5 Canva mistakes that hurt your brand (and how to fix them)
Let's be honest - running a business means juggling a million tasks at once. You're probably running around like a headless chicken (I know I do!). And somewhere between the chaos, you're thinking, "Wait, I'm pretty sure I didn't just sign up to colour in!"
If you're DIYing your graphics because outsourcing isn't in the budget yet, you're not alone. You're sitting there thinking, "Come on, money, so I can hand this off to someone else!" But until then, here are some tips to help you create professional looking templates in Canva without making these common mistakes.
1. The carousel that's bursting at the seams
I love a good carousel - they're interactive, engaging, and a great way to get people interested in what you have to say.
But here's where things go wrong: you write a really long post and then try to cram that entire post onto your slides.
Instagram limits you to 10 slides, but LinkedIn? You can create as many as you want. I once saw a 99-page carousel. Spoiler alert: I didn't look at all 99 pages.
The problem? Most people get bored after 3-4 slides.
How to fix it:
Keep your carousels simple, clean, and easy to follow. Make sure the carousel content matches your post caption - I've seen so many where the post text is about one thing and the slides are about something completely different. Pull the main points from your caption and feature those on your slides.
Think about how people consume content - mostly on their phones. If you've used size 6 text to squeeze everything onto one slide, no one can read it. Maybe if you're under 25, but for those of us who can see 35 in the rearview mirror? We're not holding our phones up to our noses to read your content. We'll just scroll on.
You don't want to lose people. What you have to say is important - only you can say it your way, and we need to hear it. Make it easy for people to read.
Try this: Use your main point in font size 55, with short supporting text at size 30. You can adjust these slightly depending on the font (some fonts look larger at size 55 than others), but don't go extreme - size 6 is never okay!
This applies to single post images too. Keep text minimal and to the point.
2. "I found the graphics section in Canva!"
So you discovered you can add wiggles, squiggles, and all sorts of decorative elements to your design. Look at you being creative!
But don't get carried away. A few small accents enhance your design - a page full of "everything you thought looked nice" clutters it up and distracts from your important message.
Think of it like this: When you go to a party, you don't wear every piece of jewelry you own. You carefully select something that complements your outfit. Design works the same way - add elements that enhance your message and add visual interest without overwhelming your words.
How to fix it:
Choose graphics that match your brand aesthetic and use them sparingly. If you're adding them to a carousel, place them in the same spot on each slide. When graphics jump around from slide to slide, it's confusing and creates a jarring transition. Your readers want a smooth experience, not visual whiplash.
3. "Photographs are good, right?"
Absolutely! I'm all for adding photographs to your designs.
When you're starting out, it's okay to use stock images. I know people say you should only use original photos and keep everything on brand from day one, but if you don't have your own images yet, stock photos are fine. They add interest and break up solid blocks of color.
As you get more confident, add selfies and inject more of your personality. Frame them with your brand colors to make them feel cohesive.
If you're adding text over photos:
Check the accessibility - can you actually read the text over the image? Consider adding a color overlay or a semi-transparent box behind your text to make it pop.
The golden rule: One, maybe two, photos per social media post is enough. Unless you're creating a photo montage, keep it simple. Too many images create the same cluttered feeling as too many graphics.
Make sure your images make sense. Ask yourself: Does this match my brand? Does it work with my brand colors? Does it feel like me? If you're a copywriter, images of hands typing on a laptop or writing on paper might be a bit cliché, but that's okay when you're starting out. You'll develop your unique visual style as you go.
4. "It looked fine in the editor..."
You designed your post, it looked perfect in Canva, you posted it - and now it's cropped weirdly, your text is cut off, or your carefully centred logo is suddenly sitting in the corner.
Sound familiar?
This happens because every platform (and sometimes every placement within a platform) has different dimensions. What fits perfectly as a square feed post gets brutally cropped as a story. What looks great on Instagram might get squashed on LinkedIn.
How to fix it:
Design for the platform you're actually posting to, not just "a square" and hope for the best. Canva has preset sizes for Instagram posts, Stories, Reels covers, LinkedIn posts, and more - use them.
Keep your most important content - your headline, your face, your key message - inside the "safe zone" in the middle of the design. Platforms often crop or cover the edges with their own interface (captions, profile icons, swipe indicators), so anything too close to the edge risks getting hidden.
If you're repurposing one design across multiple platforms, don't just resize it and call it done - check how it actually looks in each format before you post. Two minutes of checking saves you from posting something illegible.
5. Zooming out and seeing chaos
Here's a mistake that's invisible up close but glaring from a distance: your individual posts might each look fine, but when you scroll through your grid or your last 9 posts together, there's no rhythm. No visual thread pulling it all together.
This happens because it's easy to design each post in isolation - open Canva, make today's post look good, move on - without ever stepping back to see how it sits next to everything else you've posted recently.
How to fix it:
Before you post, scroll back through your last few posts and picture the new one slotting in next to them. Does it feel like the same account, or a completely different one?
Vary your layouts, but keep an anchor that repeats - the same colour showing up regularly, the same font pairing, the same style of border or frame. That repetition is what makes an account feel curated rather than random, even when the content itself varies a lot. If you're not sure, take a screenshot of your grid every couple of weeks and actually look at it as a whole, not post by post. Patterns (and problems) are much easier to spot zoomed out.
Conclusion
Following these simple rules helps your designs look professionally made. And see? They're all really easy to implement.
Keeping things simple and uncluttered makes it easier for people to consume your content. The easier it is, the more they'll keep coming back. That's what builds brand recognition and gets you in front of the right people.
Want your brand fundamentals sorted first - colours, fonts, and a system that keeps you consistent? Check out my post on the 5 Design Gremlins wrecking your brand visuals.
Struggling with your templates? I offer simple, industry specific designs with templates for growing your audience, promoting your offers, and marketing your masterclass. You can see these in my shop.
