How the Canva Brand Kit + Canva Styles can help you create branded designs - and what it can't do

February 12, 2021

They've rolled out a new feature in Canva Pro - a new "styles" option to help you create branded designs by applying your Canva "brand kit" to any design with just a couple of clicks!

I love opening Canva to find a fun surprise. I went in there to pick apart everything that's wrong with using the "Top 10 Business Card Templates" they sent out in an email. Because I'm a terrible person.

Then I saw this:

Screen shot of Canva Brand Kit and the new Styles menu to help create branded designs faster

That snark will have to wait for another day. Playing around with new Canva features is too much fun!

What does the Canva Styles menu do?

The short answer is, it applies your brand fonts and colors to any design in just 2 clicks.

Sounds amazing, right? And it is - as long as you're not thinking those 2 clicks are all it's going to take to make the design look like your brand. The little design robot working its magic is pretty smart, but it will never be as smart as you. Read on for the details...

Apply your Canva brand kit fonts & colors

Right under the "Brand Kit" heading, you'll see the standard brand fonts you have set up in your brand kit. (You've done that, right? It's another real time-saver. Just in case, I'll walk you through that piece in another post soon.)

Pull up any design and click those fonts, and your fonts will be applied to the design. Magic!

Click "Brand Colors" and the colors in the post will shuffle through colors from your brand palette. More magic!

Sort of. I tested it out on one of Canva's pre-made post templates in this short video:

As you see here, it really is a quick click to swap in your brand fonts. The color shuffle is quick too, but the results can be anywhere from "pretty cool" to "meh" to "OMG fugly".

The results I landed on are okay. But no amount of font-and-color-changing has made this design actually look like my brand.

So how DO you make Canva template designs look like your brand?

It takes more than swapping in colors and fonts. You also have to consider the feel of the overall layout and imagery. I'll write more about this in another post...AND did you know I did a whole live workshop on this? With step-by-step examples? That you can get for FREE?

It's true! Go get the recording delivered straight to your inbox right now!


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