Have you ever looked at a beautiful image on social media and looked at it in awe? You probably thought that it was created by some top notch designer with a whole lot of training and tools in hand. And then you wished you had all that stuff so that you could also create similar images. The truth is – you already do!!
It’s highly likely that you are already using Canva to create images for your blog or social media. It’s also equally likely that that high quality image you saw was also created using Canva! However, the difference between a first class image and a ‘meh’ one is knowing how to make the most of this tool. That’s why we’ve got a list of top tips to use Canva effectively to grow your brand.
10 Top Tips to use Canva Effectively for your Brand
1. Get the Color Palette Right
Ask any successful entrepreneur and she’ll tell you how important your brand colors are! And when we say colors, there is such a huge range out there when you take into account saturation, hue and so on. That’s why it’s imperative to get the exact colors. Canva helps out here by giving you the unique hex code of your colors so that you don’t have to go about wondering which blue it was that you had decided upon earlier. What’s more, in Canva, you can also save the colors in your brand kit!
2. Use the Right Fonts
It’s not just the colors that define your brand, it’s also the fonts! Look at Kellogg’s font – it’s there on all the products in it’s entire range and a glance will tell you that it’s Kellogg’s’ – you don’t even have to read it! Similarly choose from Canva’s extensive collection of fonts to identify your brand – and save them! This will ensure that you can use the same fonts for all the designs you create for all social media channels. Canva also helps you align your fonts correctly.
3. Make Text Pop
There are loads and loads of images out there and you need to think different so that your images stand out! One trick is to add a square, arrange your text inside it and then delete the square for perfectly symmetrical text. In Canva, you can also use a text holder of any shape or adjust the image transparency so that the text pops against the picture. Thanks to Canva’s color wheel, you can also choose complementary colors to contrast different lines of text. You can even upload your own customized fonts.
4. Be Consistent
Remember what we said about being able to identify the Kellogg’s logo across products? That’s what consistency means. Wherever you’re uploading your content – blog, social media, eBook – Canva helps you keep your colors, fonts and logo consistent. You can also save templates which you can reuse again and again. The Brand Kit is an incredibly useful feature for this purpose. The entire team can have access to the brand kit so that all content goes out on time and with your unique brand identification.
5. Make Collages
Till recently PicMonkey was most people’s preferred tool for making collages, but Canva is quite a collage maker itself! Just select the Photo Collage design option and choose from the wide range of available layouts. The best part is that you can edit it in Canva itself, adding text and more so that the collage design is consistent with your brand kit.
6. Make Use of Free images
Finding good quality royalty-free images is no easy task, as any designer knows! But that’s where Canva comes in handy – they have a lot of free pictures! There is a huge range of clip art, especially seasonal elements like for Christmas or Halloween. While you can get free vector graphics elsewhere, Canva lets you change the colors of theirs, so you can achieve complete customization.
7. Insert Clickable Links
Now, in most cases, the purpose of your completed designs are to get more followers or customers. Which means that they need a call to action, and what better place than the design itself? Yes, with Canva, you can insert links within your design, as long as you save it as a PDF file. Imagine the possibilities with this one!
8. Layer Backgrounds
A good background is a significant part of any design, and should be in harmony with other design elements. But in Canva, there’s a lot more you can do with backgrounds instead of simply choosing a plain color. You can layer multiple images, and create some truly beautiful effects by adjusting the transparency. This gives you the freedom to customize common stock images and make them look entirely different. You can also use this to give sepia tones or other filter effects to your pictures.
9. Organize Designs
When you are constantly churning out content for your brand, you’ll probably need to reuse a few images or designs. But as you add on more files to your Canva dashboard, it can be confusing to sift through them all to find an old image. But with Canva for Work, you can organize all your images into relevant folders and make life so much easier! Besides this, you can also organize your designs in separate folders so that your dashboard looks much neater.
10. Get the Right File Type
Canva allows you to download your design in different formats, and at first, it might seem like it makes no difference. However, when your page becomes so heavy it takes 5 minutes to load, you know your image size is too big! The selected default is PNG, which along with JPG is great for most web purposes. PNG files are larger in size, but offer more clarity and sharper contrast. PDF files are good if you want to insert hyperlinks, have a lot of text and need multiple pages. PDF print will give you higher, print quality output.
We hope these tips to use Canva effectively come in handy to help you make the most of this extremely useful software. With these and a little practice, you can soon become a Canva designer expert!
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