canva-designer

name	canva-designer
description	Canva design generation skill with prompt engineering, format specs, and quality review for logos, presentations, posters, and social media.
user-invocable	true

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:

1. Style direction: "minimalist", "bold and modern", "elegant and premium", "playful and colorful"
2. Color direction: Specify exact colors or palette mood — "using navy blue (#1E3A5F) with electric blue (#00B4D8) accents"
3. Layout intent: "with large hero image top, headline centered below" not just "a poster"
4. Target audience: "for C-suite executives" or "for university students" — this changes everything
5. Text hierarchy: "large prominent headline, medium subtitle, small supporting details"
6. 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.md for 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:

1. Text readable? — Not overlapping images, sufficient contrast, no cut-off text
2. No placeholders? — Zero "Lorem ipsum", "Your text here", or default Canva text
3. Spelling correct? — All visible text proofread
4. Color cohesive? — Max 3 primary colors + neutrals, consistent throughout
5. Balance? — No lopsided visual weight, adequate whitespace (20%+)
6. Correct dimensions? — Matches intended platform/use (see dimensions-reference.md)
7. Brand match? — Consistent with any established brand elements
8. See quality-checklist.md for the full detailed checklist.

Editing Best Practices

When using perform-editing-operations:

• Batch operations per page to minimize API calls
• Always use get-assets to 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.