When you’re creating content for social media, looking professional isn’t just about the quality of your photos or videos. It’s also about how you design around them. That’s why understanding the basics of graphic design can completely change the way your posts are received. The good news is you don’t need to be a trained designer to pull this off. With Canva and Packsia, you can create scroll-stopping, on-brand designs in just a few minutes. 

Our videos are made to be super customizable in Canva, giving you a polished foundation to layer on your text, graphics, and branding. Whether you’re adding bold typography, experimenting with color palettes, or making use of white space, Packsia gives you a professional starting point that makes your designs shine. Think of it as having a design assistant built right into your content library, one that’s already set up for the kind of visual success you see from big brands.

If you’ve ever felt intimidated by design jargon, don’t worry. We’ve pulled together a cheat sheet of the most important graphic design terms you need to know. Learning these terms will not only help you speak the language of design but also give you the tools to create content that feels more cohesive, professional, and intentional. Let’s dive in.

Balance

Balance refers to the way visual weight is distributed in your design. A perfectly symmetrical design feels classic and structured, while asymmetry feels more modern and dynamic. Neither is right or wrong—it’s about the mood you want to create. Packsia videos make this easy because they’re shot with natural balance in mind, so when you drop them into Canva you already have a centered or evenly weighted base to start from. Adding text or graphics in Canva then becomes a matter of fine-tuning rather than fixing, which saves you time and effort.

Hierarchy

Hierarchy is how you guide your audience’s eye to the most important parts of your content. Bigger, bolder elements grab attention first, while smaller, lighter elements provide supporting information. On a social media graphic, this could mean making your headline large and high-contrast, while keeping a subheading subtle. When you use Packsia videos in Canva, you’re working with footage that already has strong focal points. This makes it simple to align your text or graphics so that the most important message stands out.

Contrast

Contrast makes your designs come alive. It can be light against dark, thick against thin, or large against small. Without contrast, everything blends together, and your message gets lost. High-quality Packsia videos already contain built-in contrast (through colors, lighting, or textures) which means when you overlay text or graphics in Canva, they naturally stand out. For example, white text on a dark-toned Packsia background immediately feels bold and clean without extra adjustments.

White Space

White space, or negative space, is the area left empty around elements in a design. It’s not wasted space but rather the breathing room that makes a design feel clean and uncluttered. Social media is often crowded with busy visuals, so using white space is a smart way to grab attention. Packsia videos are shot with thoughtful spacing in the frame, which gives you room to place text, logos, or stickers in Canva without overwhelming the design. That empty space is what makes the finished product look intentional and polished.

Typography

Typography is more than just picking a font, it’s about how you style and arrange text to create a certain look or mood. The spacing between letters (kerning) and the spacing between lines (leading) can transform how readable your design feels. For creators, Canva makes experimenting with typography easy, and when you pair it with Packsia videos, you get backgrounds that are clean, modern, and versatile. This means your typography choices won’t clash with the visuals, allowing your words to stand out clearly and beautifully.

Color Theory

Colors are powerful storytelling tools. Complementary colors (like blue and orange) create energy, while analogous palettes (like teal, green, and blue) feel calm and harmonious. Packsia videos are created with high-quality, flexible color palettes that you can adapt to fit your brand’s identity inside Canva. Whether your brand leans into muted neutrals or bold brights, you can easily adjust overlays, text colors, or filters while keeping the video background consistent and visually strong.

Composition

Composition is how all the elements in a design fit together to create a cohesive whole. Principles like the rule of thirds or the golden ratio can help you structure layouts that feel natural to the human eye. Packsia videos are shot with composition in mind, which means when you add design layers in Canva, you’re building on top of visuals that already follow these timeless rules. The end result is content that feels professional with very little extra work on your part.

Why These Terms Matter for Creators

Graphic design doesn’t have to feel intimidating or overly technical. By learning these terms and applying them to your process, you’ll notice your content immediately looks more refined and intentional. And when you combine these principles with Packsia’s customizable videos using Canva, you get the best of both worlds: a library of beautiful, professionally shot content and the flexibility to make it your own. That’s how you build a feed that’s not only consistent and on-brand but also visually compelling enough to stop someone mid-scroll.

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