Canva made simple
How vet practices can easily create on-brand graphics
Whether you're a seasoned Canva user or brand new to the platform, you've probably noticed it's incredibly user-friendly, with thousands of ready-made templates available. While these templates offer a great starting point, it's easy to lose your unique brand identity by continuously jumping between different designs.
This blog isn't about how to use Canva—it’s about how to use Canva efficiently, ensuring your visuals stay on-brand and communicate clearly. Your graphics should reflect your unique practice identity, not just showcase the latest cool template you found. Here’s how you can seamlessly integrate Canva into your daily routine while maintaining a consistent and professional brand look.
1. Set up your brand kit
Your Brand Kit acts as your design blueprint, ensuring consistency across everything you create. Start by selecting your main colours—those that best represent your practice’s personality, whether that’s calming, cheerful or clinical.
Next, pick your fonts—ideally no more than two: one for headings and another for body text. Clarify your practice’s style too: are you friendly, professional, reassuring, or perhaps a blend of these?
Once you’ve made these choices, save them directly into Canva’s Brand Kit. This way, your colours, fonts and logos are always at your fingertips, eliminating guesswork and maintaining consistency across all your communications.
2. Organise your workspace efficiently
An organised workspace is key to managing your time effectively—something particularly valuable in a busy vet practice. Create specific folders within Canva for different content types, such as social media posts, website banners, print materials and in-clinic signage. Clearly label files with descriptive names (e.g., “DentalMonth_FBPost_2025”), so you can quickly find and reuse them.
3. Design with local pet owners in mind
Always keep your audience in mind — local pet owners who value warmth, professionalism and genuine care. The images you use should reflect that. Whether you’re choosing real photos of your team or using stock images, make sure they represent veterinary care at its best.
Avoid stiff, awkward poses, scared-looking pets or overly clinical vibes. There are thousands of stock photos on Canva, but not all of them will feel right for your brand. Choose images that feel natural, confident and welcoming — like your practice.
Quiz time!
One of these vet photos is a little off… can you spot it?
One of these vet images is a staged stock photo, the other is the real deal from an actual practice.
Slide through to find out which is which — and why the difference matters.
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4. Leverage templates for recurrent content
Templates are your secret weapon for consistent and efficient branding. Regularly recurring communications, like newsletters, appointment reminders and seasonal campaigns, benefit greatly from having dedicated templates. By consistently using templates, your audience learns to recognise and trust your content, ultimately strengthening your brand’s presence and professionalism.
Additionally, save yourself even more time by duplicating and adapting existing designs rather than starting from scratch each time. This not only accelerates your workflow but ensures visual consistency across your marketing materials.
Top Tip: Canva has thousands of templates to choose from, which can be both a blessing and a curse. It's easy to get sidetracked by new styles and trends, but always refer back to your brand guidelines and existing templates to stay consistent. If you're feeling creative and want to try something different, save it for a one-off, limited-time campaign. This is a great opportunity to test what resonates with your audience without straying too far from your core brand identity.
OR
Quiz time!
Can you spot the best design?
One of these layouts follows key design principles—like clear messaging, visual balance and consistent styles. The other falls short in a few areas.
Slide through to see which one gets it right — and why those details make all the difference.
Getting started with Canva might feel overwhelming at first, but with a clear brand foundation and some smart habits, it quickly becomes a powerful part of your marketing toolkit. Here are some additional tips to help you create unique and visually appealing designs that truly stand out:
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Keep it simple: Less is more—especially when adding text to images. Stick to key details such as event or special offer type, date and pricing. Real, minimally edited photos of your team and patients often resonate most with your audience.
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Test on mobile: Always check readability and clarity on smaller screens.
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Outsource for uniqueness: Consider hiring a professional designer for bespoke logos, icons or illustrations to elevate your brand visuals. Upload these custom assets into Canva Brand Kit and easily integrate them into your daily marketing materials for a unique look.
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Check performance: Review past content engagement to identify successful styles and themes.
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Stay inspired: Follow Canva and design experts on social media for continuous inspiration and updates.
Vet practice marketing
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If you’re eager to improve your practice’s marketing but you’re unsure where to start, I’m taking on new clients for the next quarter! Book an initial discovery below!
