Making Your Designs Work

Creative spark can’t be taught. It’s that feeling you get when an idea clicks and you’re able to bring it to life. If you have that—and many Canva creators do—you’re already ahead.

Design confidence? That’s different. Design confidence comes from knowing why something works—and how to fix it when it doesn’t. That’s a skill you can learn.

As a graphic design student, I had studio courses where we’d work on projects in class. We’d regularly post our finished or in-progress assignments for group critiques. Most professors would withhold their comments so we could hear from our peers first. “What do we think?” started things off. “What did you like? What works and what doesn’t?” Then the professor would ask more technical questions: Why is this element here? Why did you use this typeface or color? We had to justify it all.

That was my foundation as a graphic designer. Years later, I ask myself the same questions. Do I need that line? No. Is that heading too small? Maybe.

Although I’ve always thought of graphic design as precise work, tinkering is my joy. I’ve learned, however, that my first ideas are usually my best. As I grew as a designer, my confidence grew too. I could envision my approach once I had the client’s copy and assets, make quicker decisions, and stick with them—confident they worked.

Here’s the thing: getting tripped up by technical aspects can undermine everything you want to accomplish. Maybe a print vendor asks for vector files and throws off your timeline. Or you can’t save what you see on screen exactly as it appears. If you generally like your designs but something still feels off, it could be something basic—aligning text or resizing elements to give the whole design room to breathe.

That’s what Design Confidence is about. I share the fundamentals that have kept my work relevant for decades in the Design Confidence Starter Series.