How to Use Canva: 101 AMAZING Designs You Can Create (Includes Printable)
How to Use Canva: 101 AMAZING Designs You Can Create (Includes Printable)
Disclaimer:
Please note: The designs featured and mentioned in this blog post are for inspirational purposes ONLY and will help you see that you can use. Now on to the post!
I did something crazy last weekend….
I challenged myself to come up with an extensive list on how to use Canva for graphic and visual design.
101 ways to be exact…
Crazypants I know….
But I never back down from a challenge yall.
Why?
In two of my most recent blog posts about Canva for bloggersand Canva course creators, I covered on several ways that peeps can use the program for their visual design needs.
But my obsession with Canva didn’t stop there.
On last year, I wrote a blog post that talks about how I use the program to build out my entire visual arsenal and even created blog branding kits like this oneand this one to help folks brand their blogs and websites without breaking the bank.
As I grew more confident with using some of the advanced features of the program, I decided it was time to take things a step further.
So I did something even crazier….
I created Lights Canva Action to show brand owners like you how to use Canva to design graphics, course collateral and more like CHAMPS.
To date, this is one of my most popular courses.
I guess you can say that I have an unhealthy obsession and addiction with Canva yall…
Who is this Post For?
I’ve put together a mega list that covers how to use Canva for graphic and visual design projects.
Since this is such a mega list and round up of content, I’ve added a table of contents to the post.
You can use the table of contents section below to skip to a section that you are interested in using Canva for.
And off we gooooooo!
Table of Contents
0.1 Who is this Post For?
1 How to Use Canva for Blog and Web Design
2 How to Use Canva for Branding
3 How to Use Canva for Social Media Marketing
4 How to Use Canva for Digital Marketing
5 How to Use Canva to Design Print Materials
6 How to Use Canva to Design Course Collateral
7 How to Use Canva for Freelance and Consulting Designs
8 How to Use Canva to Design + Create Products
9 How To Use Canva to Design Printables
10 How to Use Canva to Design Materials for Live Events and Conferences
11 Ready to Start Designing Visual Designs and Graphics with Canva Like a CHAMP?
11.1 I want to hear from you!
How to Use Canva for Blog and Web Design
In this busy online space that we live in, a boring blog will not get you very far.
If you are starting a blog or run an existing blog, Canva makes it easy to turn your blog’s design from blah to beautiful.
After I launched the YCG blog, I wanted to add some pizzaz to it but I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on branding. So I turned to Canva to to do it.
In Canva, I got superrrr creative and cranked out different images to brand things like:
My blogs sidebar
My blog post graphics
Pinnable Graphics in Pinterest
and more….
What I loved most about Canva is this:
There are hundred’s of pre-made templates that you can download and use to DIY your blog’s design.
Canva for Bloggers Examples
If you are struggling with web design, you can use Canva to design certain elements of your site. As an example, things like images for the front of your site, your blog’s newsletter header and a logo too!
In short, if you have zero web design or blog branding skills, Canva makes it easy to inject creative blog design that gives your site a professional appearance that your visitors will appreciate.
I present to you 10 types of visual designs you can create with canva for your blog with some examples.
Blog Post Image Template
Sidebar Graphics
Blog Email Newsletter Header
Lead Magnet
Content Upgrades
Email Opt-In Mockups
Blog Post Graphics
Blog Post Infographics
Tip-O-Graphics
List-O-Graphics
Blog Media Kit
CLICK HERE to get the the PDF version of this list (plus a list of the top10 graphics you SHOULD have in your visual arsenal)
How to Use Canva for Branding
Consistent branding is imperative to establishing an unforgettable online presence.
Here’s the dealio…
With so many brands vying for attention online, it is damn near impossible to stand out ….
UNLESS…your branding is on point.
Before I learned how to use Canva for branding on the visual front things were all over the place. At times, it looked like my brand was ran by four different people.
I made a lot of mistakes with my branding like:
I tried using too many fontsin my designs
Every time that I created a new blog post, I designed a different image for each one
My color choices were…not visually engaging or eye-grabbing enough
Brand confusion and frustration with designing branded graphics led me to Canva!
Now:
I loveeeee Creative Market…like for realz. They have a lot of pre-made templates that I have purchased in the past for various branding projects.
But:
In an effort to scale back my expenses and create branded materials the “lean way”, I turned to Canva to create a lot of the items in my brand arsenal.
After I got a handle on what consistent visual branding meant, I amped up my branding efforts using some of the templates from Canva.
The more confident I grew with using Canva for branding, I started using the tool to design brand collateral for my clients and web design projects.
I loved doing this two for two main reasons:
Canva gives my clients creative control over their designs and let me share designs with them.
With the sharing feature, my clients can make updates to their brand collateral and etc., as they need to.
Ten brand items that you can design beautifully with Canva include:
Logo
Brand Identity Kit
Stationery
Brand Color Scheme
Mood Board
Brochure Design
Project Proposal Template
Note Cards
Gift Certificates
Style Guide
CLICK HERE to get the the PDF version of this list (plus a list of the top10 graphics you SHOULD have in your visual arsenal)
How to Use Canva for Social Media Marketing
As of 2017, based on data published by Smart Insights,nearly 2 billion people are using social media networks.
What does this mean for you?
It’s super competitive out there…
If you are using social media networks or are planning to use them to market your business, there’s something you should know:
Visual content is #Winning!
Social media users are much more likely to engage with posts that have “visuals” tied to them.
Thankfully, with DIY graphic design tools…like Canva you don’t have to spend a lot of money to create graphics for your social media accounts.
You don’t have to hire a professional designer either.
I made a decision a while ago to use Canva to DIY my own graphics for social media since I can easily store all of my graphics in one place.
Plus:
Canva has a lot of pre-made social media templates that you can edit, update and publish in minutes to your social media networks.
The key to creating graphics with Canva for your social media networks is to keep your designs consistent.
Consistent designs are the key to increasing your brand’s awareness and will help your community spot your branding easier.
I can tell you from experience, there is nothing more rewarding than having a reader mention to you that they “saw something you posted” because they recognized your branding on social media.
On that note, here are 10 types of visuals you can design with Canva for social media networks:
YouTube Cover Art
Twitter Cover Image
Facebook Fan Page Cover Photo
LinkedIn Post Quotes
Instagram Posts
Animated GIF’s
Photo Stories (Flipagram)
Quote Graphics
Pinterest Image Template
Quick Tip Graphics
CLICK HERE to get the the PDF version of this list (plus a list of the top10 graphics you SHOULD have in your visual arsenal)
How to Use Canva for Digital Marketing
Much like social media, in the world of digital marketing, visual content reigns supreme.
Things we do online like…
Email marketing
Marketing Automation
Search Engine Optimization
Paid Advertisements
Content Marketing
These kinds of activities are forms of digital marketing that is taking place on the internet.
As I was researching data for tis blog post, here’s some information that I found surprising:
Two million blog posts are published every day (Marketing Pros)
Andddd….more than 1.3 million pieces of content is shared on social media every minute. Let’s not forget about email. It seems like its never ending. Well at least for me it isn’t.
With so much content to compete against, from a marketing and promotions perspective, most of the digital assets that you have in your arsenal will need some form of visual representation if you want them to stand out from the pack.
Canva for Digital Marketing Examples
If you have a blog, visual graphics bring your content to life. With your email newsletter, creating a branded email newsletter header will dress up your email marketing campaigns.
That eBook that you are thinking about writing or a freebie that you want to promote online to grow your email list need “mockups” to make them tangible and more real to your audience.
And let’s not forget about paid advertisements like Facebook Ads.
To promote your ads on Facebook, you have to use a graphic to promote your ads.
Fortunately for you, Canva has a ready-made graphics like Facebook Ad templates that you can use to design your ads in minutes. Heck, I was surprised to discover that the folks over at Digital Marketer have used Canva to design their ads.
In the spirit of digital marketing, here are 10 types of designs that you can create with Canva:
Media Kit
Digital Marketing Kit
Presentations
Paid Advertisement Graphics
(Digital) Flip Book
Online Based Event Graphics
Fillable PDF’s
List Building Offer Graphics
Inspirational Quote Graphics
Discount Promo Images
CLICK HERE to get the the PDF version of this list (plus a list of the top10 graphics you SHOULD have in your visual arsenal)
How to Use Canva to Design Print Materials
Digital Marketing is all the rage these days, but there may come a time when you will need to use print marketing collateral to promote your business.
As with mockups of digital products, print marketing materials will help bring your offline marketing assets to life in print form.
I know that you may be thinking:
“Are people even using print materials anymore”?
The answer:
Of course they are still being used
Think about it….
When you attend live events like conferences, seminars and other networking events, what kinds of marketing collateral do you see people using?
Print marketing and promo materials right?
Attending these types of events present the perfect opportunityfor you to share your print marketing materials with attendees.
With Canva, designing branded print materials for your business is a breeze!
The biggest perk to using Canva is this:
You don’t have to start from scratch to design things. Canva has a lot of done-for-you templates that you can use to create branded print materials for your business.
The only thing that you will need to do is add your brand color schemes, logo, and fonts to the templates and that’s pretty much it.
In a matter of minutes, you can design gorgeous print materials for your business that you can proudly show off to the world. Ten types of branded print materials that you can make with Canva for your business include:
Letterhead
Checklists
Invitations
Resumes
Coupons
Business Cards
Flyers
Stationery
Banners
Magazines
CLICK HERE to get the the PDF version of this list (plus a list of the top10 graphics you SHOULD have in your visual arsenal)
How to Use Canva to Design Course Collateral
Online courses are extremely popular nowadays.
It seems like nearly everyone and their uncles are getting into the game and I can understand why.
For starters the online course market is a 107 Billion Dollar Industry that is showing no signs of slowing down. Secondly, online courses make it easy for you to teach what you know and profit from it.
I can tell you from experience as an infopreneur:
There is nothing like waking up, checking your email inbox and finding that someone has purchased one of your courses while you were sleeping.
Then there’s the mega success reports that you’ve probably read from course creators like Melyssa Griffin and Pat Flynn. What I love about reading their stories is this:
Income diversification is super important and passive income is very MUCH possible!
This what online courses offer to infopreneurs and digital preneurs too!
Canva for Course Collateral Examples
When I decided to start making online courses though, I struggled with figuring out what kind of collateral I was going to add to them.
Worksheets
Workbooks and …
Printables ….
to their courses as collateral to give to their students.
As I got more into infopreneurship and course creation I didn’t want to spend a lot of money to create my course materials.
So I HAD to get creative…
Canva came to the rescue!
Now…I use Canva to create all of the collateral for the courses and digital products that I sell from my blog.
If you’re looking for some ideas for collateral and marketing materials you can create for your courses in Canva, here is a list to consider:
Workbooks
Worksheets
Fillable PDF’s
Course Promo Graphics
Course Animated GIF Graphics
Course Testimonial Graphics from Students
Course Sales Page Graphics
Course Completion Certificates for Students
Product Preview Graphics
Course Mockup Graphics
CLICK HERE to get the the PDF version of this list (plus a list of the top10 graphics you SHOULD have in your visual arsenal)
How to Use Canva for Freelance and Consulting Designs
If you are a freelancer, consultant or coach, then Canva is an excellent resource to use in your business.
As a service based business provider, there will come a time when you will need to create branded digital and offline marketing materials.
Case in point:
After I decided to add web design services to my list of service offerings, I needed a way to create specific branded materials that I could give to my new clients.
Here again, I didn’t want to hire someone to design these materials for me.
So I turned to Canva to get the job done.
As an example, the services listings sheets that I give to prospective clients…I used Canva to design it.
The Welcome Kit that I give to new my new clients in the onboarding process, I used Canva to create it.
The Services promo images that I market out on social media…you guessed it, I used Canva to Design those too.
So if you are starting a service based business or run one, Canva affords you the ability to design all kinds of goodies for your clients.
Things like toolkits to onboard new clients or welcome kits to your new clients are easy to design.
Examples of resources that you can design for your service based business with Canva include:
Services Listings Sheet
Marketing Kit for Prospective Clients
Brand Identity Kit
Welcome Kit to New Clients
Testimonial Booklet
Digital eGuide Testimonial Graphics
Project Proposal Template
Client Workbook or Resource Guide
Slide Deck Presentations for Prospects
Price Listings Sheets and Overview
CLICK HERE to get the the PDF version of this list (plus a list of the top10 graphics you SHOULD have in your visual arsenal)
How to Use Canva to Design + Create Products
Do you run a blog, website or some sort of web property that you want to sell products from?
Are you looking for a resource that you can use to design your products with?
If you are, then learning how to use Canva will give you a jumpstart to your creating digital + print products that you can design and monetize.
True story:
Before I started using Canva to design the majority of the products that I sell from my blog, I tried used programs like MS Wordand Google Docs.
But..I didn’t like using these programs for several reasons:
On the design front, MS Word is very limited to me
Word doesnt have enough built in design features and things that you could use to accessorize your designs
Google docs is great for creating content…but like MS Word has limited design capabilities
I couldn’t get as creative as I wanted to…..
So…
I stopped using Word and leveraged Canva to design my products.
In fact, I used Canva to design all the products that I sell from my store. The workbook covers, the interior pages, eBooks you name it…
I used Canva to create them…
And….
Whenever I launch new products and need to design promo images for them…I.use.Canva. The program is seriously friggin addictive!
If you need some ideas for products that you can create with Canva, here’s a list to get you started:
Product Preview Graphics
Product Launch Graphics
Product Cover Templates
Digital eBooks
eGuides
eKits
Kindle Book Covers
Product Mockups
Product Promo Graphics
Guidebooks
CLICK HERE to get the the PDF version of this list (plus a list of the top10 graphics you SHOULD have in your visual arsenal)
How To Use Canva to Design Printables
Who doesn’t love a good printable?
They are super nifty resources that help with productivity, organization, tracking and more.
Maybe you’re thinking of designing printables to sell from an Etsy store.
Or…
Perhaps you want to design printables to help you organize a certain area of your life. Either way, you can most certainly use Canva to do it.
Believe it or not, Canva has loads of ready-made printables available that you can use in various ways like:
Cheat sheets that you give away from your blog as content upgrades
To-Do-Lists that you can leverage as an entrepreneur to keep you on track every day
Forms that you can use to take down information at events you are hosting
Calendars…to keep track of important dates, times, events and etc.,
Goal Planning Sheets – to help you track business or personal goals
Canva for Printables Examples
I’m all for digital tracking tools and stuff but I gotta admit that there is nothing like writing something down and looking at it every day to remind you of what you are working on.
Last year, I created a #GoalDigger Worksheet using Canva, printed it out and put it on my board in my office to hold myself accountable of the goals I’ve set for my business every month.
And you know what…
I am sooo glad that I did because this one little printable keeps me accountable every month and helps me stay on task.
A few types of printables that you can design with Canva are:
Checklists
To Do Lists
Shopping Lists
Calendars
Planners
Organizers
Worksheets
Task Trackers
Forms
Charts
CLICK HERE to get the the PDF version of this list (plus a list of the top10 graphics you SHOULD have in your visual arsenal)
How to Use Canva to Design Materials for Live Events and Conferences
If you’ve ever put on a live event, then you already know that things can get very expensive. There’s the location to think about, speakers you need to invite, food, marketing materials to produce and more.
I’ve heard repeatedly that the PRIMARY objectives for holding live events is this:
To get as many people into the event as possible…
To do this, you will need to market your event like crazy…both from a digital and offline perspective.
The thing is with live events (from what I’m told), marketing the event is the greatest challenge that folks have and the costs associated with it.
Canva to Design Materials for Live Events Examples
To keep your marketing expenses low for your events, you can leverage Canva to create your marketing, promotions and other collateral.
That’s rightttt folks!
Everything from conference registration forms to the flyers that you use to market the event, you can fire up Canva and use the program to design your items.
But:
It doesn’t have to stop there, you can also create your digital marketing media too for your events and items like these:
Swag Bag Inserts
Notebooks
Event Program
Event Specific Notecards
Event Agenda
Conference Flyers
Event Invitations
Event Digital Promo Graphics –
Conference Registration Forms
Food and Drink Menu
FREE PRINTABLE PLUS EPIC BONUS!
Download the Printable and PDF Version of this List (Plus BONUS list of 10 graphics to add to your visual arsenal)
SIGN UP
As you can see from this list, Canva is an amazing tool that people in different industries can use for all types of visual and graphic design projects. I hope that this list serves as an inspiration to get your creative juices flowing on what you can do with Canva!
Ready to Start Designing Visual Designs and Graphics with Canva Like a CHAMP?
Two things:
#1: You can check out this Free Canva webinar to learn How to Design Killer Graphics with Canva for your Business
#2: If you want access to a resource that shows you how to design stunning images, brand graphics, course collateral and more with confidence, Lights Canva Action lays it all out for you! Check it out here.
I want to hear from you!
Are you using Canva for Visual design? If so, how are you using it and what tips did you like most from this list? Pleaseeee leave your comments below. Thanks soooo much!
Kim George
#ACanvaFanatic!
Oh and Here’s a Nifty Infographic that you can download and use as a reference! And yes, I used Canva to Design it…LOL!
101 Ways to Use Canva for Visual Design
http://yourchicgeek.com/how-to-use-canva/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=pinterest&utm_campaign=tailwind_tribes&utm_content=tribes&utm_term=478620494_16884512_441646
Comments
Post a Comment