Us designers often look down on Canva a little, but like all tools, they have their place. It can be a pretty useful tool, especially for beginners who want to create great-looking designs without needing pro-level software. But once you’ve got the basics down, there are a few good habits you can build that’ll make your life easier and your work look even more polished. So we wrote this blog, Canva for beginners…

Here are five simple hints and tricks to help you get the most out of Canva.

1. Keep Your Canva Workspace Organised

When you’re creating lots of designs for school, work, or social media, things can get messy quite fast. That’s why it’s a good idea to build a habit of staying organised right from the start.

Start by naming your files clearly. For example: Event_Flyer_July or ProductLaunch_Instagram_Story.

This helps when you’re searching later, especially if you’ve got dozens of projects in your account. Also, make use of folders (if you have the Canva Pro feature) in group related projects, such as: by client, or content type.

Staying tidy in Canva doesn’t just make it easier to find things it also saves time, keeps your workflow smooth, and helps you stay focused on the creative part instead of digging around for lost work.

2. Use Grids and Alignment Tools

Canva’s built-in alignment tools are your best friend. Alignment is a simple thing you can do to make your designs look more pro. When dragging elements, purple lines will pop up to help you centre things or space them evenly. Better yet, use grids and frames to keep layouts consistent. This works especially well for photo-heavy designs like portfolios or Instagram carousels.

3. Stick to a Colour Scheme

It’s tempting to play with all the colours, however, keeping your designs to 2–3 main colours (ideally from a colour palette) helps everything look cleaner and more professional. If you have a brand, try using the Brand Kit to create your colour palette.

4. Use Styles and Text Hierarchy

Don’t use five different fonts on one design. It’s best to pick one or two, and use font size, weight, and spacing to create clear visual hierarchy to help the reader navigate the design easily, and highlight the key messages you want people to remember. Canva offers Text Styles (like Headings, Subheadings, Body Text) that you can reuse to keep your design consistent across pages or projects.

5. Use Templates as a Starting Point, Not the Final Design

Canva has thousands of templates but instead of using one as-is, try using them as a starting point. Customise the colours, fonts, and layout to fit your own style or brand. That way, your design feels unique rather than run of the mill.

Canva makes design tools accessible to everyone, but developing a few good habits early on can really improve your work over time. It’ll help you stay organised, look more professional, and feel more confident creating work on your own. We hope you enjoyed, Canva for beginners.

Of course a tool can’t replace a professional, experienced designer (there’s more to design than a tool), but it can help you immensely in the right setting.

Ben

Caffeine Creative are an experienced team based in the Cardiff area. We help with graphic design, web development, company values, social media, branding and more. To know more please contact us.