Welcome to the Accordus

Designer’s Hub

Your home for all things Accordus Design Team!

Do you have any questions or suggestions for additions to this Hub? Fill out the form below! We love to hear from you.

Teamwork
Dropbox
Canva
Tool Box
Email Design
Print Design
Web Design

We design with excellence, efficiency, care, and creativity.

At Accordus, we believe in excellent work and stewardship.

We are not a high-end boutique agency spending weeks perfecting a single deliverable. We are a high-impact partner supporting dozens of organizations at once. Our role is to help our clients show up consistently, clearly, and professionally, within the real constraints of their budgets, timelines, and capacity.

We honor our clients by:

  • Working efficiently

  • Communicating clearly

  • Making strong decisions without endless revisions

  • Using systems, templates, and brand guides wisely

  • Knowing when a project is “ready” and shipping it confidently

Our Systems

If you ever have any trouble logging into our systems please contact admin@accordus.com

Teamwork

We use Teamwork as our project management system at Accordus. This is where you will be assigned all your tasks, track your deadlines, and communicate with project managers and other team members.


If you are ever assigned via text/email or another medium, please have the person add the tasks to Teamwork. All tasks must go through Teamwork.

Dropbox

Dropbox is our primary file storage system aside from Canva. You should be saving everything you work on in Adobe in Dropbox. Save both your original files and finished files and package all your work when the project is complete or if you know someone else will have to finish or edit your work.

All brand assets (logos, brand guides, photos) for clients will also be stored in Dropbox.

  • Ask Questions! Best practice is to look through a task as soon as it is assigned to you and see if you have any questions for the client and/or team lead.

    Use the comment thread on the task to ask questions.

  • You can complete the tasks once you submit the Dropbox link/Canva file and the team lead will reopen the task or create a new one with edits.

  • Communicate! Quickly clearly. If an emergency comes up, reach out to the creative director for coverage or ask for a deadline extension from the team lead if possible. Above all else, communicate what is going on and make sure the work is covered.

  • Watch Video‍

    Brand guides/logos are also stored in Canva for every client.

  • Watch this.

  • You can ask the Team Lead if they know where the files/brand guide/photos are located; Check Canva to see if they are there; and finally reach out to Adrienne if you need further assistance.

Design Platforms

At Accordus, our designers primarily use Canva and the Adobe Suite. We encourage using Canva for the majority of projects for ease and efficiency, but we still see the value of using Adobe for more in-depth projects such as branding, personal illustrations, and larger booklets.

Canva

Key things to remember when using Canva:

Rename all files starting with the client’s name save files in their client project folder.

Why Canva works well for Accordus:

  • Easy handoffs: If another designer needs to jump in, make edits, or handle QA, they can do it quickly without hunting for files or rebuilding anything.

  • Simple to reuse and stay consistent: It’s easy to move between folders, use templates, and create similar layouts for different clients, even ones you don’t normally work with. You can also peek at other Accordians’ designs for ideas.

  • Quick movement: Adding GIFs or light animation is fast and doesn’t require extra tools.

  • Still looks professional: When a designer knows what they’re doing, Canva designs can look just as clean and polished as Adobe.

  • Everything in one place: Brand kits live right in Canva, so you’re not digging for logos, fonts, or colors, especially helpful when covering someone else’s client.

Designer Toolbox

QR CODES

All QR codes should be created on short.io. Access is found in Keeper.

Short.io is a tool that can help create Accordus-owned links that redirect to anywhere we need them to go on our own domain, link.accordus.com. It can also create QR codes, target those links, provide analytics on interaction with the links, and much more.

To add a new link, simply paste the destination link you wish to redirect to in the top bar, then the link editor modal will pop up where you can edit the URL path if desired.

Watch walk-through video here.

STOCK PHOTOS

Our preference is always to use photos from the client, but if stock photos are allowed and needed here are some common sources:

FONTS

  • Google Fonts (all of these are 100% free and available to use)

  • Adobe Fonts (included with subscription)

  • Creative Market (for purchase or free downloads) (if needed for purchase we must get client approval and reach out to the Creative Director)

  • Other free font sites such as Dafont, 1001 Free Fonts, Font Squirrel, etc.

    • IMPORTANT NOTE: Fonts from these sites are generally for *personal use only* meaning we cannot use them for our clients. Make sure the license is available for free before using

CLIENT CREATIVE PROFILES

All of our clients have Creative Profiles in their Canva project folders.

Your job as a designer is to keep these up to date and accurate with feedback, preferences, and examples from the client. This is crucial to our NO REPEATS culture. If we don’t want to repeat something a client has told us, we must record it here.

Here is an example profile.

Brand Guides & Logos

Brands and logos are often projects where we need the creative freedoms allowed by Adobe software.

Email Graphics

At Accordus, emails are one of the primary assets we regularly design for our clients. Many of our clients send out regular newsletters, event reminders, and announcements. And the majority of clients run regular fundraising email campaigns throughout the year.

Email Design 101

  • Most people decide in 3-5 seconds if they will keep reading; we must be clear and eye-catching “above the fold”

  • Make sure the graphics follow the client’s style and brand, making it clear who the email is coming from (use logos in the header, key brand colors, etc). There should never be any question about who it’s coming from

  • Make sure the email's message is clear. The graphics should not compete with the message; they should enhance it.

  • Have clear Calls to Action throughout the email using clear, large buttons

  • Sometimes less is more! White space is your friend. At times, suggest limited or no graphics in an email series; these can perform better

  • Ask yourself - can someone skim this in 5 seconds and know what to do? People don’t read emails; they scan them.

  • Mobile first!! Most people read emails on their phones. Make sure text is readable without zooming, buttons are obvious and tappable.

  • For body graphics, use the text to highlight and draw out important information/impactful quotes, etc.

You’ve been assigned a task to design graphics for an email.

Here’s a walkthrough of your workflow:

You are responsible for designing the graphics (header, body graphic, footer, buttons, signatures, etc.) then our Communication Coordinators will use the graphics and text to build out emails in Mailchimp, Constant Contact, or other similar platforms.

The task should include detailed information about what is needed on the graphics and/or the text of the email to help guide you in graphic creation. If you don’t have enough information, ask before you work!

Email FAQs

  • You are responsible for designing the graphics (header, body graphic, footer, buttons, signatures, etc.) then our Communication Coordinators will use the graphics and text to build out emails in Mailchimp, Constant Contact, or other similar platforms.

  • Graphics must be at least 650 px wide. The height varies and there is creative freedom here to have some tall and some short graphics. We usually start with a 1200px × 1200px art board in Canva and adjust the height as needed.

    Buttons should be at least 50 px tall and 200-280 px width and generous padding all around.

    If you have questions around sizing look at other Canva files or ask your Communications Coordinators.

  • Ask for direction and clarification immediately on the task from the communications coordinator. Text should be provided before grahics are made.

Print Graphics

  • Bleeds and Crops

Christmas Cards

6DI Christmas Card

You’ve been assigned a task to design a print project.

Here’s a walkthrough of your workflow:

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Print FAQs

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