Canva Designer — Professional Design Generation
Use this skill when generating Canva designs via MCP tools. Apply these principles to every generate-design, request-outline-review, generate-design-structured, and perform-editing-operations call.
Query Engineering for generate-design
The query parameter is the most important factor in output quality. Always include:
- •Style direction: "minimalist", "bold and modern", "elegant and premium", "playful and colorful"
- •Color direction: Specify exact colors or palette mood — "using navy blue (#1E3A5F) with electric blue (#00B4D8) accents"
- •Layout intent: "with large hero image top, headline centered below" not just "a poster"
- •Target audience: "for C-suite executives" or "for university students" — this changes everything
- •Text hierarchy: "large prominent headline, medium subtitle, small supporting details"
- •Whitespace: Always include "with generous whitespace and clean layout" — Canva defaults tend to be too busy
Anti-patterns to avoid:
- •Vague queries: "make a nice poster" — always be specific
- •No color guidance: leads to random, incoherent palettes
- •Ignoring the audience: a startup pitch deck should feel different from a government report
- •See
prompt-patterns.mdfor complete query templates by design type.
Design Type Decision Matrix
| User Need | Canva Tool | design_type | Key Consideration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Logo | generate-design | logo | Request 4 candidates, evaluate scalability |
| Presentation | request-outline-review first | presentation | ALWAYS outline review before generation |
| Social media | generate-design | platform-specific | Match exact platform dimensions |
| Poster / flyer | generate-design | poster or flyer | Specify physical size and bleed |
| Infographic | generate-design | infographic | Clear hierarchy, data emphasis |
| Business doc | Prefer cowork-win tools | N/A | Use create_word/create_pdf for structured docs |
Quality Gates — Before Committing Any Design
Run this mental checklist before calling commit-editing-transaction:
- •Text readable? — Not overlapping images, sufficient contrast, no cut-off text
- •No placeholders? — Zero "Lorem ipsum", "Your text here", or default Canva text
- •Spelling correct? — All visible text proofread
- •Color cohesive? — Max 3 primary colors + neutrals, consistent throughout
- •Balance? — No lopsided visual weight, adequate whitespace (20%+)
- •Correct dimensions? — Matches intended platform/use (see
dimensions-reference.md) - •Brand match? — Consistent with any established brand elements
- •See
quality-checklist.mdfor the full detailed checklist.
Editing Best Practices
When using perform-editing-operations:
- •Batch operations per page to minimize API calls
- •Always use
get-assetsto inspect existing images before replacing — verify which image is which - •Preserve existing styles — when replacing text, maintain the original font/size unless intentionally changing
- •Get thumbnails of every modified page after operations and show them to the user
- •Never commit without explicit user approval — always ask first
Presentation-Specific Rules
When using request-outline-review + generate-design-structured:
- •topic: Be specific — "Q4 2025 Revenue Analysis for Board Meeting" not "quarterly update"
- •audience: Specify role + knowledge — "C-suite executives familiar with SaaS metrics"
- •style: Match brand — "minimalist" for tech, "elegant" for luxury, "digital" for modern
- •Slide descriptions: Max 90 characters each, focus on the KEY message
- •length: "short" (1-5) for executive summaries, "balanced" (5-15) for standard
- •One idea per slide. If you need a second idea, add a second slide.