TECH CLUBBOZOMA INNOVATION HUB

Session 27 • Page 1

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Session 27: Design with Canva

Every week you walk past posters, church and mosque notices, birthday flyers and WhatsApp statuses. Some you read at once; some you ignore. Today you will learn why, and then design your own poster, flyer and social media graphic for a real club or community event using Canva, a free online design tool.

1. Plain Talk: Design Is Like Arranging a Market Stall

Picture two tomato sellers at Makola Market. Auntie Esi piles everything in one heap: tomatoes, onions, pepper, empty sacks, her phone. Auntie Naa puts her best tomatoes in front, groups the onions in neat rows, leaves space so you can see each pile, and hangs one clear sign: "FRESH TOMATOES – GH₵10 a bowl". Who gets more customers?

A design is a stall for information. Good design puts the most important thing in front (the focal point), lines things up neatly (alignment), leaves breathing room (white space) and has one clear sign everybody can read from far away (the title).

Figure 27.0: The same information, two designs. Your eyes know where to go on the right.

🎨 WHAT IS CANVA?

Canva is a free design website (canva.com) with thousands of templates (ready-made designs you can change), pictures, shapes and fonts. Today you sign in with the Hub's learning account your mentor gives you, never your own or a parent's account. Some schools use Canva for Education, which is free for schools and has extra features.

The Design Basics

Session 27 • Page 2

1. Before You Touch the Computer: Purpose and Audience

Designers always answer three questions first. Write them on paper before you open Canva:

🎯 1. PURPOSE

What is it for? To invite, to inform, to sell, to warn?

👥 2. AUDIENCE

Who will read it? Pupils, parents, market traders, grandparents? Old eyes need bigger letters.

👉 3. ACTION

What should the reader do after reading? Come on Saturday, call a number, bring a bottle?

2. Five Rules That Make Any Design Look Good

Rule	What it means
Focal point	One thing grabs the eye first: a big title or one strong picture. If everything shouts, nothing is heard.
Hierarchy	Three levels of importance: the title (biggest), the key information (what, when, where; medium) and the details (smallest).
Alignment	Line things up along an invisible edge. Canva shows pink guide lines when an item is lined up with another.
White space	Empty space is not wasted space. It lets each part breathe, like the gaps between piles on a good stall.
Less is more	Only what the reader needs. Leave out the extra sentences; put them on a website or say them in person.

Figure 27.1: Hierarchy. Readers see the title, then the key information, then the details, in that order.

3. Your Turn: Sort the Hierarchy

Kofi is making a poster. Write 1 (title), 2 (key information) or 3 (details) next to each piece of text.

"Organised by JHS 2 Science Club. Call 024 000 0000 for more."
"SCIENCE FAIR"
"Friday 4 December • School Assembly Hall • 1 pm"

Fonts, Colour & Templates

Session 27 • Page 3

1. Fonts: Two Is Enough

A font is a style of letters. Use no more than two fonts in one design: one bold font for the title and one plain, easy-to-read font for everything else. Too many fonts look like a heap of different stalls.

✅ DO

• A strong heading font (for example Montserrat or Anton) plus a simple body font (for example Open Sans).
• Make the title much bigger than the rest.
• Keep body text big enough to read from a metre away when printed.

❌ DON'T

• Curly "handwriting" fonts for long sentences.
• ALL CAPITALS for whole paragraphs.
• Stretching text boxes so letters look squashed.

2. Colour and Contrast

In Session 23 you learned that slides need high contrast: dark text on a light background, or light text on a dark background. Posters follow the same law. Pick 2–3 colours and use them again and again (this is called a colour palette).

Figure 27.2: Contrast. If you have to squint, change the colours.

3. Templates Without Looking Like Everyone Else

A template is a ready-made design you change to fit your event. Templates save time, but if 20 pupils pick the same one, 20 posters look the same. Give your template a makeover:

Done?	Template makeover checklist
	Replace every piece of sample text (no "Lorem ipsum" or "Your Company" left behind!).
	Change the colours to your own palette of 2–3 colours.
	Swap the sample picture for one you are allowed to use that fits your event (see Page 4).
	Delete things you don't need, then move or resize parts so the layout is yours.
	Check the fonts: two at most.

👑 THE LITTLE CROWN

In Canva, items with a small crown are Pro (paid) items. On a free account they may print with a watermark or ask you to pay. Choose free items instead, or use the filter in the side panel to show free items only.

Pictures You Are Allowed to Use

Session 27 • Page 4

1. Copyright: Somebody Owns That Picture

When a person takes a photo, draws a picture or writes a song, the law says it belongs to them. This is called copyright. Finding a picture on Google does not mean it is free to use, just as finding a phone on a trotro seat does not make it yours.

Some creators kindly share their work with a Creative Commons (CC) licence. A licence is permission with rules. The most common rule is "BY": you may use it if you credit the creator (write their name). Other rules can say "not for selling" (NC) or "don't change it" (ND).

Figure 27.3: The picture traffic light. When in doubt, leave it out (or ask your mentor).

2. How to Give Credit

Put a small line at the bottom of your design (Level 3 size): Photo: Name of creator, licence, where you found it. Example: "Photo: Kwame Boateng, CC BY, via Wikimedia Commons." Canva's free library items don't need a credit line, but you still must not pretend you made them yourself.

🚫 NEVER USE SOMEONE'S PHOTO WITHOUT PERMISSION

A photo of your friend, your teacher or a stranger is not just a picture, it is a person. Always ask first, and never put a photo of anyone (including yourself) in a school uniform on a design that will be shared online. This is called the School Uniform Rule, and you will learn why in Session 33.

3. Your Turn: Allowed or Not?

Selasi wants to use…	Allowed	Not allowed
A free photo of a football from Canva's library.
A photo of the Black Stars he copied from a news website.
A CC BY photo of Kakum Park, with the photographer's name at the bottom.
His cousin's birthday photo from her WhatsApp status, without asking.

Guided Hands-On Lab: One Event, Three Designs

Session 27 • Page 5

1. Warm-Up: Poster Studio (3D Lab)

Open the Poster Studio 3D lab on your session page. Fix the poster on the easel: choose a template, tidy the layout, pick fonts and colours that work, and choose only pictures you may reuse. Then move to real Canva.

2. Lab Mission: Design for a Real Event

Your team chooses one event: the Tech Club Open Day, a community clean-up, a reading club or a football match. Each pupil makes all three designs. Your mentor will tell you which ones get printed.

Plan on paper: write the purpose, audience and action, and the title, key information and details (fictional phone numbers only).

Sign in: go to canva.com and sign in with the Hub's learning account. Click Create a design (or + Create; it may look slightly different) and search Poster. For an exact A4 page, choose Custom size and type 21 × 29.7 cm.

Poster: in the left side panel open Templates, pick one and give it the full makeover (Page 3 checklist). Add pictures from Elements or Photos, or your own from Uploads.

Name and download: click the design name at the top and rename it, e.g. TechClub_OpenDayPoster_AmaMensah. Then Share → Download, choose PDF Print, and download.

Flyer: create a new design with Custom size 14.8 × 21 cm (A5, half of A4, good for handing out). A flyer can carry a few more details than a poster. Download as PDF Print.

Social media graphic: create an Instagram Post (Square), 1080 × 1080 px. Copy your title and picture across (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V). Keep it short: it will be seen on a small phone screen. Download as PNG.

Print: open the poster PDF and print one copy (or your mentor prints the team's best). Check it from two metres away: can you read the title?

Design	Size	File type	File name
Poster
Flyer
Social media graphic

🏆 GALLERY WALK

At the end, put your poster on screen and walk around the room. Give each team one star for the clearest title and one for the best use of white space. Stars become team points!

Session 27 Review & Verification

Session 27 • Page 6

1. True or False?

Statement	True	False
A good poster uses as many different fonts as possible to look exciting.
The title should be the biggest and boldest text on a poster.
If a picture comes up on Google Images, anyone may use it for free.
White space (empty space) helps a design look clear and easy to read.
PDF Print is a good file type for a poster you want to print; PNG is good for a phone screen.

2. Written Review Questions

Question 1: Name three things you can change so a template no longer looks like everyone else's.

Question 2: What is Creative Commons, and what must you usually do when you use a CC picture?

3. Self-Assessment & Mentor Sign-Off

Tick the column that reflects your confidence at the end of Session 27:

Design Competency	With Help	Almost Alone	All By Myself!
1. I can plan a design using purpose, audience and hierarchy.
2. I can change a Canva template with my own text, colours, fonts and layout.
3. I can choose pictures I am allowed to use and credit them.
4. I can download a design as PNG or PDF and print it.

Mentor Signature: _____________________________

Date Completed: ____________________

BIH JHS Tech Club · a Bozoma Innovation Hub programme · Your answers are saved only on this computer.