In the latest instalment of YSpace’s Founder Fundamentals Winter 2025 series, entrepreneurs and startup founders had the opportunity to enhance their branding and design skills with expert guidance from Christine Lieu-Guzauskas, founder of CL Designs and host of The Brand Party Podcast. The Mastering Canva for Startups session, provided a deep dive into the platform’s powerful features, offering practical insights on creating cohesive branding, web design, and social media content that drive impact and sales.
Building a Strong Brand with Canva
Establishing a Brand Kit within Canva is a crucial step for ensuring consistency across all designs. This feature allows startups to organize logos, fonts, and brand colours in one accessible space. By setting up a Brand Kit, businesses can maintain cohesion across all marketing materials, whether for social media, presentations, or printed assets.
Canva Free vs. Pro
Understanding the difference between Canva’s Free and Pro versions can also help in making the right choice for your needs. While the free version provides access to thousands of templates and design tools, the Pro version offers additional benefits such as custom font uploads, unlimited folders for organization, background removal, and Magic Resize to quickly adapt designs to different formats.
Efficient Content Creation & Customization
Efficiency in content creation is essential for startups that need to maintain a strong digital presence without spending excessive time on design. Canva's Magic Resize tool allows users to instantly adjust designs for various platforms, from Instagram posts to LinkedIn banners, making content repurposing quick and effortless.
Customizing templates beyond their default designs is key to ensuring a unique and professional brand identity. Instead of using widely recognizable templates without modification, leverage Canva’s photo, video, and graphic elements to add a personal touch. Adjust colors, swap out stock images for original visuals, and experiment with font pairings that align with your brand. Small customizations like these can make a significant difference in setting your business apart.
"If you’ve ever used Canva and felt frustrated seeing another competitor using the exact same template, there are a few simple ways to customize designs further so your branding stands out." - Christine Lieu-Guzauskas
Designing for Presentations & Pitch Decks
For startups preparing to pitch to investors, Canva’s presentation tools offer a streamlined way to create professional decks. Organizing slide decks with a clear structure, incorporating brand elements, and utilizing dynamic charts and graphs can help present complex information in a visually compelling way.
Using the present and record feature enables founders to pre-record pitch presentations, allowing them to share polished, well-structured pitches with potential investors asynchronously. This feature is particularly useful for founders who need to submit presentations ahead of time or want to refine their delivery before presenting live.
Exporting Designs for Digital & Print Use
Exporting designs in the correct format is vital for maintaining quality across different platforms. Choosing the appropriate file type—such as PNGs for transparent backgrounds, PDFs for printable materials, and MP4s for video content—ensures that visuals remain high-quality in both digital and print formats. Canva also provides best practices for exporting presentations and social media graphics in optimal resolutions.
Maximizing Canva’s AI & Collaboration Tools
Canva’s Magic Write, an AI-powered copywriting tool, can help generate marketing copy, social media captions, and product descriptions quickly and effectively. By utilizing the brand voice feature, businesses can ensure that their messaging remains aligned with their overall identity.
For teams, Canva’s collaborative tools simplify workflows by allowing multiple users to edit designs in real time, leave comments for feedback, and organize files efficiently. Creating shared templates and team folders ensures consistency and streamlines collaboration across teams and external stakeholders.
Final Takeaway
Mastering Canva’s extensive features empowers entrepreneurs to take control of their brand design with confidence. Leveraging tools like Brand Kits, Magic Resize, AI-powered copywriting, and collaborative workspaces allows startups to create high-quality visuals while optimizing their workflow.
About Founder Fundamentals
Founder Fundamentals is a 12-week workshop series by YSpace and Markham Small Business Centre (MSBC), designed to equip you with essential entrepreneurial skills like business planning, bootstrapping, and Shopify setup. Attend 9+ workshops to earn a Certificate of Recognition and take the first step toward entrepreneurial success!
About the Speakers
Christine Lieu is the expert behind CL Designs and the Brand Party Podcast. She's a graphic designer who's traded in climbing the corporate ladder for climbing mountains around the world. Christine helps purpose-driven businesses create cohesive branding, web design, and social content to drive your impact and sales.
As featured in Top 10 Canada Design, the Brand Party Podcast delivers fun, honest, to-the-point advice that you can implement RIGHT AWAY in your entrepreneurial journey.