CANVA GUIDE FOR NAF SOCIAL MEDIA ASSETS

WHAT IS CANVA?

Canva (www.canva.com) is a free online tool that can be used to design and share simple graphics on platforms

including Facebook, Twitter, and more. In addition to social media graphics, Canva can be used to make

documents such as fliers or presentations, blog graphics, and infographics. NAF developed a series of template

social graphics that you can use to customize social media outreach.

While Canva is great tool with tons of features, the basic instructional guide below will cover using the NAF assets

in Canva for social media. There are plenty of online tutorials that provide more in-depth instructions on utilizing

other aspects of Canva. For instance, Canva’s “design school” tutorials and other interactive guides

AVAILABLE ASSETS

The assets created specifically for Canva include two social grids

designs—a quote bubble and business recruitment message–with

different sizing options for Twitter or Facebook. Each social grid

template provides a white space footer for customization. When

using social grids in Canva, you can choose how to use the white

space box—to insert logos, add your URL, or insert additional

text.

Templates Sized for Facebook

Templates Sized for Twitter

Templates

1) Blank quote bubble

2) A selected NAF board member quote

3) Call to action directed at potential

internship providers

USING CANVA (THE BASICS)

STEP 1: CREATE YOUR ACCOUNT

Visit www.canva.com

and sign-up for a free account.

STEP 2: CHOOSE YOUR “DESIGN”

TEMPLATE

To get started, choose a “Design”

template. Under the header for Social

Media Posts, you should see templates

for creating a Twitter Post and

Facebook Post. For this example, we’ll

be creating a Facebook Post:

STEP 3: START DESIGNING

Once you’ve selected your template,

you’ll now be in your Canva editor

where you will design your graphic.

You can also name your design by

clicking on the title and typing in your

preferred name.

STEP 4: INCORPORATE THE NAF ASSETS

Start by adding the background. Since

you’ll be adding an image as the

background, you’ll need to first apply a

grid.

• Click on the “Elements” tab in the

object panel on the left side of your

screen

• Select the “Grids” icon and click the

grid without partitions

Next, add the NAF background image:

Save the “NAF Customizable Social Graphics” folder to your computer and

determine the assets you want to include in your Canva design. Once you’ve

selected the asset(s) you want to use, you’ll upload them into Canva.

First, select “Uploads” on the left panel, then click the “Uploads” picture

and choose “Upload your own images.”

Next, navigate to the asset(s) on your computer that you’ve saved from the “NAF Customizable Social Graphics”

folder, select your desired file(s), and either drag directly into the Canva upload area (see figure 1), or select

“Open” from your computer’s dialogue box (see figure 2). Either method will bring your selected file(s) directly

into your Canva “Uploads” library:

Figure 1: Drag & drop method Figure 2: Dialogue box option

Finally, from your “Uploads” library, select the image you want to use and drag it into the grid:

It’s important to drag the image over into the grid (see figure 3). If you simply click on the image, it will not fully

populate into the Facebook sized specs in the grid and you’ll need to manually adjust it by moving the corners of

the image out to fit the grid (see figure 4):

Figure 3: CORRECT: drag the image

Figure 4: INCORRECT: don't click the image

STEP 5: ADD TEXT OR LOGOS

Once the background is set, you’re ready to customize!

The following steps will show you how to add text or logos using the example below. When determining how to

customize your own, you can decide whether to insert logos, add text/url, or use both to communicate your own

unique message. If you want to use a social tile, but still need more space to add additional context, keep in mind

that you can also include that text as a caption in your Facebook or Twitter post.

Adding Text or URL

Click the “Text” icon on the left panel. You

can choose to insert “heading,”

“subheading,” or “body text”

Once you click on one of three options, a

text box will appear directly on your

background. Click on the text box you’ve just

created, and manually move the text box on

the design into the quote box or white

footer. Then, click within the text box to

type in your copy.

Next, change the font and color to

maintain consisent branding:

The text boxes will automatically populate

with a generic font and color. We

recommned changing it to: Font = Archivo

Narrow. Color = White. Style = Bold.

To change the font to Archivo Narrow:

Navigate to the font dropdown menu on

the top left of the text edit banner. Choose

Archivo Narrow (not Archivo Black or any

other font).

Changing the color to white and bold:

Change the color by clicking the

colorwheel icon in the middle of the

text edit banner, and choose white

from the dropdown menu. Next, select

the B icon next to the colorwheel to

bold the text.

Once you have adjusted your colors and font, adjust the text box to the desired size and location.

• Manually adjust the size of the text box by moving the corners of the image to the desired size. To do so,

hover over the outside edges of the box and the icon will appear, click and drag to resize.

• To move the text box location, hover over your text and the icon should appear, click and drag the box to

the desired location within the social tile.

If you are using the text box for a quote text, please follow these additional steps.

• Change the font to italics by highlighting your text and selecting the I icon.

• After positioning the box within the quote box, use options for left-aligned and choose your font size. Some

quotes may be longer than others, so based on your quote length and optimal spacing within the box, select a

size-to-fit.

• For quote attribution, add a new text box and position it in the lower right hand corner of the quote box.

Then, use the text options to select right-aligned and change color and font to match options outlined above.

ADDING LOGOS

• Download the logo(s) that you’d like to add to the social title onto your computer. Once you’ve saved the

logo(s), you’ll upload to Canva using the same process detailed above from uploading the background image.

After uploading you desired file(s), you’ll be able to incorporate the logo(s) into the white footer.

• In this case, you can double click on the logo, and it will populate on top of the background graphic.

• Then, manually adjust it by moving the corners of the image to the desired size. To do so, hover over the

corner of the logo and the icon will appear, click and drag to manually adjust.

• To move the logo, hover over the logo and the icon should appear, click and drag the image to the desired

location in the white footer.

• To add multiple logos, you will need to individually add and adjust each image using the process detailed

above.

Optional: When adding multiple images,

use a hair line element to separate

logos.

• Click on the “Elements” tab in the

object panel on the left side of your

screen:

• Select the “Lines” icon and click the

straight light to add to the social title.

• Click on the line element and using

the icon rotate the line vertically,

then resize and move the hair line

element to separate each logo similar

to this example.

STEP 6: DOWNLOADING YOUR

COMPLETED DESIGN

Once you’ve completed your design,

you’ll be ready to download it:

• Hit the “Download” button on the top

right banner:

• You’ll see four file type options to

download from the dropbown. We

suggest following Canva’s

recommended PNG option. Then hit

the green “Download” button.

Once downloaded, navigate to the file on

your computer and you’ll have a

customized PNG ready to share on

Facebook! We recommend always

downloading the file from Canva and

manually uploading to your social

channels versus choosing the auto-post

option from Canva. Posting directly from

Canva will cause a Canva logo to be

embedded in your social post.

STEP 7: UPLOAD TO FACEBOOK AND

YOU’RE DONE!