Self-design without experience

Wednesday, July 16, we met again at Websters for an Inspiration Talk. This time we went creative with Canva.

Canva is an accessible online design tool that allows you to create professional-looking visuals without a graphic design background. You can start with a pre-made template or completely design something yourself from scratch.

Catherine of Kousenonline shared how she uses Canva for her business. Chayenne dived into the more technical side of designing, and Femke showed how to apply all this in practice.

Using Canva as a business

Catherine from kousenonline.be was our guest speaker for the evening, taking us behind the scenes of her business. She showed everyone how Canva has become an integral part of her daily operation, not only professionally but also privately.

In fact, she designs wrapping materials, social media posts, Christmas cards and so much more in Canva. What Catherine finds most useful about the tool? That she can quickly create something herself that looks professional and aligns perfectly with her brand.

Design tips from Chayenne

Our in-house designer, Chayenne, gave some practical tips for creating better designs during the session:

• Visual hierarchy: Make sure the most important elements stand out first.

• White space: Leaving enough white space makes your design look calmer and your content stand out better.

• Contrast and color: Think about color combinations and how to use them to direct attention.

• Consistency: Create familiarity through repetition of style elements, patterns and visual rhythms.

• Reading direction: Consider natural viewing patterns such as the Z or F structure. Place important information in strategic places, where the user's eye naturally moves first.

• Movement & dynamics: Even in a still image, you can make movement or dynamics palpable.

Some practical examples and cool sh!t

Femke, who regularly works with Canva as a content marketer, created these examples to show how you can get creative with Canva yourself.

What makes it extra interesting is that Canva now also has powerful AI tools built in. With these you can, for example, remove backgrounds, create mock-ups and much more. It is definitely worth experimenting with these yourself, as the possibilities are endless.

On to the next

Our next Inspiration Talk is already scheduled for Sept. 4: "SEO for AI, how does it work? We'll take a closer look at how to optimize your website, blog or content in a world where AI helps determine search results. What will change? Where are the opportunities? And how do you respond smartly to the new rules of online findability?

You don't want to miss it! You can register on our website: https://www.websters.be/en/inspiration-talks/en