Most people are visual learners, so disregarding visual appeal in content design is reckless. Attention spans are also becoming increasingly shorter, with the current average being only eight seconds. Learn how to improve your design in Canva and make your content look attention-grabbing, interesting, and inspired! Our tips will help you achieve all of that relatively fast, so keep reading to find out more about professional Canva use.
These Five Tips Will Help Your Canva Designs Stand Out
Nothing can be mastered overnight, including Canva design skills, but if you read the following tips and apply them to your designs, you will be on your way to being a pro Canva user.
Cover the Basics
Good-looking designs do not require that much, as long as you know what you’re doing. Implementing your basic design knowledge to Canva should form a solid base for any project you will be working on. Always think of elements such as colors, layout, images, shapes, and typography, and effectively combine all of them to achieve a specific goal.
Learning how to properly combine design elements with consistency is the key to mastering any design tool, including Canva.
The best designers use color models to build remarkable, color-filled designs. Color models depict color sets in element sequences, which can be adjusted to create optimal colors. The basic color models include the CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and key) and RGB (red, green, and blue) models.
CMYK works on the principle of adding color mixes, while RGB subtracts color mixes. Mastering color theory is necessary for properly subtracting or adding colors. According to color theory, there are three color subtypes, primary, secondary, and tertiary colors.
The primary colors are red, blue, and yellow, while secondary colors represent the addition of two primary colors and the tertiary colors form from the combination of a primary and a secondary color. Secondary colors include green, purple, and orange, and it’s noteworthy that these colors can only be made from pure primary color hues. For more info on color theory, follow this guide.
Making the Most of Canva’s Color Palette Generator
Using its palette generator, Canva extracts colors from images based on the RGB color model. When you upload an image to Canva, the color scheme will be generated instantly. The palette generator can extract colors from your image using hues. All you need to do is use the color pallet and select from the wide range of photo colors. Alternatively, you can use the color combination tool in Canva.
Remember to adjust the design background, including the color design of the background, which is as important as the design color itself. Make sure that the background complements the text, e.g., when designing a brand message. Different colors depict specific emotions and depending on your intentions, you can even add animations, effects, or filters. However, when adding these elements, try not to overuse them, or clutter the image, because that will only add to the confusion and break the unity of your design.
Pick The Most Fitting Fonts and Stick to Them
Professional designers usually stick to two fonts that work well together, instead of mixing numerous fonts that make no sense or have unity. You can use fonts to personalize and accent a message you intend to convey to the audience of your content. The best matching two fonts are actually the ones that are in contrast. One can be powerful and attention-grabbing, while the other can remain subtle and simplistic.
To name a few excellent fonts, here are the ones that are often used in modern designs:
- Bebas
- Roboto
- Gotham
- Avenir
- Helvetica
- Avant-Garde
- Gill Sans
- Josefin Sans
A fantastic pair for one of these futuristic fonts is a more traditional, smart font, such as:
- Didot
- Sabon
- Feijoa
- Forum
- Bodoni
- Baskerville
- Garamond
If you wish to add more diversity to your fonts, rather than adding a plethora of them, it is better to adjust the weight or size of a single font of your choice. This will break the monotony while keeping your design impactful and stylish.
Professional Designers Say Less Is More
As previously mentioned, stacking too many fonts, colors, or effects creatives an opposite effect to the one you desire to achieve. In terms of color, stick to three or four colors to maintain a neat and sharp design, rather than a messy one. Make sure that your colors match, for example, picking two similar colors and one that contrasts them is a solid place, to begin with. Design in Canva is not that complicated if you keep things simple.
Pick a distinct font, thicken it, add your message to the center of the image, create a lavish, but not distracting background, and you will have a solid base for your Canva design. You can utilize white space, but you should not let it dominate your image. Symmetrical design elements are also appealing, but asymmetrical, such as the black and white contrast works too, depending on the effect you wish to achieve.
Create an Impactful, Distinguished Logo
No design is complete without a logo, and the same applies to any design in Canva. If you are an individual designer, a business owner, or you work for a company, you will need a distinct logo. Your logo can be anything, from a letter or word combination to an animal, object, or the combination of various elements. Once you have a logo in mind, experiment with it, and design several options for backup. In Canva, you will need to implement the logo as a file with a .svg extension. Also, make sure that your logo meets all Canva image requirements.
Final Advice
No matter if you are a beginner or an experienced designer, these tips should help you become better at design in Canva. Remember to keep your designs impactful, yet simple, colorful, but not too convoluted. Stick to your brand colors, font, logo design, and work on matching the background of your images with the frontal message or imagery. Use your creativity, keep an open mind, and don’t give up if you wish to become a Canva pro!