Explore

Design Tools - Getting Started

Collecting Visual Material for Inspiration

Start saving the visuals which you like - the visuals will help you create your brand or can be used in your designs. Choose a “home” for your visuals and save them for inspiration and future use.

If you find visuals or posts to re-share - save them to a unique collection on Instagram , so you can grab one and share at any time. This can help you stay active and foster connection with other creators and professionals as you share their work.

You can look for and save a visuals on Pinterest &

Unsplash⁠

🔥 Choose the images which inspire you or fit your topic and create a visual library. Curate your visuals directly on Pinterest, Unsplash or in a separate folder in your Photos app or in Telegram channel just for you

These visuals can work nice for posts or for story backgrounds

They can be a starting point for you brand guide

You can chose to curate photos or illustrations

⁠

If you only use one tool - Canva is your best companion

If you are new to Canva, create a free account on

Canva.com⁠

and choose a template or templates or create a design from scratch ✨

You can set your go-to color pallet and fonts to use for future designs

I recommend creating one design where you keep design elements which you like

You can design everything from posts, stories, highlight covers to resource documents, simple websites and e-books on Canva 🌟

Canva is a pleasure to use, and as you use it more you will feel more and more comfortable 👩‍🎨

A mood board or a brand guide for your own brand

A brand guide or a style guide is a a valuable tool for maintaining consistency and coherence in how a brand is presented to the world.

Your brand guide will help you with visual consistency, will contribute to your brand professionalism, will foster brand recognition, will highlight your brand values and will make your design processes much more efficient.

The brand guide or style guide could be very simple, for example:

5-7 words which communicate the mood or the emotions you want to convey and the values you hold close

3-4 colours - think main color, secondary color, enough contrast and accessibility. If you’d like peak at “

Psychology of Colour⁠

” 👀

1-2 fonts

Several elements, shapes, screenshots or photos for inspirations

If you like a photo or a picture and would like to get a color pallet inspired by it you can use

a color palette generator⁠

or create a unique palette with a special fun tool like

Coolors⁠

Examples which I have created in Canva for other birth professionals:

⁠

⁠

My 3 favourite helper apps if you are not using Canva

⁠

Preview App⁠

(iPhone + Android) or Garny (Android) - to visually plan out your content

If you use photographs, here is a layout tip to make the posts diverse: Landscape → Portrait → Object → 3/4 view → Full body → In motion

If you use illustrated elements you could switch between brand pillars and categories post to post, for example - fact, resource, personal, testimonial, lead generating, inspiring, etc

⁠

Graphionica (

iPhone⁠

Android⁠

) - add text, edit photos and add stickers

⁠

Snapseed (

iPhone⁠

Android⁠

) - editing the visuals

Carrd: landing pages and one-page sites

I use this service together with Canva on weekly basis, truly love it!

Very convenient, no code, aesthetically pleasing solution for landing pages and one-page sites -

https://carrd.co/⁠

⁠

Some examples: Digital business card -

Eva Rose - birth photographer⁠

, or example of a

birth prep course⁠

one-page site

Anya’s referral code: D8XHHHCM

Flodesk - Newsletter and Led Generation

⁠

https://flodesk.com/⁠

- perfect to set-up newsletters, keep track of your subscribers, open rates and bounce rates and support with lead generation

Setting up surveys: GoogleForms, TypeForm

Google Form - easy to set-up forms and surveys

⁠

TypeForm⁠

- a great alternative, which is more pleasing

Bonus materials

Get the best color combinations 🤩 -

⁠

https://coolors.co/⁠

⁠

https://imagecolorpicker.com/en⁠

⁠

https://www.canva.com/colors/color-palette-generator/⁠

⁠

Font pairing ultimate guide -

Great resource from Canva -

https://www.canva.com/learn/the-ultimate-guide-to-font-pairing/⁠

⁠

Stickers, illustrations, tips and blobs:

Instagram stickers - example:

Instagram Stories Stickers⁠

⁠

Blobmaker - design fun blob shapes to use in your designs -

https://www.blobmaker.app/⁠

⁠

Canva inspiration to support on our Instagram journey -

https://www.canva.com/instagram/⁠

⁠

Cool illustrations for your presentations -

https://icons8.com/illustrations⁠

Split a big collage into individual images for what looks like a puzzle view-

https://pinetools.com/split-image⁠

⁠

Made with love by Anya Campos on Coda 💛

⁠

Avocado Parenthood

⁠

Sign-up for Coda, too

⁠