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Regents communications staff review Canva, templates and basic design rules to improve clarity and accessibility
Summary
In a virtual workshop, a presenter walked staff through basic design principles (contrast, repetition, alignment, proximity), recommended brand colors and fonts, demonstrated Canva features (PDF upload, layers, transparency) and encouraged use of shared templates and an internal icon bank to speed production and improve consistency.
At a Board of Regents staff workshop focused on communications design, an unidentified presenter told attendees that "design is not decoration. It is, in fact, communication," and demonstrated practical tools and templates staff can use to create clearer, more accessible materials.
The presenter emphasized four core principles—contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity—and said following them makes documents easier to read and maintain across multiple offices. She recommended specific brand hex values (blue #23418F, orange #F2612D, gray #4D4D4D) and font families (Gotham for headlines, Source Sans Pro for body text), and noted that PowerPoint often uses Arial for compatibility on external machines.
On tools, the presenter contrasted Adobe Creative Cloud (Illustrator for vector graphics, InDesign for layouts, Photoshop for image edits) with Canva, which she said offers templates, brand kits and a "magic resize" feature. During a live demo she showed that Canva can import a PDF and convert it into editable elements, but that some layers and arrows may require manual fixes. She demonstrated arranging layers, changing icon colors, and using transparency for watermark effects.
The presenter urged staff to use shared templates and the internal asset library: she said her SharePoint folder contains roughly 600 icons and an internal communications drive holds about 3,000 photos of institutions and classrooms for reuse. "Templates are your friend," she said, and announced plans for an in‑depth, hands‑on graphics class in the new year that will require attendees to bring laptops.
S1 also showed how one‑pagers and materials for a tri‑agency teacher‑apprenticeship initiative were adapted to be Regents‑oriented, using a Venn diagram to clarify Louisiana Works, the Department of Education and the Regents’ roles. Participants asked practical questions (how to move icons behind text, how to change colors, and whether PDF upload is available in the free version of Canva); the presenter answered and offered to share links to templates and the internal library.
The presenter said she will follow up by email with the session recording, two handouts and an Adobe InDesign tips sheet.
