Canva is not a tool I personally use a lot, however its a tool that is very accessible to people who are not designers and those who do not have access to design programmes such as Adobe Creative Suite. In a way, Canva bridges the gap between design and non-professionals.
Saying that, I see so many ´designs´ that take my mind on a little spiral of the easy and quick ways in which they could be much better!
I am sharing some very basic design tips that can be applied on Canva (and not only) - this is perfect if you are someone who is simply trying to share their services and doesn't necessarily have the resources for professional help.
Fonts
Choosing a font should be one of the first things you consider (once you go over the audience aspects - who, what, why). Having a clean and readable font is one of the most important things when it comes to the user experience.
A good practice is to have both serif and san serif fonts, as you see on this blog - it separates the headings and the body text nicely. Having two fonts automatically helps our brain to break the content into separate parts.
Font Size
This might sound like a no brainer, but I often see a design that looks nice, however the font size is either too small or too large - making the content very tricky to digest. Its important to find nice balance to make sure the space that we have is used well and for the reader to be able to quickly get an idea of what they are looking at (attention spam is very short nowadays). It is important to have headings to break the text up a little. The heading should be slightly bigger than the body text but not too much, especially when they are in a different font.
(Look at the difference above when applying some of the basics mentioned in this article)
Paragraphs
You don’t want them too long or too short. There needs to be a perfect balance in-between. Think about your own experience, what is the amount of text you can read in one paragraph before you get bored? How much is too much?
Not only are we very visual creatures - meaning that its nice to have the paragraphs broken up into similar sizes. We also have a short attention spam (unfortunately), meaning that the longer the paragraph, the more likely it is that the reader will start daydreaming as they are reading the content. This applies to all designs - whether its a flyer, IG post, ebook etc.
Margins
It is important to have enough space around the pages content for a clean and breathable feel. If you have the text very close to the edge of the page, try adding more space around it and you will very quickly see how the design looks a lot more professional, just by making this one change.
I recommend having the same margins throughout the document.
Colours
In my personal opinion, the cleaner the colours - the better the experience. Having your own branding is important not only for people to recognise it but also for consistency, this not only includes a logo but also brand colours. If you need help with branding, you can feel out my design application here.
However, if this isn't something that you have, it is even more important to have neutral colours as it is very easy to get carried away and the next thing we know - we have a mixture of colours that may not necessarily even go with one another.
Need help?
Check out my design page here or reach out here.