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Writer's pictureJo Draper

How to get started with your Canva Brand kit for creative designs

Updated: Jan 4, 2023

Confession: I don't only use one brand kit!


This is a totally true fact. I actually have between 15-20 brand kits currently sitting in my Canva account.


Without me having access to all of this information, I would be back and forth to a Google Drive, a Dropbox account, a Trello board, an Asana board or anywhere else that my amazing clients keep their brand assets.


In this blog, you will learn how to get started with your Canva brand kit, even if you are using the free version of Canva


What is a brand kit?


A brand kit is a short, easy to read and follow guide to your brand’s (your personal brand or your business brand) visual identity. It will be a quick reference to understanding the logos, colours, fonts, and messaging that represent your brand, as well as any graphics and patterns that you use.


When you are working with others, for example; a virtual assistant, a web designer etc, you can share your full brand kit via a PDF document.


You can even set your brand's colour palette, upload your fonts (if you have paid fonts), and store your logo right in Canva for easy access while you are creating your designs.


Why should I use the brand kit in Canva?


It saves time: having your logo, your watermarks, your fonts and your HEX codes (or colour palette) accessible makes it easier to work on your designs.


You can be more organised: it can help if you purchase Canva templates or are part of a membership such as Ivory Mix or Biz Template Babe (I’m a member of both of these amazing memberships and I absolutely love them - these are my affiliate links and I will get a little back from both but it won’t cost you any more).


Makes the design process easier: when using Canva templates even inside the program, you can easily change the colours and fonts within your design if you have your brand kit setup.


DID YOU KNOW: the nature of a routine is the repetition of the same pattern over and over again so, eventually, you do it without even thinking about it?


This is the goal of getting organised with your Canva brand kit.


How to set up your Canva brand kit


Organising is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.” ~ A A Milne

Open up Canva, log in to your account and click onto Brand Kits

Click on + Add Brand Kit

Give your Brand Kit a name - I usually use my business name (Live Virtually) or a product name if I’m creating one for a service


Add in your logo (you can add multiple - I add in my watermark designs here too).


Upload any paid fonts that you have and add them in as Heading, Sub-Heading and Body.


HOT TIP: I tend to leave my script font out of the fonts as the styles can get a little messy but feel free to try it out - yours may look OK.


Add in your brand colours (HEX codes) and you’re ready to go.


Click onto Create a design and choose what you need or open up a Canva template that you have downloaded.


To change it to your style, head to the Styles tab on the left hand side (if you can’t see it, hit …More at the bottom to find it)


Click on one of your fonts and it will change that page - to change the whole design (if you have more than one page), click on ‘apply to all pages’ which you should see at the bottom.


Do the same with the colours or change them one at a time.


HOT TIP: if you need to change your brand kit over, there should be a little arrow next to the business or product name - drop it down and choose the one you need to work with.


Are you working with the free version of Canva?


The Canva brand kit allows one logo and three colours to be added. However, you cannot add your fonts or upload any paid fonts.


If you are using the free version, I would recommend having your brand kit in a mood board or document that you can easily access.


If you are using a paid font, it would be extremely helpful to upgrade to Canva Pro.


If you want to try out Canva Pro for 30 days (for free), please feel free to use my affiliate link - I will get a small amount from Canva but it doesn’t cost you anything more.


If you are interested in a Trello or ClickUp board to keep all your brand assets in one place, I am in the process of putting a new product together (which will have a couple of extra Canva templates) - please let me know in the comments or send an email to jo@livevirtually.com.au if you are interested in learning more (it’s going to be around $27 AUD).


This is something that my members in Live Love Manifest are learning how to do and use.


What others are saying about our Canva training and working with us.


“I already used Canva quite a bit for my business but I knew there was more I could learn so I attended Jo's Canva workshop. I absolutely loved it, Jo is such a beautiful being, she shared heaps of great tips and tricks and I've become so much more efficient at using Canva. Not to mention the beautiful templates I walked away with.”


- Michelle Anderson, The Tidy Effect


Ready to get some help?


If you are a course creator or coach ready to outsource your graphics and documents, and you don’t want to pay for Canva Pro and you haven’t got the time to spend learning ‘all the things’ that Canva has to offer, let alone uploading your Canva brand kit;


Don’t worry beautiful soul, I’ve got you covered!


Our Live Love Magical packages - Fairy Dust, Fairy Tale and Fairy Godmother - are going to help you with all your course, membership and coaching graphics and documents.


Are you ready to get your bespoke graphics and documents so that you can stand out from the crowd?


Head to our website to learn more about how we can help you.


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