While your organization’s reputation might add value to the certificates you issue, another way to do that is to design a certificate that looks amazing.
Beyond it being an actual award for one’s accomplishments, certificates are attached to our memory by invoking a feeling. Whether that feeling is a sense of pride, joy, or satisfaction, the look of the certificate must enhance it. The only way to do that is to design a sleek and elegant certificate that encompasses all your brand values.
Certificate design is similar to building a landing page, or an ad for a billboard. What you’re creating is going to be seen by countless people, so the design is just as important as your organization’s status for your certificate’s value.
You are designing something that an individual will cherish forever. So why not take some time to learn how to design something worth cherishing?
With these simple steps, you can do exactly that.
1. Understand your audience
A critical factor in certificate design is understanding who your recipients are before designing your certificates. Depending on your recipient demographic, your certificate’s design will change. Younger recipients among the ages of 6-12 will prefer a colorful, more playful design, whereas an older demographic would prefer an elegant, professional design.
Look at the examples below. The one on the left is more suited for a younger recipient, whereas the one on the right is more suited for a recipient in a professional environment.
2. Create a free Hyperstack Account
The next thing to do is to create a free Hyperstack account. Hyperstack has many benefits when it comes to designing and issuing certificates. You can read more in this article.
Once you create your Hyperstack account, which shouldn’t take longer than a minute, you will be redirected to your organization’s credential page where you can manage, create, and issue new credentials.
3. Designing Your Certificate
Hyperstack’s Credential Cloud not only stores your digital certificates and badges securely, but it also comes with our very own Design Studio platform. The Design Studio also natively integrates with Canva, allowing you to use all of the app’s features including its thousands of templates, benefits, and design experience.
On the homepage, head over to Hyperstack’s Design Studio by clicking here.
You should be greeted with a page like this.
Welcome to Hyperstack’s Design Studio!
4. Choose A Template
Whether or not you have design experience or just hired a designer, look through our certificate templates powered by Canva to let your imagination flow. With the first step, you should now be able to identify a certificate design that you and your future recipients connect with. Look for certificates that you would want to have, and that you would feel proud to receive.
5. Make It Your Own
Now that you have landed on a certificate design that you like, the final step is to make it yours. There are many ways to do this, and luckily for you, we’ve listed all of them
Incorporating Brand Colors
Building a brand is no easy task. Luckily, designing a certificate is one of the many ways you can incorporate your brand values into. Start simple by changing the colors of the certificate to fit your brand colors. Sometimes you might not have colors that work well with each other on something like a certificate. In that case, we recommend going through popular color schemes that work well with each other. Choose a color set that gives off a feeling that you want your brand to as well.
Customizing The Text
Most templates usually have some default text as a placeholder. Don’t make the mistake of keeping that text the same. Words are especially powerful in delivering a message to people and this is a great opportunity to do exactly that to your recipients. This can range anything from quotes that will resonate with your recipients to a personal message from you or the course instructor.
Customizing The Images
This is a no-brainer. Adding your brand, university, or company images such as your logo gives your recipients a personal reward that others can’t get without putting a reward. This is also the best way to showcase any collaborators or partners that helped your organization while building this course.
Customizing The Fonts
Font styles also play a major role in certificate design. Choose your fonts wisely as they are what will invoke a feeling as a recipient reads them. Different font styles will invoke different feelings. For example, Serif fonts are professional and formal, whereas Sans Serif fonts are informal and playful.
Adding Signatures
The final touch is adding signatures. Signatures from course instructors, principals, heads of organizing bodies, etc. Keep the number to a minimum, however. Too much of something is never good.
You don’t need a degree in design to create a powerful, thought-provoking digital credential. All you need is a bit of patience and passion.
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