Do you ever feel completely and utterly overwhelmed by the number of templates, colors, fonts, and features in Canva? Do you ever spend hours staring at your screen, second-guessing yourself and wondering if your graphic looks like it was drawn by a toddler? Do you ever completely lose yourself and end up with a creation that doesn’t align with your brand identity?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, don’t sweat it – we’ve all been there! Countless designers struggle with Canva’s multitude of options – because, let’s face it – there are a lot! However, there is a way to tackle this. I’ve made a step-by-step guide to help get you started on your Canva journey in a way that streamlines your process. Does that sound good to you? Let’s jump right in!

Step-by-Step Process to Becoming Better and Faster in Canva

Step 1: define your brand identity

Whilst it might be tempting to go straight into Canva, the first step will lay the foundation for a good design: establishing your brand identity by considering your brand’s core values, audience base, and visual style.

Consider which colors, fonts, and imagery best reflect your brand’s personality. Defining this from the outset can help you navigate your design element choices more easily and ensure consistency across your graphics.

Step 2: Set up your Brand Kit

Now that you have your brand identity, you must set up your Canva Brand Kit. In this kit, you can save your brand fonts, colors, and other design elements, so you’ll never be without them again! Store them all in one convenient location and apply them consistently across all your designs to save time in the long run.

Step 3: Get organized with folders

If you’re a planner, you’ll love this step. After all, once you create more and more designs, it can be easy to get completely overwhelmed by the number of files you have. Enter Canva folders. Sorting your files into folders can help you keep everything sorted in places where you can find them. Whether you have blog graphics, social media posts, client projects, or marketing materials, there’s no reason for them all to be jumbled together. Sort them into folders and smoothen your workflow management!

Step 4: Set up projects

I recommend setting up individual projects within the Canva platform if you’re conducting a more extensive project. This feature enables you to group related designs to easily manage and adjust them collectively.

For example, if you’ve got a big product launch coming up, your project could include all graphics related to this campaign, from promotional banners to social media posts.

Step 5: Make use of the templates

Canva is renowned for its incredible library of templates – so why not take advantage of it? Templates can speed up your designing time like nobody’s business and also help you maintain consistency. Simply scan the library for templates that match your brand’s style and customize them with your brand colors, fonts, and graphics. Save the edited templates for future use so you never have to make another one!

Step 6: Stay organized

Staying organized is sometimes easier said than done, but there are some features aside from folders to help you out. For example, you could regularly clean up your dashboard by removing unused designs and archiving old projects you’re no longer working on. Cut the clutter and find what you really need!

Step 7: Get clued up on shortcuts

Knowing your shortcuts will save you a noteworthy amount of time – you won’t believe how much more efficient your workflow can become! From your copy to your paste, to adding text to adding a line, there are a couple of shortcuts you should familiarize yourself with to boost your productivity in Canva.

Become Better and Faster at Canva Designs Today

I will unashamedly point you to my Canva Quick Start Playbook to make your design journey even easier. This handy guide provides actionable steps, tutorials, and tips to help you become the Canva queen you’ve always dreamed of.

Remember, becoming an expert on Canva doesn’t have to be daunting. By following my step-by-step guide above, you can transform your experience on Canva – and it will hopefully soon become more enjoyable than overwhelming!

If this seems like something you could get on board with, comment “PLAYBOOK” on my Instagram post, and I’ll send you the link. Plus, as always, feel free to reach out to me with any questions. Happy designing, lovely people!