Today I want to share the tools that I use in my yoga business to create simple graphics.
Let me clarify – I have never taken any graphics training unless you count art in grade school. Even in that, I remember getting a ‘C’ on a project when asked to draw a monkey.
I also want to say that with graphics I have also reached out to hire a professional many times — especially for my logos. Lindsay Hobbs created the MamaNurture logo. She is an artist who can really capture the feeling of a business.
For The Connected Yoga Teacher logo – I hired an artist on Fiverr. I have used this site a few times and it is kind of like playing the lottery. I won with this logo though!
If you know of an amazing graphic designer – share their website in the comments below. If you are a graphic designer – share your own website. Don’t be shy. Also feel free to add comments about your favourite tools.
So why am I doing an article on how to create simple graphics? Because this is something I use every week in my business. I even used my three favourite tools to make a birthday invitation for my daughter this weekend. I love doing it and I love learning more about it.
So often in my consulting work, I refer to these tools, so I wanted to create a summary article.
My favourite tools for Simple Graphics are:
1. ColorZilla
I really only use two features with this tool at this time, but they are so great! I click on the little dropper at the top and choose pick colour from page. I then hover my mouse over the specific colour and then click. It is saved in my colour history. When I want to see the colour (and more important copy the code that I can use on websites and graphics) then I click on colour picker and there I can see the colour information (and other variations of this colour).
2. Pixabay
I have searched for a lot of sites that offer images free of copyrights and Pixabay is my favourite to date. You can use the images and you can decide if you want to donate to the artist who captured the image. There are ads for great images from Shutterstock that show up and try to tempt you to buy – that is how Pixabay pays to keep such a great site going.
3. Canva
There is a free version of Canva, which I used for a long time before signing up for the paid version. The features I use on the paid version at this time are: quick resizing and branding (canva saves my branding information – colours, logos, font, etc.)
I would say start with the free version for sure. Do the tutorials that go along with signing up. They are fun and will teach you quickly how the program works.
If you are wanting to create a poster or graphic — you will want to read 6 Tips to Create a Great Poster.
And if you click here – I have shared an editable version of a poster that I created for my Mom and her weekly yoga classes.(JUST MAKE SURE TO MAKE A COPY BEFORE YOU BEGIN TO EDIT THE TEMPLATE — so that others can use it).
One tip to remember when creating graphics is that you want to create a large enough image so that when you put it on your website/social media page or you print it out — it isn’t pixelated or fuzzy looking.
Feel free to connect with me in the comments below with any questions, ideas or the tools you use to create graphics.
