3 Textures to Add to Your Canva Design to Make Them Stand Out
Want to take your Canva designs from bland to bold? Adding texture is an easy way to add visual interest and make your Canva creations stand out.
Canva is one of the most user-friendly graphic design platforms that make creating sleek graphics and designs SUPER simple. With its huge library of fonts, images, and design elements, anyone can make pro-level visuals.
Along with the elements they provide, there are a ton of different textures you can add into the background to jump on design trends that all the professional designers use!!
Oh, they are also a great addition to our Canva templates - let’s dive into our three favorite textures to add to Canva templates and designs!
How to Add a Texture to the Background in Canva
First, you need to find a texture that you like in Canva. It’s simple:
Head into the “ELEMENTS” tab in Canva
Type in the type of texture you want in the search bar
Browse through elements in both the “GRAPHICS” and “PHOTOS” section
Find one you like, and add it into your design
There are a few key things you need to keep in mind when you are adding any of these textures to your designs in Canva. When you find a texture you love, and you add it into your design, it may seem a bit harsh at first, and it doesn’t give you the visual effect you want.
The key here: you HAVE to add in your brand color or brand image to the background, and then lower the transparency of the texture… by a LOT!
Here is an example of a texture brought straight into a Canva design vs. when you lower the transparency of the design!
Once you make adjustments to the element, it will blend seamlessly into your design.
Adding a Paper Texture to your Canva Design
Maybe your brand leans a bit more into the whimsical side of things. Maybe you are an artist, you make handmade jewelry, or your brand is a bit more eco-conscious… you can add an artsy, craft-like vibe to your Canva designs with paper textures. These textures work beautifully for designs related to stationery, invitations, craft projects, and more.
Paper textures can be used in backgrounds, frames, and as overlays on photos. Just adjust the opacity levels to integrate the paper textures flawlessly into your design. The torn paper and folded paper textures are some of our favorites!
Adding a Grainy Texture to your Canva Design
Maybe your brand is a bit more on the edgy side. Maybe you are a personal trainer, or you are an out-of-the-box life coach, or your clothing brand incorporates a lot of grit into the garments… grainy textures will add grit, dimension, and visual interest to your Canva designs. They work well for vintage, grunge, or worn-looking aesthetics.
Use grainy textures in backgrounds, borders, and on text to add depth. Placing grainy textures behind quotes or thoughtful sayings makes them pop. The subtle grain helps enhance the message and follows really popular design trends on social media right now.
Adding a Plastic Texture to your Canva Design
Maybe your brand is a bit more quirky or really wants to appeal to Gen-Z. Maybe you are a personal stylist focusing on street fashion, or you are a photographer specializing in product photography... shiny plastic or chrome textures give your designs a sleek, futuristic vibe. They work for graphics promoting tech, sci-fi themes, or modern aesthetics.
Use plastic textures sparingly as overlays on photos, backgrounds, and on text to add a slick sheen. Plastic can easily overwhelm a design so be strategic with placement and opacity levels.
The next time you create an image, social media post, or design in Canva, don't forget to look through the texture options and have some fun! Tastefully adding textures makes designs stand out and gives them an extra visual edge.
And as we mentioned, these textures pair so well with our ready-to-customize Canva templates. Browse through some of our favorites below, and try adding textures that match YOUR brand!
grab a canva template… or two
These are our favorite templates that come with textured background in the design, or are super flexible enough that you can go in and add your own trendy texture.
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Manu Muraro is the founder of Your Social Team, an Instagram training membership and template shop that help social media managers and Instagram-savvy small business owners to grow engagement and sales using Instagram and content marketing, without the overwhelm. Born and raised in Brazil, Manu moved to the U.S. in 2000 right out of college to work for Cartoon Network, where she made an award winning career in creative and strategy. In 2021, Manu started Your Template Club, a Canva template subscription service to help social media professionals and Canva-savvy business owners to create content that performs on Instagram, add more Instagram features into their strategy, such as Instagram Lives and Reels, and save time.