Last updated on May 30th, 2023

Canva templates are great for cutting your design time in half. But they also need to grab your readers’ attention and get them to click. Here’s how to edit Canva templates to match your brand and stand out from your competitors!

Pretty much every aspect of our blog runs on a template, especially now that we’ve expanded into a full-blown team of amazing marketers and designers.

Design templates save time which in turn can save a LOT of money.

Plus, they give bloggers with little to no design skills a fighting chance to get noticed in this increasingly visual world of online marketing.

But there also comes a point where everyone is learning the same techniques and using the same templates.

Ready to nail your product launch? Get our FREE Product Creators QuickStart Kit with a checklist, cheatsheet, and Canva design template so you can create a digital product for your blog!

What do you get when all you have is the same? Same + same = Everyone’s graphics look the same.

There has to be something we can do to stand out in the sea of sameness and still get those clicks! Right?

Yes. A thousand times, yes. (We’re huge Matthew Macfayden Pride & Prejudice fans over here!)

There are a few things you can do as bloggers to help you edit Canva templates so they’re unique to you and your brand.

And if you’ve been making any of these ‘mistakes’ with your current templates, we promise you it’s not the end of the world.

REMEMBER THIS POST LATER! PIN IT TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD!⬇

You’ll actually be better off because now there’s something you can do to help boost traffic to your site.

We’d oddly be a bit happy if we found something wrong because then that most likely explains the dip (or straight-up lack) in traffic or reduced sign-ups.

No one likes to have made a mistake. But when you know the error, you can fix it and move on. And in the case of bloggers, move UP!

SWAP FOR YOUR BRAND COLORS

We used to spend an unhealthy amount of time on Pinterest before hiring our Pinterest Manager. Those rabbit holes are so enticing!

Anyway, it would amaze us how many bloggers didn’t edit Canva templates with their brand’s color palette.

We created a Canva template subscription that delivers 35+ brand-new Canva templates every single month. Each month is a completely different style with new colors, fonts, layout – the works.

We would see some of our subscriber’s pins on Pinterest from multiple months with the exact same color palettes as the original templates.

Why is that bad?

When you don’t change the colors of your Canva templates to match your brand, there’s absolutely ZERO brand recognition for your audience.

Related Post: Easily Achieve Brand Consistency With Your Designs

Meaning your readers will never recognize you, which could definitely reduce your click-through rates.

When we’re looking for recipes on Pinterest, we’ll, without a doubt, click on pins we know to be from our favorite foodie bloggers versus ones we don’t know.

DON’T HAVE A BRAND COLOR PALETTE?

Creating a branded color palette is more than just choosing your favorite colors. There’s actually quite a lot of color psychology involved to ensure you’re attracting your ideal person.

And if you’re using the Canva template’s base colors because you haven’t created a brand color palette yet, make sure to check out this article and download the color guide in our free design library!

CHANGE TO YOUR BRAND FONTS

The fonts used in most templates, including ours, are really just placeholders to show you where your text goes.

We know pairing fonts is just as stressful as designing a color palette for your blog.

Because of that, we use visually appealing font combinations so those that really struggle with choosing their brand fonts can have a jumping-off point.

Related Post: Awesome Typography Tips to Rock Your Designs

Fonts are just as important as color when it comes to branding.

For example, our original brand used a script font and an outline font that was very distinct to the Simplifying DIY Design brand. It actually became our signature look!

We used both fonts in all our Pinterest, blog, and social media graphics, in all our products, designs, and even printables.

Here’s an example using a Canva logo template from our Complete Blogger Template Toolkit. The bottom design is the exact template but with our brand fonts.

See how the top one is very generic, but the bottom one screams Simplifying DIY Design? That’s why you need to edit Canva templates using your brand fonts!

You wouldn’t even know it was a Canva logo template just by switching out the fonts. That’s how powerful branding can be!

DON’T HAVE BRAND FONTS?

Finding the right font combinations can be just as overwhelming as choosing a color palette for your blog.

We use (and love!) this FREE font generator to help us choose the perfect font pairings for our design projects.

Even though we’re designers, we’ll still happily take advantage of those done-for-you design tools because time is something we’d all love a little more of!

ADD YOUR OWN IMAGES

All photos used in templates are meant as placeholders and should be swapped out to match your content’s topic or blog niche.

Unless you’re getting custom templates made for your specific brand, you need to keep in mind that if everyone downloaded the template as-is, then everyone’s graphics will look the same!

Even if you’re purchasing niche-specific templates, we still recommend changing them out for branded images you chose.

You need to be able to stand out from your competition. If others purchased the same template pack as you (and you all kept the same images), your audience won’t know which way is up!

Additionally, we don’t ever recommend using free stock photo sites like Pixels or Pixabay because of the copyright issues a lot of bloggers had in the past.

Long story short, photographers were adding their photos and removing them a little later so they could then file copyright lawsuits against those who used them on their websites. Blogging alone is hard enough. No one needs that extra drama!

Instead, we use DepositPhotos and Canva’s Pro media library for all of our stock photos.

If your brand is more feminine, we cannot recommend Haute Stock, Social Squares, or IvoryMix enough! They have some of the most beautiful, high-resolution stock photos we’ve ever seen.

Be sure to check out their free images first to make sure they’re right for your brand!

MAKE IT YOUR OWN

While this isn’t a template edit must, it’s something we think you should consider.

If you have a signature look or certain design elements that you absolutely love to use, see how you can fit them into your Canva templates. This can be things like:

• Abstract patterns
• Scribbles, swirls, or hand-drawn lines
• Dotted or playful arrows

What we mean is, if your Canva template has a plain arrow and you prefer to use swirly, fun arrows, make the switch and see how it looks.

Remember that monthly Canva template subscription we talked about earlier? The template on the left is from our June collection.

The template on the right is the same but edited using our brand’s color palette, fonts, and fun design elements we use throughout our blog’s graphics.

Even though it’s a template that other bloggers will use, it’s so unique to our brand that you wouldn’t know it’s from our own template membership!

Starting from the top, we:

• Swapped out the bubbles for an abstract X design
• Added a second layer under the text for dimension
• Used a fun banner to emphasize the text, ‘5 Ways’
• Added our favorite swirly arrow for a bit of fun

If a template doesn’t have space for your website URL (as shown at the top of the template in the example above), try adding your logo to the bottom corner!

SIDE NOTE: You CAN create a logo for your blog using Canva’s logo templates – you just can’t trademark it because it’s impossible to claim exclusive rights to something other people can use.

Related Post: Read This Before You Make Your Logo in Canva

This is easily forgotten because logos aren’t generally included on a Canva template. Your logo is like your signature on a piece of art; it’s important!

It helps establish a connection with your branded style and also your website. Another added benefit is that it deters copyright infringement and helps people get familiar with your blog name.

If you’re making any of these Canva template editing “mistakes” and your traffic just isn’t where it should be, it’s okay!

You’re actually in a really good place because you now know where to start ‘troubleshooting’ through experimentation.

Start by checking the Pinterest pins for your ‘low-hanging fruit’ blog posts. These are the posts that require very minimal effort in tweaks but will make a big impact on SEO.

You can also join us in our 3-Day Design Your Blog Growth Challenge to learn more about optimizing other areas of your blog with these simple (but impactful) design updates!

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS POST:

• Easily Achieve Brand Consistency With Your Designs
• How to Choose the Perfect Colors for Your Brand
• Awesome Typography Tips to Rock Your Designs
• FREE Design Generators to Brand Your Blog
• Read This Before You Make Your Logo in Canva

Don’t forget to grab our FREE Product Creators QuickStart Kit! Use the checklist, cheatsheet, and Canva design template to create a digital product for your blog!

TRY CANVA PRO FREE FOR 30 DAYS

Start your FREE Canva Pro trial today and unlock ALL of their incredible time-saving features that cut your design time to just minutes.

To be honest? It’s the best $12.99/mo OR $119/yr we spend on our business because that time we save with every design is put back into making MORE money in our business!

WANT TO SAVE THIS FOR LATER? PIN IT TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD!⬇

Last updated on June 5th, 2023

There are so many Canva Pro features that bloggers don’t use properly or even know to exist. Taking a few minutes to get your Canva Pro account set up the right way can cut down on design time, helping you design faster and maximize productivity!

Here at Simplifying DIY Design, we’re all about efficiency.

Even though it may seem like an extra second saved by using bookmarked links or keyboard shortcuts, it really adds up when you spend your day in front of a computer.

Any and all designs, sales page links, copy, etc., are tucked neatly away in Asana so they can be quickly referenced.

Nothing is more of a time-suck than scouring a program looking for that one thing you created but cannot remember what you titled it for the life of you. Hey, it happens!

Ready to launch your digital product? Get our FREE Product Creators QuickStart Kit today! You’ll get a checklist, cheatsheet, and Canva design template to help you nail your launch!

This is just ONE of the many reasons we upgraded to Canva Pro. And still, to this day, we cannot believe how long we waited to make the switch.

Actually, that’s a lie. We do know why.

What we didn’t realize was how much extra time was spent finding workarounds to what was available for Canva Pro users until we gave it a spin using their FREE 30-day trial of Canva Pro.

Ignorance is bliss, right?

Well, to our disbelief, we saved oodles of time by having all of our frequently used tools in one easy-to-use design platform.

We’re going to dive into all the amazing Canva Pro features and how they’ll benefit you as a blogger, so grab your favorite drink, get comfy, and let’s do this!

REMEMBER THIS POST LATER! PIN IT TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD! ⬇

BRAND COLOR PALETTES

Gone are the days of saved hex codes in Notes or digital sticky posts!

Use this section of your Canva Pro account to organize all of your brand colors. Just click ‘+ Add new’ and type in your individual hex codes for each color.

What we really like about this Canva Pro feature is that we can keep our holiday color palette separate from our main brand’s colors.

Related Post: How to Choose Brand Colors For Your Blog

You can even segment your complimentary colors and frequently used colors for clients or alternative products.

That’ll come into use here in just a minute.

Lastly, click on the three horizontal dots to the right of your palette title to reorder, copy, or delete.

And here’s what it’ll look like in a design project once you add your color palettes to your Brand Kit.

BRAND FONTS

This Cana Pro feature allows you to select which fonts you want for specific sizes.

Having a baseline does help with quick placement, but we wouldn’t stress about it too much since it varies based on your design.

We only have two brand fonts for Simplifying DIY Design – Black Diamond and Poppins. We generally recommend no more than three brand fonts, anyway.

Related Post: How to Rock Your Fonts with These Typography Tips

Since Poppins can look vastly different based on the size of a design, we uploaded different varieties, including Light and Medium.

Canva has since added Thin, Regular, and ExtraBold. Bonus points, we now have the complete Poppins set!

If you’re in the blog branding stage, we highly recommend these design generators to help you create the perfect brand.

We even use them for certain design projects, too!

To edit your uploaded fonts (regardless if they’re your brand fonts), click ‘Uploaded fonts’ to the right of ‘Text styles.’ Here you can add/delete without interfering with your ‘Text styles.’

Here’s what it’ll look like in your design project once you add your fonts to your Brand Kit and any additional uploaded fonts.

BRAND LOGOS

Use this Canva Pro feature to add any and all logos. We’re talking main, alternate, watermark, products, the works!

If you don’t have watermarks yet, no worries! We used to use them pretty regularly on our Pinterest pins. But now they’re used on certain graphics for copyright protection/prevent theft.

Product logos aren’t necessary, either. But if you have them, add ’em! We use ours in promotional material and email signatures, so having them readily available has come in handy.

To add Brand logos, click ‘+ Add new’ on the right and upload away.

If you still haven’t found the perfect logo, be sure to check out our Five-Minute Brand!

You’ll get instant access to 40 complete (editable!) brand kits PLUS hundreds of Canva templates to brand your blog. It’s truly lived up to its name if we do say so ourselves!

BRAND TEMPLATES

This spot holds all of your brand templates, so you’ll never accidentally design over your original!

We’ve done that a few times with our course mockups before using this Canva Pro feature. It was a hard lesson learned. But hey, now we know!

To add a design to your Brand templates, you can either click ‘+ Add new’ from the top right or click ‘Share’ –> ‘Brand template’ from within the design itself.

It’ll now have a ‘BRAND TEMPLATE’ designator regardless if you’re in your Brand Kit or on the Home page, which we love.

What makes this particular Canva Pro feature even cooler is that when you click on a ‘BRAND TEMPLATE,’ a pop-up appears asking if you’d like to use it as a template or edit the original.

It’s just another added layer of protection, preventing an instant stress headache when you realize you unintentionally edited your template yet again.

BRAND CONTROLS

If you have a team, this Canva Pro feature is for you! Remember when we said segmenting your color palettes would come in handy later on in this post? Here’s what we mean.

With Brand controls, you can limit your team’s access to specific color palettes and fonts, so it’s important you have a dedicated brand color palette.

We forgot to toggle the ‘Color control’ box when we onboarded a new assistant designer. Well, they ended up creating about 30 designs using the wrong color palette. Again, now we know for next time.

But what’s REALLY cool for anyone with a team is our ability to require ‘Design approval!’

Once you toggle ‘Design Approval,’ select the cogwheel icon to customize:

• Approvers (who is able to approve designs)
• Flexibility (either approval is required or encouraged)
• Conditions (applies to ALL or specific designs)

This is hands down the most exciting Canva Pro feature because we can ensure our designs are on brand before they’re scheduled to social media, uploaded to Pinterest, or added to any of our products.

Before, we were either using email or Asana to communicate approval/changes.

While that’s not a bad thing, it did take extra time flipping from one thing to the next, logging in, going back to our email to say it’s good to go, etc.

FOLDERS

Prior to mid-2022, free Canva users were limited to just two folders. Both free and Canva Pro users can now have unlimited folders (and subfolders), which is a type-A blogger’s dream!

We love to organize our designs based on categories to, you guessed it, save time.

Here’s an example of how we organize our designs with Canva folders.

[PRODUCTS] folder –> individual [Product Name] subfolders –> individual folders for promo graphics, seasonal graphics, testimonials, product templates, etc.

LIBRARY OF PREMIUM ASSETS

While this Canva Pro feature isn’t necessarily something you need to set up like we just did with our Brand Kit, we want to ensure you know how to ‘save’ your favorite premium assets for quick reference.

We guess if you really think about it, you’re still technically setting up your workspace, so we’ll roll with it!

If you find a stock image, design element, or anything else from Canva’s extensive library (except audio), you can either ‘Star’ it or ‘Add to folder.’

Starring sends that specific asset to your ‘Starred’ folder from your left menu. But if you want to take your organization up a notch, you can click ‘Add to folder’ and add it to, let’s say, a designated Stock Photos folder.

To add your Stock Photos folder to your left menu, click ‘Projects’ –> ‘Folders’ and again on your Stock Photos folder.

Now when you need to add a stock photo to your Pinterest pin design in Canva, that folder is now saved to your left menu for you to access with just one click!

If we just blew your mind with everything that Canva Pro has to offer, you’re going to LOVE our complete Canva course, Confidently Canva!

It’s EVERYTHING you need to know to feel completely confident in your designs because now you truly understand the tool you’re using and the design concepts involved.

Enroll now and get $20 off Confidently Canva today!

Other non-negotiable Canva Pro benefits for bloggers are:

• Downloading transparent images
• Smartmockup library of +8000 mockups
• FULL access to high-quality stock photos, videos, graphics, and audio
• Thousands of drag-and-drop templates in a variety of styles
• Instant graphic resizing
• Wide selection of page, text, and graphic animations
• Schedule straight to Instagram, Facebook, and more right from Canva

Speaking of other awesome Canva Pro features, make sure you check out these awesome Canva Shortcuts to help you design faster!

It’s the little things when it comes to Canva Pro features

Just like how extra change can add up, the same holds true for little time-saving features you’ll find with Canva Pro.

Your logo, colors, and fonts will only be a click away by setting up your Canva Pro account the right way.

Stop wasting time scrolling through your hundreds (if not thousands of Uploads), searching to no avail, and looking up hex codes to that one seasonal design you created ages ago.

And if saving time isn’t your cup of tea, but saving money is, how about this? We cut ALL of our stock photo memberships once we upgraded to Canva Pro.

We’re not going to drop any names, but we had annual memberships to three different (premium) stock photo memberships that, let’s just say, were NOT cheap.

It was upwards of $700/yr that we slashed from our budget just by upgrading to Canva Pro’s annual plan. Now, will this work for EVERY niche? Probably not.

But there’s a plethora of tech-style photos that are perfect for our brand.

And if we can put those hundreds of dollars into other things like ad spend or monthly site support, that’s a HUGE win for us.

Check out these Canva Pro features yourself with a FREE 30-day trial of Canva Pro. The only you’ve got to lose is time!

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS POST:

• FREE Product Creators QuickStart Kit
• How to Choose Brand Colors For Your Blog
• FREE 30-day trial of Canva Pro
• Confidently Canva
• Canva Shortcuts to Help You Design Faster
• 3 Easy Canva Resize Tricks for 2023

Don’t forget our FREE Product Creators Quickstart Kit! You’ll get a checklist, cheatsheet, and Canva design template to help you nail your launch!

TRY CANVA PRO FREE FOR 30 DAYS

Start your FREE Canva Pro trial today and unlock ALL of their incredible time-saving features that cut your design time to just minutes.

To be honest? It’s the best $12.99/mo OR $119/yr we spend on our business because that time we save with every design is put back into making MORE money in our business!

WANT TO SAVE THIS FOR LATER? PIN IT TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD!⬇

Last updated on June 5th, 2023

As bloggers, we’re always looking for ways to do things just a little bit faster. These must-know Canva shortcuts will help you design in less time so you can get back to growing your blog!

There’s a saying here at Simplifying DIY Design that we remind ourselves of from time to time… procrastination is the thief of time.

It’s true. As moms, wives, and entrepreneurs, we tend to run low on extra time. So when we do have a few minutes, we need to make them count.

Unfortunately, we sometimes let procrastination creep in every now and then. When we do, we know we’re doing ourselves a huge disservice regardless of how we feel in the moment.

But, on VERY rare occasions, we consider something else a thief of time; Canva. And judging by the emails we get from our readers, we’re not alone!

Ready to design and launch a digital product? Get our FREE Product Creators QuickStart Kit! You’ll get a checklist, cheatsheet, and Canva design template to help you nail your launch!

Sometimes it’s slow, glitchy, or just doesn’t work right. We’ve noticed it happens more when using newly introduced features, too. Even the search function won’t give us the results we’re looking for.

Now, we just want to preface this by saying that we LOVE Canva. It’s an incredible tool, especially for bloggers and people that need to rock graphic design but don’t have time to master Adobe or take design classes.

It’s an internet-based design program, so while that is a blessing (work from ANYWHERE and ANY computer), it can also be a curse. I.e., server overload.

Our love for Canva will always outweigh any frustration.

Because of its easy-to-use design interface, the fact that it doesn’t take up gigs of space on our computers and how they truly care for their users, it’ll always be our most loved design tool.

Most of the frustration we experienced early on was totally our fault for not really knowing the tips and tricks to use Canva efficiently.

REMEMBER THIS POST LATER! PIN IT TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD! ⬇

And to be honest, the frustration from our readers is caused by the very same thing, which is why we want to help give you your time back and feel Canva-confident!

We’re sharing some favorite time-saving Canva shortcuts that helped curb our frustration as we learned more about this awesome design tool throughout the years.

MAKE FOLDERS

Cutting down on excess time has a lot to do with organization. If your designs are scattered about without any form of structure, you could be wasting precious time searching instead of designing.

Our Canva folder system is organized based on products, summits, brand assets, clipart, stock photos, etc.

Whether we’re searching for our Teachable course covers or product mockups, it’s always just a few clicks away.

And now you can have UNLIMITED folders whether you’re using Canva for free or have a Pro account. (Prior to 2022, free users were limited to only two folders.)

Try out Canva Pro FREE for 30 days and see why it was one of the best investments we’ve made in our business!

We get quite a few questions on how exactly to organize your Canva folder system, so here’s an example of how we organize our products.

One of our main folders is titled ‘[PRODUCTS].’ Within that folder are individual products. Click on any of those product folders, and you’ll find ‘[PROMO],’ ‘[TEMPLATES],’ ‘[SLIDES],’ etc.

Anything that pertains to that product is housed within that folder. This is especially helpful for outsourcing and even more so for those who bill by the hour.

CANVA SHORTCUT TIP: ‘Star’ your most used folders (click the three horizontal dots to the right) to add them to your sidebar for easy access

Related Post: Awesome Canva Tricks Every Blogger Should Know

While this may not seem like a Canva shortcut to some, it’s been a complete game-changer for a lot of bloggers!

Case in point when you’re looking for that Pinterest template, and all it takes is a click instead of 15 minutes of scrolling. You’ll be glad you took the time to make that folder!

COMPLETE YOUR BRAND KIT

Brand Kits are available for Canva Pro users only. But don’t worry; you can try Canva Pro free for 30 days!

Your Brand Kit will house your brand color palette, seasonal color palettes (which we love!), brand fonts, logos, brand templates, and more.

Just click on ‘Brand’ from the left menu to add in your ‘Brand logos,’ ‘Brand colors,’ and ‘Brand fonts.’ It’s that simple!

A benefit of your Canva Brand Kit is that it’s quick and easy to brand your designs.

Hit the ‘Text’ tool to instantly add your brand fonts. Click on the color box to easily access your palettes. Add a logo with just a couple of clicks.

This is especially helpful instead of endlessly scrolling through your ‘Uploads’ to find your logo!

Related Post: How to Set Up Your Brand Kit for Maximum Efficiency

Honestly, this is just a fraction of what your Brand Kit can do to help save you time.

In terms of the most used, this is our favorite Canva shortcut by far. However, again, you need to upgrade to Canva Pro in order to use this feature. Try Canva Pro free for 30 days here!

Just being able to maintain brand consistency is HUGE. But the fact that:

• Our colors are just a click away versus adding the hex codes every single time
• We’re able to use our brand fonts, so our designs are instantly recognizable
• We have dedicated ‘Brand Templates’ to design even faster

We’ll never stop recommending Canva to any and all bloggers. It’s that awesome!

KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

Canva’s keyboard shortcuts took a little while to get used to. Okay, not used to it, but remember. It seems like every program has its own form of keyboard shortcuts, right?

Asana, Apple products, Canva… it can be a lot. But after about a week, we had them down pat!

Some commonly used Canva keyboard shortcuts include:

• Hold ⌘ + -/+ to zoom in and out by 25%
• < / > to move elements ONE pixel
• Hold Shift + select or deselect elements (you can also click + drag over to select)
• Alternatively, hold ⌘ + select elements BEHIND another element
• Hold Tab + T to create a new text box
• Hold ⌘ + ]/[ to move elements forward or backward

You can even ‘Tidy up’ your elements to space them evenly, horizontally or vertically, and align elements to the right, left, center, you name it!

The ‘Tidy up’ feature is PERFECT for things like checkboxes and line items on checklists, worksheets, etc. We use it every time we make page designs for our DiyDesign Creators Vault.

It’s so much faster selecting all of our elements, clicking ‘Position,’ and again on ‘Tidy up’ versus manually moving each individual element to where we think looks good.

Knowing how much time we spent on that before this feature came around makes us cringe.

Don’t forget the generic computer commands, too! Holding ⌘ + A selects text, C copies, V pastes, B bolds, and I italicizes.

TROUBLESHOOT

Nothing is more of a time-suck than trying to figure something out when it’s just not working. The fact that it’s an internet-based program is both a blessing and a curse, but again, its glitches are VERY rare.

However, when those occasional hiccups come about, here are a few things we recommend:

SIDE NOTE: Remember to always save your work before trying any of the following, EVEN THOUGH Canva auto-saves

• Make sure you’re designing your project while zoomed in at 100%
• Reload the page
• Clear your cache
• Log out and back in
• Switch browsers
• Reboot your internet connection
• Just walk away and try again later

As we said, it’s an internet-based program, and sometimes there will be things going down on the backend that is completely out of our control.

UTILIZE COMMENTS

Have you ever been working on something and had to step away because of a phone call, the dogs need to let out, or your husband can’t find the ketchup from the fridge door even though it’s clearly staring him in the face?

Of course you do; you’re human.

We love utilizing the ‘Comment’ feature on our Canva designs, so we know exactly where we left off if we have to step away for a little while.

SIDE NOTE: This design is from our DiyDesign Creators Vault, a monthly Canva template subscription for bloggers. Join now for just $15 a month!

We’ve even thrown in notes saying, “It’s missing something, but we’re not sure what,” or “maybe try a different font combination, a little more bold?” in the hopes that when we sit back down, it’ll spark that missing piece.

Again, this may not seem like a Canva shortcut. But if you can jump right back into a design without wracking your brain around where you left off, that sounds like a time-saver for us!

Other ways to use this feature are for collaborations, communication within your design team, or as a design note for your users if you’re selling Canva templates.

If you love these Canva shortcuts and want to learn more about how Canva can grow your blog and business, you’re going to LOVE our complete Canva course, Confidently Canva!

It’s EVERYTHING you need to know to feel completely confident in your designs because now you truly understand the tool you’re using and the design concepts involved.

Enroll now and get $20 off Confidently Canva today!

These Canva shortcuts will save you time!

We’re firm believers in the “work smarter, not harder” mentality.

Knowing and practicing some efficient tricks can help save you time throughout your day and in your business overall (not to mention sanity).

We know you’re busy, and we truly believe you should be sporting a cape because you’re a rockstar super mompreneur (even if you don’t feel like it some days).

Your time matters. Make every second count!

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS POST:

• FREE 30-day trial of Canva Pro
• How to Easily Achieve Brand Consistency
• Confidently Canva
• Canva Tricks Every Blogger Should Know
• How to Set Up Your Brand Kit for Maximum Efficiency

Don’t forget our FREE Product Creators Quickstart Kit! You’ll get a checklist, cheatsheet, and Canva design template to help you nail your launch!

TRY CANVA PRO FREE FOR 30 DAYS

Start your FREE Canva Pro trial today and unlock ALL of their incredible time-saving features that cut your design time to just minutes.

To be honest? It’s the best $12.99/mo OR $119/yr we spend on our business because that time we save with every design is put back into making MORE money in our business!

WANT TO SAVE THIS FOR LATER? PIN IT TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD!⬇

Last updated on May 31st, 2023

This is a Guest Post written by Erika Lancaster. Check out the bio at the end of the post to learn more about Erika!

When a blogger is just starting out, it can be very difficult to decide what will require investing in right away, what can wait a bit longer, and what we’ll be attempting to do ourselves. These decisions will be different for all of us, depending on our personal wants and needs, as well as our initial budget.

In this blog post, I will be explaining why a logo design is such an important element for a business to have, the top characteristics that make a logo effective, as well as my top ten tips to make your logo and brand identity look professional.

This post includes a free downloadable checklist so you’re able to create your business Brand Book once you have finalized your logo. (See the bottom of the post for access to the checklist!)

As bloggers, we have to be practical and strategic when choosing where to invest our resources and, in the beginning, paying a designer to create our logo and overall branding may be way too expensive. However, as creative entrepreneurs starting an online business, we KNOW how important image is and how it is ESSENTIAL to stand out from our competition.

Because I have a background in Graphic Design and Advertising, I’ve been able to fully create my own business identity, website, and marketing strategies. Nonetheless, it took me MONTHS to finally decide what my specific niche and business goals would be. I had always been a full-time employee or freelancer designing for someone else’s business, but never my own!

When you are starting a business, you should NEVER jump into creating your brand’s identity without knowing what exactly it is you will be offering and to whom. It is imperative that you figure out what sets you aside from your competition and what your personal values are. This will be the foundation for everything else.

Your logo and overall branding should not only look professional but should also transmit what your business stands for. It will most likely be the first thing that your clients and/or customers will see when they learn about you.

What exactly IS a logo and why is it SO important?

A logo is, basically, a visual representation of your company’s values, beliefs, and goals. It is a very important tool that will help transmit your brand’s identity throughout all types of media you will be producing.

And yes, you ARE a brand, even if you are only one person!

There are different types of logos:

1. a) Symbol/icon: A small design specifically created for the brand that is made up of shapes and/or lines and has no letters or words
2. b) Word mark: Typographic arrangement of the company’s name
3. c) Letter mark: Letters arranged in a specific manner (usually the company’s initials or the first letter of its name)
4. d) Combination of typographic elements and a symbol

Which type of logo you create is up to you. It will depend on the type of marketing your planning for your business, as well as the products and services you offer.

It is important for you to understand that a logo is just ONE of the many parts that make up a brand’s overall identity. When we speak of a brand’s overall identity, we’re talking about ALL visual aspects that make up a brand’s look and feel (logo, colors, used fonts, style of photographs/imagery used, etc.).

Characteristics of an Effective Logo 

It is simple

Most often, the best logos are simple. They are legible, clear and don’t include unnecessary elements. You want to get your message through efficiently and immediately.

It is relevant

Are your chosen colors, fonts and symbols appropriate for your niche? Is your logo meaningful and does it connect with your target audience?

It is memorable

Is there anything you can change or add to your logo so that it can stick out in your potential customer’s mind amongst your competition? If you can’t think of a specific thing to change in your logo, think of it in terms of your brand’s overall identity.

It is timeless

To ensure that your logo will be able to stand the test of time, stay away from visual trends. Refrain from using imagery, fonts or colors that are specific of any one time period, unless this is specifically what your business is going for (vintage products, etc.). You want your logo to last for a long time!

It is versatile

Your logo design has to work on all types of media you will be creating. It has to be easy to use and legible at its smallest size.

It is unique

Is your logo aesthetically pleasing and easily identifiable? Does your play of color, shape, and style set you apart from your competition in some way?

10 Tips to Make Your Logo Look Professional

1. Build off a solid foundation.

Define your ideal audience, your business objectives (both short and long-term), as well as your values. This, in itself, requires a lot of thought and vast research about your competition.

Before you start designing, write down three words that describe your brand’s personality/attitude and have these in mind throughout the entire process.

2. Use references but NEVER, EVER copy them!

Designers use references of all types both to get inspired AND to ensure they don’t use an idea that has already been put out there by someone else.

Create a “reference” folder for yourself and include 3-5 logos that you like. Pinpoint what it is, exactly, that you like about them. Is it the color, the font style, the placement? Try to apply these points you like things in your own new way.

Look at what your competition is doing and think of ways that you can be different from them. Don’t ever design a logo with a particular style just because it’s what all the popular business owners in your niche seem to be doing!

Try to stay as original as possible to YOU, and don’t allow yourself to be influenced by trends. This will help you attract the audience you want.

3. Make sure your fonts complement each other.

If you’re using different fonts within your logo, make sure they play well together. Usually, fonts that pair well have a good amount of contrast between them but are also similar in some ways.

For example, a font that is highly stylized and handwritten could pair up with a font that is very simple and mechanical. Or perhaps one word is a thick sans serif font and the other is a thin serif.

However, just because two fonts are very different from each other, doesn’t necessarily mean that they will pair up well. There also has to be SOMETHING similar between them, which can be the kerning, proportions, etc.

Pairing fonts can be difficult for someone with an untrained eye. If you’re unsure, stick to fonts from the same family or simply use one.

4. Ensure legibility, over all things.

Stay away from fonts that are illegible. No matter how beautiful a font may be initially if it isn’t legible when you use it to type out your company’s name, it won’t work!

Think about the smallest size you will be using your logo in. Will you be able to read it? Are there any letters that could be misunderstood by your public?

5. If you use a symbol or any type of imagery, make sure it’s simple and clean.

If you decide to add any symbols or icons to your logo, make them simple. Use, at most, 2-3 different colors and stay away from gradients/effects.

When creating your symbols or icons, use grids and geometric shapes to ensure accurate curves and angles. This will ensure a clean effect and that it will work at its minimum size.

6. Make sure you use fonts and elements you have permission to use.

Always, ALWAYS, make sure you buy your fonts and any elements you will be including in your logo (or make them yourself). Also, make sure that the font and license you buy includes the use you will be giving to it. The last thing you want is to get in trouble for using something in a way you shouldn’t be!

7. Flip your logo upside down.

This is a trick used by the pros! By turning your logo upside down, your brain will see only shapes instead of specific letters and/or symbols. It’s a great way to make sure your logo doesn’t contain any imperfections or shapes that you may not have intended to create!

8. Don’t finish your logo in one sitting.

Designing a logo is a process and you want to end up with something you will use for years to come. Don’t rush! Take at least a month from the moment you start brainstorming to the moment you finish your brand book (more about this in a moment).

Just because you feel you’ve come up with something nice one day, doesn’t mean you’ll like it next week! I recommend working on it off an on throughout several weeks. This will ensure that the design is something that you’ll like for a long time.

Also, I highly recommend getting feedback from others before making your final call. Getting other people’s perspective is extremely valuable!

9. Above all, keep things simple.

Remember your logo is going to be used in combination with many other visual elements that will be making up your overall brand identity (colors, photos, etc.). You do not want to over-saturate and overwhelm your audience. Keep it simple, classy and professional.

10. Create at least a simple brand book

Brand books are important because they keep a company’s image coherent and consistent throughout all marketing efforts as well as products sold. They are especially useful when a business starts growing, as they make sure a brand’s image guidelines are respected and enforced.

A brand book is not difficult to create. Once you have arrived at your logo, have defined the fonts, colors and photo style you’ll be using throughout your website/blog, I highly recommend making one!

Fill out the form below to get access to the brand book checklist!

To finish up, I want to say that creating your logo and brand identity is totally doable. Yes, it requires research and effort, and you would definitely benefit from getting feedback from a professional designer. However, you shouldn’t let your lack of resources keep you from getting started!

About Erika

Erika Lancaster spends most of her waking hours using traditional art media to create both commercial illustration work and decorative fine art. When she’s not in her studio, she’s likely to be teaching about art and encouraging others to pursue their own creative paths. After having obtained her BA in Graphic Design, Erika gained experience working as both in-house designer for companies as well as advertising agencies. Years later, she left her last full-time design position to become a teaching artist. Throughout her years working in the field of art education, she has continued designing for select clients and is currently applying her branding and advertising expertise to grow her own creative business.

Connect with Erika on her blog, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Pinterest.