Creating Designs in Canva

Course contents
SECTION: 2
Project 1 - Social Post Design 3:51
SECTION: 11
Project 3 - Proposal Document 2:30

Questions

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Course info

85 lessons / 8 hours 23 quiz questions 20 projects Certificate of achievement

Overview


Welcome to the Canva Design Essentials course! Led by professional designer Dan Scott, this course is your gateway to mastering Canva and building a strong foundation in design principles. Whether you’re new to design or looking to sharpen your skills, you’ll learn how to create impactful, real-world designs with ease.

With 17 years of professional design experience and multiple teaching awards, Dan has taught over a million students worldwide. His hands-on approach and industry insights make learning engaging and accessible, empowering you to reach your creative potential.

You’ll learn:
  • - Design Fundamentals
- Social Media & Marketing Graphics
- Logo Design & Branding
- Create Professional Documents & Presentations
- Learn how to Edit Video
- Canva’s AI Features

This course is ideal for beginners in Canva and design, whether you’re a teacher, student, small business owner, or aspiring designer. With step-by-step instructions, you’ll gain confidence in creating visuals that communicate effectively and look professional.

Take the first step toward becoming a Canva Hero—sign up now to transform your design skills!

Requirements:
  • - All you need is a free Canva account. You can get a free trial from Canva here to get started.

Who this course is for:
  • - Absolutely no previous Canva experience is required.
  • - This course is designed for newcomers to Canva and design in general, so no prior design experience is necessary.
  • - This is a relaxed, well-paced introduction, perfect for producing a wide range of projects. Only basic computer skills are necessary - if you can send emails and surf the internet, you're more than capable of mastering this course.

What you'll learn:
  • - Creating Designs in Canva
    - Working with Free & Paid Images in Canva
    - How to Crop Photos in Canva
    - How to Crop with Frames in Canva
    - How to Name Your Canva Documents Right
    - Uploading Your Own Images into Canva
    - Where to Get Free Photos for Canva
    - Understanding Workspaces
    - Squares, Circles + Layers & Position
    - How to Export a JPG & PNG from Canva
    - Mixing Colors in Canva
    - Design Styles & Color Palettes in Canva
    - Working with Text & Fonts in Canva
    - Adding Drop Shadows to Text in Canva
    - Curving Text Around a Badge
    - Group, Lock & Aligning Elements in Canva
    - Creating Dotted & Arrowed Lines with Text
    - Modifying Shapes in Canva
    - Changing Color of Graphics & Collections
    - Editing the Background Remover Tool
    - AI Image Generator with Magic Media in Canva
    - Mockups in Canva
    - Testing & Posting on Your Phone for Instagram
    - Editing Canva Designs on Your Phone
    - Using Canva Template Logos
    - MoodBoard WhiteBoard Brainstorm
    - Using Markup Tools, Stickies, Comments & Sharing
    - Logo Competitor Analysis in Canva
    - Designing a Custom Logo in Canva
    - Picking Fonts for Your Logo
    - Choosing Logo Colors
    - Using Gradients in Canva
    - Understanding Brand Kits
    - Light, Dark & Stacked Versions of Your Logo
    - Working with a Word Style Doc in Canva
    - Font Combinations & Pairing in Canva
    - Changing Text Styles in Canva
    - Styling Tables in Canva
    - Designing Header Banners in Canva Docs
    - Using Highlight Blocks, Dividers & Quotes in Canva Docs
    - Presentation Templates & Styles in Canva
    - Using Layouts in Presentations in Canva
    - Page Transitions in Presentations
    - Animating Pages & Page Elements
    - Creating Charts in Canva
    - Adding QR Codes in Canva
    - Adjusting Images in Canva
    - Darkening Images for Text Overlays
    - Using Magic Eraser in Canva
    - Magic Edit in Canva
    - Magic Expand in Canva
    - Trimming Video in Canva
    - Applying Video Filters & Adjustments
    - Animating Text & Changing Timing in Canva
    - Changing Stickers & Adding Motion Effects
    - Animating Photos in Canva
    - Finding Free Videos for Canva
    - Exporting Video for Social Media in Canva

Daniel Scott

Daniel Scott

Founder of Bring Your Own Laptop & Chief Instructor

instructor

I discovered the world of design as an art student when I stumbled upon a lab full of green & blue iMac G3’s. My initial curiosity around using the computer to create ‘art’ developed into a full-blown passion, eventually leading me to become a digital designer and founder of Bring Your Own Laptop.

Sharing and teaching are a huge part of who I am. As a certified Adobe instructor, I've had the honor of winning multiple Adobe teaching awards at their annual MAX conference. I see Bring Your Own Laptop as the supportive community I wished for when I was first starting out and intimidated by design. Through teaching, I hope to bring others along for the ride and empower my students to bring their stories, labors of love, and art into the world.
True to my Kiwi roots, I've lived in many places, and currently, I reside in Ireland with my wife and kids.

Certificates

We’re awarding certificates for this course!

Check out the How to earn your certificate video for instructions on how to earn yours and click the available certificate levels below for more information.

How to earn your certificate

Work your way towards your certificate for this course by following these simple steps.

  • Watch the course videos
  • Complete the Class Projects - look out for the videos marked with
  • Upload your class projects into the My Projects area in your account
  • Complete and pass the Knowledge Quiz (Merit level courses only)
  • Complete the Distinction Certificate Project (Distinction level courses only) - look out for the video marked with
  • Upload your Distinction project to the My Projects area in your account
  • Request your certificate when you've completed the requirements for the certificate level you're working towards

Good luck!

Pass certificates

We're awarding 'Pass' level certificates for this course.

You can work your way towards your 'Pass' certificate by following these simple steps.

  • Watch the course videos
  • Complete the Class Projects - look out for the videos marked with
  • Upload your class projects into the My Projects area in your account
  • Don't forget to request your certificate when all your projects are complete

Good luck!

Merit certificates

We're awarding 'Merit' level certificates for this course.

You can work your way towards your 'Merit' certificate by following these simple steps.

  • Watch the course videos
  • Complete the Class Projects - look out for the videos marked with
  • Upload your class projects into the My Projects area in your account
  • Complete and pass the Knowledge Quiz
  • Don't forget to request your certificate when you have passed the quiz and completed all your projects

Good luck!

Distinction certificates

We're awarding 'Distinction' level certificates for this course.

You can work your way towards your 'Distinction' certificate by following these simple steps.

  • Watch the course videos
  • Complete the Class Projects - look out for the videos marked with
  • Upload your class projects into the My Projects area in your account
  • Complete and pass the Knowledge Quiz
  • Complete the Distinction Certificate Project - look out for the video marked with
  • Upload your Distinction project to the My Projects area in your account
  • Don't forget to request your certificate when you have passed the quiz and completed all your projects

Good luck!

Downloads & Exercise files

Transcript

Hello. Hey, in this video we have been asked  to do our first project, okay? For our clients. It's gonna be an Instagram post. Now, even if you're not doing social media in Canva, a lot  of us are, but even if you aren't, the skills are the same  that we're going to learn  for doing print ready stuff and video. But I figured Instagram's a good place to get started.

And very excitingly, we're gonna create a  big blank document. I'll show you how to make them and I'll show you  how important it is to kind of pick the format first,  because then Canva gives you relevant suggested templates  that you can start from, plus a tiny bit  of navigating the system. Alright, let's jump in and make a big blank document. Very exciting. Alright, let's make our post. Now I'm on my home tabs here on the top here,  and I've clicked on the little home button as well.

We're kind of like this welcome screen. This will change. Literally last week the created design button was over  there, so yours might be moved around as well. And one of the things that were a little bit confusing  for me when I got started is say I want  to create an Instagram square post. Oh look, there's a button. Yours might not be there.

What happens is they kind  of change it depending on your kind of use case. Let's say we do have it and we click on it, okay? It opens up in a tab  and gives us a blank Instagram square box. Or if I go back to the home screen there  and I go, actually, I wanna create a design this time  and to be under social media  and I want it to be an Instagram square post. You're like, oh, which way is better? It doesn't matter.

You end up at the exact same place. There are so many ways of making a document in Canva,  but they all lead to the same place. Same with this. If I go hit this little plus button  and I go, oh look, Instagram Square Post is that different? Nope, same, same, same, same. There are a couple other ways of doing it,  but we end up in the same kind of finished result part now.

Um, before we get in  and make our own stuff, one  of the first things you're kind of shown is templates. What it does is it looks at the size of the page  that you've made and goes, Hey, you want an Instagram post? Guess what? I got loads of templates that fit that shape  and a kind of suitable for, you know, an Instagram post. So these templates here will change depending  on what you've created. If you said, I wanna make an Instagram post, Hey Presto,  we've got a whole bunch of templates  for Instagram posts if you want something different, okay?

You gotta just be very intentional when you make a new  document and you say, all right, I want a phone wallpaper. It's gonna give you templates based on  what might be a very good phone wallpaper. If you can't see the templates, okay,  if I click on the word design, okay, there is an option  to click on it and close it down. You wanna open it back up, you just hover above it. Or if you click it once it opens for good  and you gotta close it down with a little cross. So if you can't find it, match away at this.

You'll eventually see it. Now to apply a template,  let's go back to one of these first ones I made. Let's go through and let's do a search. Let's do say cafe. Okay? And it's gonna give me templates based on cafe.

So I'm gonna click on this. Ooh, that looks cool. Okay, so I've got my cafe templates. I can now go through, click on it, start changing the text  to okay, our own brand  and we can start making adjustments. Now, while templates are great to get started,  they can be a little bit confusing as well  'cause you don't really know how things are created. So we're gonna go through, make stuff ourselves,  build it all up from scratch so that  You can make your own templates  and so that you can start using other  people's templates like a boss.

Lastly, before we wrap up, let's close down all  of the tabs that we've opened up. You just hit the little cross in the corners here,  or Ctrl W on a Mac, CTRL W on a PC to close 'em all down. And we should only have the Canva tab open. I've brought you back to here because can you see here a  whole bunch of untitled documents? Okay, that's 'cause when I was clicking on Instagram post  the few times it's gonna made a whole  bunch of documents, okay? And they're just called untitled, not very good.

So it's gonna clean everything up by going to,  let's do this first one here is a move  to trash button, okay? And you can do it all for the ones that we just created. If you are following along,  I'm gonna hit the ticks in all the corners to say I want all  of these, these are lots  of things I was messing around with, okay? All of them. Can you see it on the bottom here? I'm gonna hit the trash can so  that all of these go into the trash.

Now we're nice and tidy again, and we can get started. Alright, I'll see you the next video.
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