Video Transcript
Hi, today I’m going to show you how to design using the Canva platform. To begin, you click on “Create a design” in the upper-left-hand corner. This will bring you to a variety of templates organized by genre. Choose the genre you want to work in and then the specific template you’d like to work with. As I mentioned in the text, you want to be sure to preface this activity with a conversation about template use with your students. You might even ask them to screenshot the original template they choose so they can compare this with their final result to consider how transformative their adaptations have been. The interface is easy in that all elements of the design are clickable, delete-able, movable, and editable. I can easily change the size of the text, the and its positioning by just working within this editing workspace. I can also change the background. I can create new colors and edit font here as well. Typing in Canva operates a lot like typing in Microsoft Powerpoint. And you can hit Ctrl+Z to undo any unintended actions. I’ll just edit the text a bit for you now.
The media bank on the left-hand side provides design elements that can be added: shapes for textboxes which can be resized and colorized (I’ll show you that). There are also text and designed text-clusters which can be ungrouped and edited—and you can see there is a large variety of those. When you select it, it appears, and it is editable, and I’ll show you what that editing process looks like. You might have noticed this, but as elements are dragged around the workspace, alignment guidance helps users see when things are centered and aligned which is a helpful feature especially if you are integrating texts that bring up alignment as a method of design.
There are different types of images that can be added: they can be searched by type like “icons,” “shapes,” “lines”; or, you can search by topic. There are realistic images like the computer photo that I’m adding. But, as you can see, as I scroll, some media are labeled “free” while others say “Pro” or have a specific US dollar amount. You’ll want to warn students to be careful in the media they chose to add. If they select a dollar amount, they won’t be made aware of that again until they go to download or share their design and then they’ll be frustrated. You can also ad illustrated icons. I’ll add this network image. And like the text, icons are re-sizable and colors can be edited to match scheme of the overall text. Like other platforms, I can copy over text to create a consistent design. When they are ready to distribute their texts, they can go to download and have a number of options of file types. They can also share it on social media, embed it, or provide a link. When they work as a group, they can also complete asynchronous editing during the designing process. This information is available under “Share” in the top-right-hand corner. Overall, Canva is a friendly interface, it’s potentially free for students, and makes design approachable for beginners who are just starting to enact methods of visual design.
The media bank on the left-hand side provides design elements that can be added: shapes for textboxes which can be resized and colorized (I’ll show you that). There are also text and designed text-clusters which can be ungrouped and edited—and you can see there is a large variety of those. When you select it, it appears, and it is editable, and I’ll show you what that editing process looks like. You might have noticed this, but as elements are dragged around the workspace, alignment guidance helps users see when things are centered and aligned which is a helpful feature especially if you are integrating texts that bring up alignment as a method of design.
There are different types of images that can be added: they can be searched by type like “icons,” “shapes,” “lines”; or, you can search by topic. There are realistic images like the computer photo that I’m adding. But, as you can see, as I scroll, some media are labeled “free” while others say “Pro” or have a specific US dollar amount. You’ll want to warn students to be careful in the media they chose to add. If they select a dollar amount, they won’t be made aware of that again until they go to download or share their design and then they’ll be frustrated. You can also ad illustrated icons. I’ll add this network image. And like the text, icons are re-sizable and colors can be edited to match scheme of the overall text. Like other platforms, I can copy over text to create a consistent design. When they are ready to distribute their texts, they can go to download and have a number of options of file types. They can also share it on social media, embed it, or provide a link. When they work as a group, they can also complete asynchronous editing during the designing process. This information is available under “Share” in the top-right-hand corner. Overall, Canva is a friendly interface, it’s potentially free for students, and makes design approachable for beginners who are just starting to enact methods of visual design.