Achieving professional results with our designs has never been so close at hand. Thanks to the appearance of Canva’s revolutionary application, design has become a fast, simple, agile and very professional experience that has brought the world of design closer to non-professional users. What’s more, canva published a very interesting post in which they talked about tips for non-designers and we thought it was an excellent idea therefore we have talked with our team and decided to deepen this topic. In the following guide, we will tell you 10 tips on how to use canva to become a professional designer.
For professional designers looking for a more comprehensive guide on design and standardization for the digital artwork, you can check out this artwork creation guide.
Starting to work with Canva
Before launching to use Canva, it is very useful to know that the application has an extensive use tutorial that offers us the keys to understand all the tools that we can use within the design platform.
Through its tutorials page, we can overcome some challenges for beginners, know the tools we need most and some tips such as the concept of ‘Less is more’. And this is also very important: we can use all the designs that Canva offers us as examples and add them to our unit. These are the four basic tips that Canva offers us before we get to work.
- Adjust the color of your text to make sure that the message arrives in a clear way;
- Use Canva frames for your images;
- Use the text boxes to place text on your images;
- Cut the images effectively. Place multiple images through the frames.
Create your brand image in Canva
It is very important that before designing you have in mind that it is very important to build a brand image that distinguishes you from the competition. Canva offers us a brand kit that we can use to create professional looking designs. These are some of the tips offered by Canva.
Select a color palette that reflects your personality….
- Choose a charismatic source;
- Use subtitles that are easy to read and a font that fits your brand;
- Set minimum dimensions for your logo;
- Leave space around your logo to highlight it.
Organize your designs in Canva
The second of the 10 tips on how to use Canva is to organize all the elements skillfully in your designs is skillfully vital to create beautiful and effective compositions. It is essential to know how to put the accent on the main elements of your design, always taking into account that not all the elements have to appear in your designs. Focus on what you want to communicate, add an image, a text and the logo of your brand and, if it works, publish. Do not obsess about including everything in a single image.
- Justify your elements to improve the order;
- Add distance between items to add rhythm;
- Use vertical and horizontal alignment to achieve perfect positioning;
- Align your texts with a goal;
- Help your content breathe by adding margins.
Importance of images in Canva
Always keep this in mind: images are essential to convey a message or an idea. Either own images or Canva’s library, they are a vital component of the most striking designs. These images will always serve as a guide to adjust the rest of the elements of our design and can become the canvas on which we shape the final result.
- Use the brightness to illuminate or darken your images so that the message becomes more important;
- Improve boring images with control contrast;
- Use saturation control to make your images more vibrant;
- Fix color errors with image filters.
Working under pressure in Canva
The versatility of Canva becomes even more important when we face a design for social networks that should be ready in a few minutes. This situation is very common when we work in social networks or when we need to create a presentation. This is another of the 10 tips on how to use Canva….
- Create a versatile template for social networks;
- Uses consistent visual elements to create publications for different social media platforms;
- Create multiple designs for different types of publications;
- Use visual elements that draw attention to achieve memorable designs.
And if what we need is to create a presentation, do not lose sight of the following tips….
- Duplicate the title elements in all your slides;
- Create a template for all your slides;
- Place space around your text to make it easier to read;
- Increase the font size of the most important elements;
- Reduce the amount of text on each slide to avoid saturation.
Tips for professionals in Canva
Within the tips of how to use Canva that we are discovering in this article, there is a series of tricks that we need to know to move to the next level of design. With these tricks you will gain time and speed when designing.
- Ctrl (command) + Shift + K = transforms all your text into upper case
- Alt + Shift + B = add a border to your text box
- Ctrl (Command) + click = select an item
- Ctrl + up/down = move the layers up or down
- T = add a text box
- Movement arrows = move the elements one pixel
- Shift + movement arrows = move the elements 10 pixels
- Shift + Click = select several items at once.
Forms and icons in Canva
Take advantage of the creative power of shapes and icons by learning to use these versatile elements to create a visual style in your designs. Always keep this in mind.
- Underline the data and make clear the important information;
- The scale is relative. The elements seem larger or smaller depending on their environment;
- Scale and rotation can be used to create movement;
- Using an unexpected scale creates expectation;
- Scale the graphic elements off the page and contract them with a much smaller element;
- Scale the font size to underline an idea.
The color is the king of Canva
How to use Canva and highlight with the color: The color can be used to transmit moods and to emphasize your designs. Create meaningful color relationships to create visually dazzling graphics.
- Use a consistent color gamut;
- Colors have feelings: blue gives calm, yellow draws attention, red is action;
- Use soft tones if you do not want your image to take a backseat;
- If your design has an image, take advantage of the elements present in it to give color to the rest of the elements of your composition;
- Avoid colors that are hated: small white or red text on a black background.
The fountains shine in Canva
The last of the 10 tips on how to use Canva that we have to give you is none other than the use of sources in Canva. Choosing the right font will guarantee the success of your design or ruin it. The text sources transmit emotions and therefore we have to select one or the other depending on what we want to transmit.
- The color of a font can be the way it is expressed;
- The shape of the sources also transmits emotions;
- Play with different sizes to highlight the main idea;
- Do not be afraid about using an introductory heading, a title and a subtitle.