Customizing Your Canva Templates
Overview
Customizing Canva templates is one of the fastest ways to create on-brand, professional-looking designs, but it takes more than just swapping out text. In this training, you’ll learn a step-by-step approach to applying your brand’s colours, fonts, and imagery to any Canva template, while maintaining clarity, consistency, and polish.
Whether you’re using Canva’s Brand Kit or a DIY branding setup, you’ll walk away with the tools to confidently turn any template into a design that feels uniquely your own.
Resources
Canva Training Transcript
Canva templates provide a great starting point for your designs, but to make them work for your business, they need to be customized. A fully branded design ensures consistency across all your marketing materials, which fosters recognition and trust with your audience. However, simply swapping out text isn’t enough—leaving default fonts, colours, or stock images can make a design feel disconnected from your brand.
Before you start customizing, it’s important to set yourself up for success by ensuring your branding is in place. If you don’t yet have a brand kit and you’re not in a position to work with a professional designer to create one, I highly recommend starting with my tutorial How to Create Your Brand in Canva. This will guide you through defining your brand colours, fonts, and visual style so you have a solid foundation before customizing templates.
If you already have a brand kit or are working with a designer to create one, you can move straight to Step 1 and begin applying your branding.
Having your branding established before you start customizing templates will make the process much smoother and ensure your designs look polished and consistent.
Step 1: Set Up Your Branding in Canva
If you’re using Canva Pro, setting up a Brand Kit will save you time by keeping your logos, colours, and fonts in one easily accessible place. Instead of manually entering hex codes or re-uploading assets each time you create a design, your branding elements will be available in a single click.
If you already have your brand’s colours, fonts, and logos ready, the next step is to set them up inside Canva for a more streamlined workflow. My How to Set Up Your Brand Kit in Canva tutorial walks you through exactly how to do that in detail, and you’ll find a link to that below this video.
If you’re using the free version of Canva, I strongly recommend taking advantage of a free trial of Canva Pro to access the Brand Kit. It’s by far the most efficient way to store and apply your brand colours, fonts, and logos without constantly copying and pasting hex codes or re-uploading assets. Plus, custom fonts can only be uploaded with Canva Pro, which is an important consideration if your brand uses a specific typeface.
That said, if you’re not ready to upgrade, there is a workaround, but it’s a bit more manual and less efficient. You can create a DIY brand reference design to keep your branding elements organized, though you’ll need to keep this file open and jump back and forth between designs. This can be a simple one-page Canva design that includes:
- Your logos or icons for quick access.
- Your brand colour palette (with hex codes listed for reference), and
- Your chosen fonts (though you’ll be limited to Canva’s free font selection)
While this fallback method works, it’s far clunkier than using the Brand Kit feature in Canva Pro.
If you want to save time and streamline your workflow, I highly recommend giving Canva Pro a try, and you can start with a free trial at BrendaCadman.com/pro to see how much easier it makes the design process.
Plus, even if you don’t upgrade after the trial wraps up, any brand kits you create during that period will still be there if you should choose to upgrade in the future.
Step 2: Apply Your Branding
Once your Brand Kit is set up, whether you’re using Canva Pro’s official Brand Kit feature or the DIY workaround, it’s time to apply your branding to your template.
While Canva has a Styles tool that can apply your brand colours and fonts automatically if you have an official brand kit in place, I don’t generally recommend using it. It often applies colours inconsistently, sometimes placing accent colours where your primary brand colours should be, and it can disrupt font hierarchy.
Instead, I strongly suggest making these updates manually so you maintain full control over your brand’s visual consistency.
Start by updating the colours throughout the template to match your brand palette. If a template uses a colour scheme that doesn’t align with your branding, swapping out those colours should be your first step.
The easiest way to do this is by selecting elements individually and applying your brand colours directly. If a template has multiple pages, check that your brand colours are used consistently across all pages.
If you’re updating a colour that appears multiple times throughout the design, you can speed up the process using Canva’s “Change All” feature. When you select a colour in the toolbar, Canva will display an option to “Change All” instances of that colour in the design.
However, this feature is context-specific—if you update the colour of a shape, icon, or background, Canva will only apply the change to other shapes, icons, or backgrounds, not to text. Likewise, if you update the colour of a font, the change will only apply to other text elements, not to non-text elements like shapes or graphics. This makes it a handy shortcut, but always double-check that everything updates as expected to maintain a consistent look.
Next, replace the template’s fonts with your brand fonts. You’ll find them easily accessible in the font dropdown if you’ve set up your Brand Kit. As you update the fonts, make sure you’re maintaining proper font hierarchy—headings should remain prominent, subheadings should be distinct but secondary, and body text should be easy to read. You may need to adjust font sizes or weights to ensure clarity and balance.
Similar to colours, Canva also offers a “Change All” feature for fonts, and when you update a font, Canva may prompt you to apply that change across all instances of the same font in your design. I would encourage you to review your text carefully after making changes to ensure your font hierarchy remains intact.
Finally, incorporate your logo into the design, if it makes sense to do so. If the template includes a placeholder for a logo, swap it out with your own, adjusting its placement so it complements the layout rather than feeling like an afterthought.
Step 3: Update with Brand-Aligned Photos
Your template’s default images are placeholders, and while they might look nice, they likely don’t match your brand. Choosing the right images is a key part of customization, as visuals play a major role in maintaining a cohesive brand identity.
When selecting images, you have a few options:
- Use your own brand photography if you’ve had a professional brand photoshoot.
- Choose stock photos that align with your aesthetic—either from Canva’s built-in library or from external stock photo sources, or
- Incorporate brand-aligned graphics or illustrations if they fit your visual style.
If you need guidance on selecting the right brand imagery, I go into more detail in my tutorial called How to Create Your Brand in Canva, and there’s a link to that below this video.
Replacing Images in the Template
In most templates, you can simply drag and drop your new image directly onto the existing one, and Canva will automatically replace it. This works because most templates use frames and grids, which allow images to be swapped in seamlessly while maintaining their shape and positioning.
However, if your image doesn’t automatically adjust when you drag it in, it likely means the template wasn’t set up with a frame or grid. In this case, you’ll need try manually resizing the image to fit within the designated space.
Once you’ve replaced the images, adjust cropping, sizing, and placement as needed to integrate them seamlessly into the template, and to ensure they fit naturally into the design rather than feeling squeezed in as an afterthought.
Making Templates Feel Uniquely Yours with Brand Patterns, Textures & Graphics
Customizing a template isn’t just about swapping out images, it’s about making the entire design feel like it belongs to your brand. One way to do that is by adding brand-specific patterns, textures, or other graphics that reinforce your unique visual style.
For example, I consistently use a gradient pattern overlay in my designs. This not only adds visual interest but also ensures that every template I customize has a distinct, recognizable look that feels cohesive with my brand.
You can do the same by incorporating elements like:
- Subtle textures or patterns to add depth to backgrounds.
- Gradients or colour tints that align with your brand palette and create a cohesive aesthetic, or
- Brand-specific design components, such as icons, borders, or other graphic elements, that appear consistently across your designs.
These small but intentional customizations help transform a generic template into a design that looks like it was made just for your brand, ensuring that even if someone else starts with the same template, your version will feel uniquely yours.
Step 4: Adjust the Text for Readability
Now that your branding is in place, it’s time to update the text. Replace all placeholder text with your own content, making sure it aligns with your brand’s voice. If your messaging doesn’t fit neatly into the template, you may need to adjust the layout by resizing text boxes or adding new ones.
When formatting text, readability is key. Ask yourself:
Is the contrast strong enough?
Light text on a light background (or dark text on a dark background) can be hard to read. Ensure there’s enough contrast for clarity.
Is the spacing balanced?
Avoid cramming text too tightly together. Proper spacing helps with readability and overall design flow. If your text feels too compressed, or too spread out, you can adjust the spacing inside Canva. Adjust the line spacing by selecting your text box, then click on the “Spacing” option in the toolbar. You can adjust the line height slider to increase or decrease the space between lines of text, or use the letter spacing slider to fine-tune the spacing between characters.
Taking the time to refine text formatting ensures that your design remains professional, polished, and easy to read.
Step 5: Final Review – Questions to Ask Before You Download
Before finalizing your design, take a step back and do a quick review. Here are some key questions to ask yourself:
Are the colours, fonts, and images consistent with my branding?
Your design should clearly reflect your brand’s identity. Double-check that you’ve applied your brand colours consistently and that fonts align with your brand guidelines. Ensure any images used match your brand’s aesthetic and don’t feel out of place. If something feels “off,” refer back to your brand kit to make adjustments.
Does the design look balanced and easy to read?
A visually balanced design creates a better user experience. Look at the overall composition—are elements evenly distributed, or does one section feel too heavy or cluttered? Check for readability—is there enough contrast between text and background? If needed, adjust font sizes, spacing, or alignment to improve clarity.
And let’s talk about whitespace… your design needs room to breathe! Cramming text or elements up against the very edge of your page is a no-no. Give your text and visuals a little breathing space, especially around the edges of your design, so nothing feels squished or accidentally cut off when exporting or printing. When in doubt, add a little extra padding… your design (and your audience’s eyeballs) will thank you.
For multi-page designs, is the formatting consistent throughout?
If your design includes multiple pages, such as a presentation, eBook, or carousel post, consistency is key. Compare font sizes, colours, margins, and image placement across all pages. Does each page flow naturally to the next? If one page feels disconnected from the others, consider refining it to align with the overall layout.
Is my messaging clear, and does it fit naturally within the layout?
Read through your text carefully. Does the copy communicate your message effectively? If a section feels awkward or too text-heavy, consider breaking it up into smaller sections or using bullet points for better readability.
Would I be proud to share this as part of my brand?
Finally, take a step back and view your design from your audience’s perspective. Does it feel professional and aligned with your brand’s standards? If it were shared on social media, sent to a client, or featured in marketing materials, would you feel confident presenting it? If the answer is yes, you’re good to go!
Taking an extra moment to review your design ensures that it looks polished and professional, making a lasting impression on your audience.
How Customization Transforms a Template for Different Brands
Now that you’ve seen how I’ve customized this template using my own brand kit, I want to show you how the exact same template can look completely different when customized for another brand.
Let’s take that same social media graphic and apply a different brand kit. By swapping out the template’s original colours, fonts, and imagery for JL’s brand kit, the template instantly takes on an entirely new look and feel from the version I customized for my brand.
Even though the structure of the design remains the same, it now reflects her brand’s unique personality and visual identity.
This demonstrates just how powerful proper customization can be. When done right, no one will ever look at your design and think, “Oh, that’s just a Canva template.” Instead, it will feel like a fully branded, professional piece of content that aligns with your business.
Final Thoughts
Customizing templates is one of the easiest ways to create professional-looking graphics without starting from scratch, but the key is to be intentional about it.
By applying your branding thoughtfully, choosing the right images, refining your text, and doing a final review, you can transform any Canva template into a design that feels uniquely yours.