Week 2 · September 17, 2026

The Seed Before the Screen

This week we talked about the decisions that happen before Canva: purpose, audience, message, planning, and the choices a designer makes before a page ever opens.

The Designer’s Starting Point

Designers learn to see, think, and work.

We returned to the Designer’s Starting Point Quiz from Week 1. Its questions gave us a beginning look at the habits and decisions we will develop throughout this course: noticing more, thinking through choices more carefully, and working through a design problem more deliberately.

SeeNotice what is present, what is missing, and what a person is likely to notice first.

ThinkAsk questions about purpose, audience, message, and the choices a design needs to make.

WorkUse a deliberate process to explore, build, revise, organize, and explain your decisions.

Chalkboard question

If Canva can help almost anyone make something look polished, what does a graphic designer actually do?

The tool helps us build. The designer decides what the work needs to do.

Canva tutorial

Canva Basics Part 1

Canva Basics Part 1 · A short tutorial on the controls we used to begin working in Canva. More Canva basics will be added as we continue.

The connection

Design does not begin at the tool.

Canva gives us fonts, colors, photographs, shapes, layouts, templates, and suggestions. Those are useful abilities. But before we use them, someone still has to understand the communication problem.

Business or organizationhas a goal

Marketingconnects the goal to people and a message

Graphic designturns the message into visual communication

Canva or another toolhelps build and deliver it

Before Canva, a designer asks: What are we trying to accomplish? Who needs to understand it? What matters most? What should they notice first? What response do we want? Where will this be seen?

The screen is not the beginning of the design problem.

The seed

Think before you build.

When we jump straight into Canva, it is easy to choose a size, style, image, or layout before we know whether it fits the problem. That can lead to a design that looks finished but communicates the wrong thing.

SEED is the process we will use to slow down, investigate, question, plan, and explore before software begins making our choices look polished.

Carry this forward: The seed comes before the screen. Think → Sketch → Choose → Build.

Templates

Templates contain somebody else’s decisions.

Templates can be useful, but they already include decisions about structure, type size, placement, color, image areas, spacing, alignment, and visual style. This is why we are starting our first exercise from a blank page.

A polished design is not necessarily a well-designed solution.

A professional habit

Name your files so you can find them.

Canva saves your work automatically, but the title you give a file still matters. As projects, revisions, and versions add up, a clear file name helps you and your teacher know what belongs to what.

Class file name: LastName_FirstInitial_ProjectName
Example: Escalante_P_ThreeThings
Later version: Escalante_P_ThreeThings_v02

First design exercise

Three Things About Me

Use a blank Canva page to introduce yourself visually through three things you want this class to know about you. This exercise intentionally gives you room to make your own choices. I want to see how you think through a design problem before I give you many design rules.

Start blankBegin with a blank Canva page. Do not use a Canva template or a pre-designed layout.

Choose three thingsInclude your name and exactly three things you want the class to know about you.

Sketch firstCreate at least two thumbnail sketches at home. Choose the stronger direction before building.

Use images if they helpYou may use up to three images: one image for each thing you choose to share. You do not have to use images.

Build with intentionUse text, basic shapes, lines, color, images, graphics, or a combination that helps communicate your choices.

Share it if you canSharing your work is optional for this round. The video explains how to share.

If you decide to share your work: Please include your two thumbnail sketches in the document with your Canva design. The sketches are not part of the finished design; they are part of the documentation of your process.

Weekly preparation

Before our next class

Bring your Three Things About Me work.

Bring your two thumbnail sketches and your finished Canva design.

One question to use while working

What does this design need to do?

Do not ask only, “Can I make this look good?” Ask what another person needs to understand from it. Then make choices you can explain.