
- Text: Choose from the templates along the side and amend the wording or start from scratch by clicking on the ‘Add heading/subheading/body text’ at the top and changing the font, size and colour yourself.
- Background: Change your background colour or pattern to best suit your brand image.
- Uploads: Here you can upload your own images that you may want to use on your graphics. You will also find all previous images that you have uploaded in the past, making them easy to find and re-use.
Once creating your graphic, you need to ‘download’ it using the button at the top of the webpage. There are a number of file type options; PNG, JPEG, PDF (Standard or Print), so whether it is to be used on social media, as a printed document or something else, Canva allows you to download it in the best file type. We’ve explained each format below:
- JPEG/PNG – These formats are best when using the graphic online as they will appear high quality on most computer displays.
- PDF (Standard) – If your graphic has a lot of text on it, PDF may be a more appropriate file type. These are not suitable for digital use.
- PDF (For Print) – This downloads the file at the highest quality file format making it ideal for printing.
Considering the Canva for Work account? If you are aiming to create branded graphics, it would definitely be worthwhile investing in this type of account due to the ‘Brand Kit’ feature. This can be accessed on the Homepage of Canva on the left-hand side under the ‘Your brand’ tab. In here, you are able to add your brand colours to the ‘Colour palettes’ using the colour wheel or a hex code, add your brand fonts and upload your logo. If you have more than one logo design, don’t worry, Canva allow you to upload multiple images. Once inputting all of your brand kit information, it will be easily accessible when choosing fonts and colours when designing your graphics.
So there you have it, Canva explained in one simple blog post. Have a go yourself!