You know that feeling when you walk into HomeGoods and start seeing all of this really cute stuff and are magnetized to it…until you realize it doesn't really fit your current home decor?  

The Canva template library is practically a HomeGoods of templates. There are SO many great templates that catch your eye and tempt you with a style that might not jive with your current branding.  

Does that mean you shouldn't use Canva templates if you have branding already? Absolutely not! Let me explain…

Unlike HomeGoods, Canva gives you the liberty of making endless customizations, which allows you to quickly and easily update any template to fit within your branding. I'm a huge fan of Canva templates because they allow you to work efficiently and not reinvent the wheel. Why should I create a checklist if there are already 200 different options that I can modify with my brand fonts on Canva? 

Here's exactly how you can customize a template you love for your brand in Canva: 

Filter down your options

Remember that templates are designed to save you time. Keep this in mind as you search the Canva template library. You might find a gorgeous template…but it's so different from your branding that it might be more work to modify it.  

You don't need to find things that are an exact match to your branding, but choosing one that is at least 50% there will greatly expedite your process. Remember, colors and fonts are a breeze to change but you don't want to have to overhaul the entire design.  

Start with a toolkit using Canva Brand Kit

Your brand guidelines are like a compass that you can use to guide any template to fit within your brand world. Start by making sure you have the following set up in Canva's Brand Kit: 

• Brand color palette (1 primary color, 1 secondary color, and 2-4 accent colors)

• Brand typography (at a minimum 1 for headings, 1 for body text)

• Brand logo

Evaluate your existing Canva template

Evaluate all of the design elements used in the template you want to customize. Take note of which things you can make a simple color swap and which things need to be deleted or replaced. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you evaluate:

• Do the line weights fit with my branding or do they need to be adjusted?

• Does the illustration style match with what I've done in the past?

• If I were to describe this template style with brand adjectives, what would they be? Does that align with my brand? (example: quirky, rounded shapes and bubble illustrations won't translate well to a luxury brand).

Don't spend too much time on this step, it's more meant to be a quick mental checklist so you can move forward with swapping the colors and typography. 

Make your brand swaps

After removing anything you don't want to move forward with in the template, you can update the colors and fonts. Canva has a great feature where if you click a color or text block, you can apply that style to your entire document. 

For example, if my template uses blue but my brand is green, all instances of that blue can be changed in one click. This option will pop up automatically in the left hand panel of Canva when you change a color or font that has multiple instances.  

Embellish your Canva design

How is your design looking? If you need to add back in any new elements or stock photos, now is the time. Try using your brand adjectives (ex: simple, modern) in the Elements search panel. 

Save and organize

Once you've crafted a design that perfectly represents your brand, save it for future use. This will save you time and maintain consistency in all your future content. You can do this by adding it as a brand template in Canva or simply saving it as a file in Canva. If you save it as a file in Canva, all you have to do to apply those styles to future designs is to tap the “Projects” tab in Canva and search the file name. That's why it's so important to name your files clearly for future use.