Designing Business Cards with Canva? Read This First!

Now this post is not directly related to social media, but I chose to share this guide since it could be useful to every professional – whether social or not.

As I was recently working with Canva on my new business cards, I came across few things to add to Canva’s awesome, easy-to-follow guide. 

Source: canva.com

But before I get to these points, it’s important to note why Canva. While there are thousands of templates to choose from when buying business cards, the easy way is typically not the most effective way. A business card is the reflection of you and your business and that’s unique right? Therefore, your business card should be unique as well. If you can’t do magic with Photoshop, Canva is your to-go website. Even though Canva’s guide is pretty good, there are few additional things to know that the guide won’t tell you.

1. Don’t settle for the template. 

Don’t go for the easiest route and just change the text and a logo. You can use the template, but at least change the colors, fonts, and visuals to reflect your brand’s uniqueness. Playing with the layout may be more tricky and time-consuming, but it’s well worth it.

2. Get inspired.

I spent a good hour searching the web for different business card design ideas. Take your time reading through the articles with business card inspirations. Here is one of my favorites that is sure to get you inspired and make you smile.

3. Remember the best practices.

No matter what you do, always always always check for the best practices. Did you know that on average, prospects keep a color card 10 times longer than a standard card? Check out this fantastic infographic to learn more about what works and what doesn’t.

4. When done, save your creation as a pdf not an image!

If you save your work as an image and then try to print it, it will be blurry. Save it in pdf and you can always convert it to an image if necessary (make sure you save it in the best quality possible).

5. What you see is not what you get.

The colors you see on your screen won’t be printed exactly as such. Typically the color will print darker than you see on your computer screen, so make sure you take that into consideration. If you are using colorful background for instance, make sure there is enough contrast between the font and the background.

Now go give it a try, it’s free! 

Create Professional LinkedIn Background in Minutes

Following in Facebook’s and Twitter’s footsteps, LinkedIn recently enabled its users to add a cover photo to their profile. Currently this feature is available to the LinkedIn Premium users and some free users, but we can expect this to soon be “fun for all”. If you want your Linkedin profile to stand out but don’t have a designer background, this article is for you.

1. Create a free account on canva.com, it takes a minute (you only need your e-mail, no payment information is needed)

2.  Once logged in, you’ll see “Start a new design page”. On the right side, you’ll see “use custom dimensions” option (see pic below) and click on it.

3. Once you clicked on “use custom dimensions”, the table will pop up asking for width and height dimensions. For width, input 1400 and height 425. From the dropdown menu, choose px (pixels). See pic below.

4. Once you have it filled out per step #3, click Design! button.

5. New tab or pop up will open. You can then either use keywords in “search” to find the background that fits what you are looking for (i.e. if you are in healthcare, type “health” or “healthcare” in search etc.). Many items are free and some are just a $1. You can create a lot for free! You can also upload files from your computer or Facebook by clicking “Uploads” on left hand side. (see pic below).

6. You can add text and background as well, which is what I did for my LinkedIn background. You will want to spend some time playing with it, especially if you are going to add text. Do not close your canva page even when you think you are finished, as most likely you’ll want to make changes. Close it only after you upload it to your LinkedIn profile and are satisfied with it.

7. When you are done with creating your background on canva, click “download or link”, then “image” and it’d open the “save as” pop up for you. You just save it as a picture wherever you’d like it on your computer to be saved (pic below).

8. Once saved, go to your LinkedIn profile, click edit, then “edit background” and “change image” or “new image” if you don’t have any yet. Upload your canva creation and click “save changes”. Don’t forget to save changes as otherwise it won’t save your new background. You’re done! Here is my free canva creation. Have fun!