You Can Do What With Canva?!

Schedule

Session 1: Canva Backflips — Free-Account Tricks for Better Visuals

Thursday, Dec. 3, 2:30–3:30 p.m. EST

Go beyond Canva’s standard templates and learn to create more customized, professional-looking visual content without upgrading to Canva Pro.

Sims will demonstrate how to resize designs using a free Canva account, find free photography and design elements, and import scalable vector artwork that can be recolored and customized inside Canva.

Participants will also learn techniques using layers, shadows, transparency, overlays, gradients, and textures to give designs greater depth and dimension and avoid the recognizable “Canva template” look.

Topics include:

• Resizing designs without a Canva Pro account.
• Finding genuinely free images and design elements.
• Importing scalable vector graphics and controlling their colors.
• Creating depth through layering, shadows, transparency, and texture.
• Customizing designs to better reflect an organization’s visual brand.
• Free-account workarounds, shortcuts, and Canva tricks.

Session 2: Canva in Motion — Video, Branded Frames and On-Screen Graphics

Friday, Dec. 4, 2:30–3:30 p.m. EST

Canva isn’t just for static graphics. In Session 2, Sims will demonstrate ways to use Canva to create reusable branded assets and motion graphics for presentations, webinars, virtual meetings, livestreams, social content, and other communications.

Participants will learn how to build custom frames that extend an organization’s visual identity beyond traditional Canva templates, as well as create video countdowns for presentations and virtual events.

The session will also demonstrate how to design animated lower thirds — the name, title and information graphics commonly seen in television and video production — and export them for use outside Canva.

Topics include:

• Designing custom branded design frames for a variety of communications uses.
• Creating reusable visual assets that reinforce brand consistency.
• Building animated video countdowns.
• Creating professional-looking lower thirds.
• Exporting Canva-created video elements for use in presentations and virtual communications.
• Video shortcuts, creative workarounds and Canva tricks.

Participants will leave both sessions with practical techniques they can immediately apply to social media, presentations, webinars, video, media materials, and other public relations and communications projects, all while getting considerably more mileage from a free Canva account.