The Tao of Canva – using Canva for your small business
The Tao of Canva – using Canva for your small business
Many small business owners struggle with design for their promotional needs, through budget issues and fear of design, colour fonts and so on.
Not all professional designers like Canva for a variety of reasons, including it could be viewed as taking away work from us. Also the fact that people have little understanding of design principles such as using the right font. There is a solution to the small business owner’s problem. The Tao of Canva.
Options
Canva is a basic online design software which allows you to create all types of marketing materials, from social media memes and headers to posters and leaflets. There is a free option which is suitable for most needs and a paid option for bigger organisations and teams, or if you want more flexibility.
Grids
Canva has lots of different grids that you can use to make your design look interesting and keep it consistent too. Some are really basic, such as one square, or 2 squares. Others are quite ornate, with diagonals, slices and other options.
Layouts
To get you started Canva has provided extensive predesigned layouts. All you do is replace the image if you don’t like it. Same with the fonts and/or colours and hey presto you have your design.
Brand colours
With the free option you’re able to use 3 brand colours (as well as Canva’s default palettes). To add your brand colours to the palettes, you need to know the hex number (#xxxxxx) for each colour. Your designer should be able to help you with that. There are also free RGB to hex converters available on line.
If you opt for the paid version, you’re able to add more colours, so you’re able to include your secondary palette colours.
Fonts
Canva has a range of fonts preinstalled, giving you a good range of typographic options. Some of the fonts are similar to standard fonts used in design and Word. One such font is Helvetische, the equivalent font being Helvetica. Aileron is another font which is available in Canva and in design or Word.
If you opt for the paid version, you have the option to add your own brand fonts. This helps you keep all your material ‘on brand’.
Font combos
As with the predesigned layouts, Canva provides font combinations for you so that you can get started with typography, even if you’re a novice.
Images
There are lots of image options available with Canva. It has a basic range of free images preinstalled. It also has the option to buy some for very low prices ie $1. You can upload your own images that you’ve taken yourself, or got from a stock library. It also has the cool option of letting you add photos from your Facebook camera roll, so you can make posts with your own pics on the spur of the moment if you’ve just taken a photo.
Shapes, lines, icons and charts
Canva has lots of different shapes that can be used in designs: squares, circles, triangles and stars etc. It also provides a vast array of lines, icons and charts that you can use as the start for your design. In the paid option there are also elements such as nature, people, food, business and so on. If you can’t find something there to suit your needs I would be very surprised.
Backgrounds
As well as layouts, Canva also provides patterned backgrounds for your designs. You can change the ‘colourway’ (ie the colour) of these designs easily, again providing you with a way of keeping your material consistent and ‘on brand’.
Examples of what you can make in Canva
The Tao of Canva training
To help you get to grips with Canva, I have 2 offers available.
1) Offer 1
1:1 90 Minute training session for £99.
During the session I guide you through all the tools, how to use them effectively and adding advice on design principles and techniques to add that extra zing to your designs.
2) Offer 2
3 x1:1 90 Minute training session for £249.
In the sessions I take you further into creating your own designs, taking you through the tools, talking about design principles. I help you create a leaflet or poster for print, explaining things like bleed, crop marks and creating a print ready pdf.