Canva is an intuitive, all-in-one design platform that simplifies content creation for everyone.
Canva for Campus
We’re excited to offer Canva for Campus to our communicators, designers and administrators, empowering you to create stunning visuals quickly and efficiently while maintaining the integrity of the Carnegie Mellon University brand.
University Communications and Marketing (UCM) is committed to providing our community with the best tools to tell the CMU story. We brought in Canva as a central, accessible solution to make content creation simpler across campus. By having one consistent platform, we can make sure all our communications — from social media graphics to presentations — are professional and look cohesive.
Canva gives you access to a wealth of resources and functionality. It’s designed to complement our existing brand resources, including the Carnegie Mellon Brand Website and our Brand Center housed in our Digital Asset Management (DAM) system.
Gaining Access
Canva for Campus is currently available only to CMU staff. We will be opening up Canva to students in the future.
Canva is structured using “teams.” Your CMU account will be automatically added to the right team for your department or role. Each team receives four free seats, and UCM is handling the license and seat distribution.
If you are a CMU staff member and would like to inquire about Canva, you should first speak with the lead communicator within your department, school or college. You can request access for a team through our request form. Your lead communicator will request access on your behalf or grant you access to their existing team. If you have questions about access, please email marketing-info@andrew.cmu.edu.
What Is Included?
Your Canva license gives you powerful tools to create on-brand content with ease:
- Brand Kits: These kits have all our official logos, colors and fonts, so your designs will always be consistent with our brand guidelines.
- Brand Templates: You’ll have a whole library of pre-approved templates for just about anything: social media posts, presentations, posters and flyers, to name a few.
- Custom Templates: UCM can create custom templates for your department’s specific needs through our chargeback model. Complete our project request form to get started.
Approvals and team management: As a team admin, you will control permissions, approval settings, member management and much more.
Support and Resources
Learn to Use Canva
The best way to understand Canva is to use their website’s in-depth help section, which provides answers to commonly asked questions.
Get the Most Out of Canva
We're here to help:
- Canva Training: Quarterly Team Admin meetings to discuss Canva updates, training and team-specific support.
- Communication: Includes a bimonthly newsletter and an annual Canva live event hosted at UCM.
- Support Documentation: For Canva designs being sent to a printer, it’s very important to follow our directions and guidelines to get high-quality results. This guide will walk you through the recommended process for preparing and downloading your files for print.
- Contact Support: If you have questions about access, templates or just how to use Canva please email marketing-info@andrew.cmu.edu.