6 Creative Ways Using Canva to Make Your Squarespace Website Unique
Canva is absolutely my favorite tool to add some uniqueness to my website designs.
Whether you are a designer or not, Canva makes it easy to create, organize, and add simple touches to your website that make it stand out. From branded banner images to unique elements, your clients will recognize the extra work you put into your custom branding.
Designing your website can be overwhelming and time consuming but Canva makes it more simple than you might think! And the best part is you can design ALL of your branding content (social media, Pinterest, etc.) through this platform and maintain brand consistency.
Can I use elements from Canva on my website?
First things first, you’re probably wondering if it’s even legal to use Canva elements and graphics on your business website. The answer is mostly yes! Canva gets many of it’s photos through the platform Unsplash which is a site containing free stock images.
Canva breaks down their legal policies in this article but the gist is you can use their content as long as you make it your own and don’t sell their products claiming them to be your own.
For example, if you want to create your logo using Canva, you can use any of their free fonts and shapes but you’ll have to modify the graphic enough to make it your own.
Why should I use Canva to make my website graphics?
One of the best ways to stand out as a brand is to have a stand-out website with personalized brand touches.
When photos are outlined with a unique border or go beyond boundaries, your audience recognizes you put a lot of work into your website and will be more likely to remember your brand. And they will be more likely to read your content.
Regardless of your profession, your website design helps to sell your services. And it speaks your brand language. A more professionally designed website makes for a more trustworthy brand.
When first planning out the design, layout, and content of your website, you’ll want to do market research to see what’s already out there in your industry and what your target audience wants to see from you.
If you don’t know much about market research when it comes to web design basics, I highly recommend you check out my SEO course: RANK Method, where I teach you my step-by-step process for conducting research and building authority online through your website.
In this post, we’ll go over 6 ways to step up your visual branding game and how to use Canva to make your Squarespace website unique. Let’s dive in!
We Will Dive in to the Following 6 Canva Steps to Enhance Your Squarespace Website:
Design a custom logo.
Create banner images that match your brand.
Add elements.
Customize images with frames.
Add borders to your frames.
Create on-brand blog covers.
These steps will help kick-start your Squarespace website branding or re-branding and will get you the website traffic and sales you are striving for!
To shop pre-made Squarespace templates, go to my Squarespace Website Template Shop which contains premium, customizable templates that make it easier to take potential clients on the customer journey, with lead magnet, scheduling, thank-you, and sales pages.
Design a custom logo.
Are you taken aback by the endless amount of logo designs and wondering how you’re ever going to design one?
Take a breath and exhale…Canva has pre-formatted logos that can be used to design your brand logo or you can start from scratch with their graphics and elements.
If you want to take the extra mile and illustrate your own on an app like Adobe Illustrator, Canvas pre-made logos are a great resource for some eye candy inspiration. The options are endless.
Once you’ve picked a logo or have designed your own, add your logo to the header and footer of your website in place of the standard text Squarespace assigns to those places.
Download your logo as a .png file with a transparent background so that it seamlessly blends into any background color. You can use an icon, wordmark, or emblem logo.
HERE IS AN EXAMPLE OF MY WORDMARK LOGO VS MY EMBLEM LOGO DESIGNED IN SQUARESPACE.
My emblem logo is located at the top left corner of my website header but I like to have the alternative option of my wordmark logo whenever I may want to use it. A wordmark logo can look great in an email header or footer!
My new branding is coming soon- designed by Rockfish Design studio. I am beyond excited!
2. Create banner images that match your brand.
Canva offers a wide variety of banner photos but you can also source these from websites like Unsplash and Pexels.
Make those images match your branding by adding an overlay with your brand colors OR add patterns and elements to a solid color for a pop of fun.
ON-BRAND WEBSITE BANNER DESIGN EXAMPLES DESIGNED IN CANVA
Adding textures and layers to your images is a great way to get creative with your brand personality. You can make a pattern with any graphic or element in Canva.
Just have fun with it! And remember, don’t go overboard with too many elements and colors as this can be distracting for your website visitor. You want to ensure there is enough contrast for accessibility purposes.
3. Add elements.
For even more uniqueness, you can add elements to your banner images or regular images.
Canva has a great variety of elements and templates that show you different ways in which they can be used. When picking and using elements, stay on theme with your brand.
A playful brand may use squiggly lines or rainbows. A minimalist brand may use straight lines or simple arrows. Don’t be scared to utilize your brand elements, these are what show off your brand personality!
HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF CANVA WEBSITE ELEMENTS AND GRAPHICS I USED ON MY WEBSITE.
Once you have your brand elements, make sure you have a place to easily access them. Canva makes it incredibly easy to organize and find your brand assets whenever you need.
You can put them in your “brand” folder or in your “assets” folder if you have Canva Pro. You can also create different folders on your home page and organize them that way!
4. Customize images with frames.
Have you ever wondered how to make your image be a different shape?
All you have to do is plop it into one of Canvas many frame options. Stay on theme and limit the number of shapes to ~2 for consistency.
YOU CAN EVEN USECANVA MOCKUPS FOR YOUR WEBSITE, LIKE IN THE EXAMPLES BELOW.
Mockups are so useful to add to your sales pages and landing pages and can help you visually depict the value of what you are selling. You mean I get a 100-page workbook in addition to that online course?! SOLD!
You can crop a photo into any of Canvas frames and then it’s ready for exporting to Squarespace. Make sure you have an idea of what size image you’ll need based on your website layout and dimensions.
5. Add borders to your frames.
If you’re wanting to add a special touch to your photo frame, borders can make photos pop more and are a great way to show your creative side. And sometimes a thin border just doesn’t do it.
Canva has many different elements, shapes and graphics you can use to create borders for your photo frames and bring your content to a whole new artistic level.
CREATE YOUR PHOTO FRAME GRAPHICS FOR YOUR WEBSITE, LIKE IN THE EXAMPLE BELOW:
I have this on my website! I like adding a white or neutral colored frame around an image to make it look like a polaroid. I create a square about 20px larger than the image and place it behind.
Frame borders are the perfect extra touch to keep your audience interested and to show your brand’s extra effort.
6. Create on-brand blog covers
Are you tired of boring blog covers?
Instead of using a stock photo that doesn't tell your audience what your blog is about, create a blog cover using your brand colors and elements. BONUS! These can also be used as IG stories or Pinterest Pins and organized in your Canva brand folder.
You can add layers to your blog covers in Canva by adding a colored object (like a rectangle) over a photo or an element (like a brand pattern) against a colored background. You can even adjust the transparency, add filters and effects!
TRY OUT A PHOTO OR ELEMENT BLOG COVER DESIGN. LOOK HOW ON-BRAND MY BLOG COVERS LOOK:
You might be thinking, “why does it matter what my blog looks like?”
The content of your blog and the way you design it on your site builds trust. It gives you the opportunity to share your insights, advice, experience, and results.
And don’t forget, it will show customers you know what you’re doing. After reading one of your amazing blogs, your potential customer will be curious about your services and may end up wanting to work with you!
You can also use these same blog post cover ideas over on Pinterest! Who doesn’t love repurposing content??
Conclusion
The thought of designing your own website can be daunting, but this is an uncomplicated way to get started and get your site launched (or re-branded)!
Just because you can use a more complicated design program doesn’t mean you should. There is no fee for designing your website elements on Canva unless you want to upgrade to Canva Pro. You have more than enough options without upgrading to Pro if you need to stay within a budget.
All in all, Canva is an incredible tool for creating interesting content for your Squarespace website. It basically allows you to create a brand style guide with all your brand assets, logos, photos and content in the same place for easy and quick access. And trust me, it’s a time saver!
Use these 6 Canva tips to create content that will bring in and maintain traffic on your website and increase sales. Check out my custom Squarespace website templates if you want a pre-made Squarespace template!
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