A large part of a designer’s job in corporate settings can revolve around teaching others to do things that are classically in a communication designer’s wheelhouse. Yes, sometimes this can hurt a brand, but sharing skills and capabilities and teaching others to respect brand assets sets a higher baseline for refinement and innovation.

PROJECT TEAM
LEAD/STRATEGY: BRIE PAMPELL
VISUALS: LEON CONTRERAS, BRIE PAMPELL

A template solution with many levels of use

Once we decided to take the plunge and use canva.com to manage a template system for internal programs and departments to use, we had no idea that we would use it internally as well. We’ve been using this template solution to manage our year-long campaign, “Advance the World’s Prosperity,” and we’re able to quickly build out promotional graphics for a wide variety of publishing platforms.

Outcomes: We’ve had interest and usage from across the organization. Most that have used the template solution have stated that it was easy to use and faster than they anticipated.

Also, every time the templates are used, many hours of back and forth edits, print facilitation, and approvals are saved.

So what did I learn?

It’s exciting to go in and create a bunch of templates at once, but a better way to roll out a templating solution is to allow groups from around the organization to request materials, and then use those materials to create templates. This way, you’re creating useful templates that actually do what they’re made for, and you’re not creating templates that are unnecessary and unused.