Visual consistency matters! If your brand’s visual appearance lacks consistency, it creates a confusing message and could cause your audience to not recognize your brand at all. This can be especially problematic across a system like a franchise because an inconsistent brand experience can erode brand recognition or even degrade the brand. Bad visuals create a less polished look, and in larger organizations, it can trickle outwards and dilute the entire ecosystem.
Well-documented brand standards are crucial to help maintain visual consistency, but when you have a team of people, a network or a franchise, it can still be hard to stay on brand. One great solution to help maintain visual consistency is Canva.
What is Canva?
Canva is a relatively easy-to-use design platform where you can create visual content like social media graphics, brochures, flyers, business cards and more.
Why Canva?
With Canva, you can set up on-brand templates for a variety of marketing materials. With these templates, your team or franchisees are empowered to create the assets they need while respecting the core brand. Canva also allows for the ability to customize for local audiences or nuances to better build community connections while still aligning with the brand. Overall, no matter who within your team or which location from your organization is creating visual assets, there is continuity, and the visual brand experience is the same.
There are great benefits to having an agency partner or professional designer set up Canva for your organization. An agency or professional designer can ensure your brand kit is set up correctly and that you have the templates you need in place. This will ensure all the correct fonts, colors and logo files are in place and ready to use and that all templates follow your brand standards. While it’s not a requirement to have a professional set this up, it can help create a better outcome by having an experienced hand build this resource.
However, you don’t need previous design experience to use Canva. It’s relatively easy to use and allows for the creation of professional-quality graphics without the need for a design degree. Professional graphic designers can still support franchisees or staff members with other skill sets and goals by creating the initial templates.
Is Canva Right for Your Organization?
Canva is an excellent resource for ensuring your visual brand assets are consistent and follow your brand standards. It also gives growing franchise systems and larger organizations a cost-effective way to create the quality materials they need without always needing a professional designer for smaller projects, allowing designers to focus on larger and more complex design projects.
Interested in implementing Canva for your team or franchise? We can help! Contact us to learn more.
Check out our portfolio for examples of our branding work.
