I’ll be honest with you I love Canva, I adore it, it is like an answer to all the design prayers! The things in mine and my client’s heads can now become reality!
I was amazed at how many client’s (and colleagues) I have spoken to who HATE it. If that’s you I bet you don’t really, you HATE the amount of time it takes, or even worse than that HATE the amount of time you spend on it to then produce something that sucks at the end!
These are my time-saving tips for Canva! Some of this is a bit of set up in the beginning and that gets you into a great habit, as laying good foundations always does!
1-FOLDERS
On Canva you have a couple of opportunities with folders and I would suggest using both. So, picture this, I have, say 10 clients for regular designs, 5 that I do some throughout the year and probably 15 more for ad-hoc projects. That is a lot of pictures to upload, logos, a lot of drafts, a lot of versions of the same design etc. So, it may seem obvious to have the top-level folders, client 1, client 2 etc. However what I find MOST useful is to use these folders when uploading imagery, so say I am uploading something for me, I head to my folder first rand upload there it is stored nicely in a relevant folder so I can go and grab it when needed.
2- BRAND KIT
What. A. Lifechanger.
This is the first thing I did in Canva and it has saved so much time. You literally save your colours, fonts and even logos in your brand kit. So then when you go to complete a design and change some colours, they are there together for you to choose from.
This is amazing I know how much time this has saved us when I work on an ad-hoc project I am always flicking through colour finders (this is a great one)and checking through until I build them a brand kit. You can only build additional colour kits not full brands. FYI I keep any branding information available on my Trello for each client.
3- FILTERS
Of the search type, not the Snapchat type!
You have probably spent hours searching for imagery on Canva and just not finding the right one, maybe it’s not very on brand or just looks a bit weird! Well, when I discovered the filter feature a styled grid became much easier!
So, say you search, sunset in the photos tab. You can then use the filter by colour, input your own brand colour (or whatever colour you are looking for) and filter down for more brand/topic-specific imagery. Or you can filter by shape here too! So that saves loads of time as if you need a square image- search square, that way no time is spent on cropping, editing, and resizing! Winner!
4- CONTENT PLANNER
GAME CHANGER! This is a new-ish introduction to Canva but WOW. I use Hootsuite to actually schedule my posts until Canva link to Instagram. But, I am using the content planner just so I can grab content back quickly, and I use for a couple of clients and their Facebook posts. You can literally click on the day, create the post or grab a design and get it scheduled! All in one place!
5- MAKE A COPY/RESIZE
Now, this is an obvious tip, but if you know me, you know I believe that simple is the best!! Most clients want their graphics suitable to use across a few platforms. So, create the design, click resize top left and click the desired size. A winner for me when I am rebranding a whole load of stuff for a client or creating graphics for a new programme or launch, they have! I LOVE it!
BONUS- have fun with it!!
Did you know you could create a GIF? Give it a go I know you will love it! Share it in the comments below.
If you still want support on Canva or want some design elements for your business, let me sweat the small stuff while you go after the big dreams! You know where I am, book a call here.
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