If you don’t know how to use complicated programs like photoshop, illustrator or other popular graphic design programs, you may find yourself stuck and frustrated when it comes to branding your personal trainer business.
Introducing Canva! This free software can be a great tool for personal trainers. If you need some basic graphic design work but don’t want to spend the money. If you aren’t very tech savvy read this review and see if Canva can help you grow your fitness business.
Canva Features
Templates
One thing that's great about Canva is that they offer a bunch of different templates to choose from for anything you might need. They’re all organized in to categories such as social media, poster, Facebook cover, Facebook ad and infographics!
Within each template is a series of pre built designs you can pick and choose from. Great if you're not exactly a design ninja and need something that already looks nice to just put your own business information on. Every category has templates that are already designed, and Canva is always adding more to choose from.
Customised Branding with Canva
If you prefer to start from scratch build something yourself, you have that option too. You can customize everything with canva. If you don’t like the pictures or font on a template, you can change those as well as to set your own custom dimensions. This is extremely useful for social media. Facebook will change the dimension requirements for their ads on occasion, so it’s good to be able to design something based on the exact dimensions you need depending on your project. I’ll put in the dimensions in for a clicks to website ad.
How to Create Great Designs with Canva
Choose a Template
First things first. Choose a template from Canva's huge database. For this demo we'll choose a blank template to add to.
Add Stock Photos Or Upload Your Own
If you you have your own pictures to use, you can simple drag them into the Canva interface and they’ll show up under the uploads tab. You can also use images from your facebook account if you registered your account with your facebook login.
Or you can use some of Canva’s stock images. If you don’t have your own images just search for something, find an image you like and drag it into your design. Each image only costs a dollar which is definitely nice. Once you purchase your image, the Canva watermark grid will disappear.
Or you can use some of Canva’s stock images. If you don’t have your own images just search for something, find an image you like and drag it into your design. Each image only costs a dollar which is definitely nice. Once you purchase your image, the Canva watermark grid will disappear.
Here’s a design I came up with real quick based on some screenshots and some free computer/electronic frames Canva offers.
Download
Canva gives you the option to download your designs in JPG, PNG and PDF format. If your design has multiple pages or concepts, you can download them all at once, or download individual images from your page. This is nice if you want to design a few different concepts and pick the one that you like most.
The Negatives
Canva is a great tool for personal trainers because it has an easy learning curve. However, it is limiting. If you want to create images with transparent backgrounds you’ll need to upgrade to “Canva for work”, the paid version of Canva. There also aren’t any brushes, you can’t install your own fonts, no eraser tool, filters, etc. You get the idea.
It’s also a bit buggy. Sometimes we have trouble selecting certain elements if there is a lot of overlapping layers. If your design has a lot of pages with a lot of elements, the page doesn’t respond as well and this does get annoying.
You’re also only allowed 30 pages per design. So if you’re working on a large project like an ebook or presentation, you’ll have to merge your PDF files and then compress them.
I experienced some of these limitations when designing our ebook, 100 Days Of Fitness Marketing Hacks.
It’s also a bit buggy. Sometimes we have trouble selecting certain elements if there is a lot of overlapping layers. If your design has a lot of pages with a lot of elements, the page doesn’t respond as well and this does get annoying.
You’re also only allowed 30 pages per design. So if you’re working on a large project like an ebook or presentation, you’ll have to merge your PDF files and then compress them.
I experienced some of these limitations when designing our ebook, 100 Days Of Fitness Marketing Hacks.
If you have a lot of designs make sure you name them appropriately. Canva currently does not have a “folder” option, so all of your designs sit in your main screen. This feature is coming to “Canva for work” soon. We’ll see if they’ll add it to the free version.
Summary
To finish up this Canva review, It's a great resource for personal trainers because you don’t need to be a professional graphic designer to make something nice. There are a lot of great stock images for $1 each, and a lot of free images and other elements, too. If you need some basic graphic design work done... and don’t want to hire a professional or learn photoshop, Canva is a great tool to use for your branding.
