Session 4 – F&IC Hindu

Session 4- Learning To Master Canva: Hands-On Editing Session with F&IC

Designing has become part and parcel of organizations everywhere, especially for us, the Finance and Investment Cell, Hindu College, as visual communications do play a crucial part in everything we do. In the fourth development session, I made forays into the space called Canva- a dynamic yet very easy-to-use graph-designing tool. Essentially the session was aimed to familiarize members with their skills for creating beautiful and professional-looking design ideas. Here is a detailed re-telling of how it went.

Starting with the basics of Canva:
First, we began with the fundamental understanding of Canva and once everyone knew the basics of Canva, we began the task of reviewing a few of the existing designs on the F&IC Instagram page. This was a two-part exercise:

Inspiration: This would be the perfect example of how Canva can be used creatively to incorporate designs into a brand identity.
Learning from Example: By breaking these designs down, members will understand better how to structurally lay out their format, select fonts, and color coordinate.
I further explained the thought process for the design decisions I made by highlighting how consistency and detail are essential parts of any good professional and social media-related presence.

Sharing My Personal Design Workflow:
After discussing designs of society with them, I shared insight into my own personal process and design workflow with the group members. The section gave them an approach as to how designs pop:

Research and Ideation: I look at several sites before actually starting to design. In that process, I look for designs that fit the purpose of the project that I am designing. At this point, I can think and formulate a mental image of what the final output should be.
Resorting to Canva Templates: While Canva has a thousand templates, I only use the ready-to-use templates if there is no other alternative. I always encourage exploration of unique layouts and making something personal. Templates are good for quick edits but sometimes can limit creativity when too much reliance is put on them.
Design Planning: Once I have a clear idea in my head, then it moves into the planning phase of design. At this stage, I will decide whether to include such things as images or icons, whether text or overall structure should be used in it.
I have elaborated, at the start of these assignments, how an impressionable design would only be visually pretty but communicate no specific intention.

Practical Activity- Redesigning a Design:
To make the session not like just a theory, I planned an activity that I would be carrying out with my participants. This is exactly how I planned it.

Topic selection: The topic selected was based on the group choice. In this way, the entire activity was collaborative in nature and relevant to all the participants.
Reference Design: I searched the internet to look for a design related to our topic. It is a reference for the assignment. The concept was that members will replicate the design with the help of Canva, which will exercise their members in a formal setting.
Design Creation: Members were given a laptop and challenged to reproduce the reference design on Canva. This was to test their understanding of the platform as well as concepts covered up to that point.
The result was amazing! Everyone successfully reproduced the design, telling me how fast they had caught on to the tools and techniques.

Wrapping Up:
It was a great session, where by the end of it, everyone had to present their recreations. It was satisfying to see eagerness and progress in one single session. This way of interactive learning did not only make it interesting but also ensured that every individual walked out with concrete skills.
This session’s outcome has clearly proved the worth of the learning by doing. In a short span of time, we have come up with the result of learning from the practical application after theoretical integration.
I see to more fruitful and insightful sessions in the future, which will help us grow together as a team.