Design a sign

A sign in Brix is a design: a canvas that holds layers of text, images and shapes. This guide shows you how to make one, from a ready-made template or from your own artwork. Anybody who prepares the content for a screen can follow it.

What you can do

• Start from a template — Pick a ready-made design for your industry and make your own copy of it.
• Import your artwork — Bring a Photoshop file or a flat image in as a new design.
• Lay out the canvas — Add text, images, shapes and template blocks, and place them exactly.
• Style every layer — Set the font, the color, the fill and the frame in the Box tab.
• Preview the result — Play the design full screen the way a paired screen renders it.
• Keep your designs tidy — Open, rename or delete the designs your workspace holds.

Find a template for your screen

1. Open Content > Templates. The Browse tab opens first.
2. Select Landscape or Portrait with the toggle at the right end of the filter bar.
3. Select an industry tile to open every template for that industry.
4. Narrow the look with the Style chips: All, Clean, Soft, Board or Lux.
5. Set the Mode toggle to Auto, Light or Dark.
6. Select ← All industries to go back to the overview.

Search the whole catalog

1. Type a word into Search templates… in the filter bar.
2. Or pick an entry from the Kind list. Any kind of sign clears that filter.
3. Read the results heading, which counts the matches.
4. Select Clear search to go back to browsing by industry.

Preview a template before you use it

1. Select a template card to open the large preview.
2. Hover the preview to show Replay animation.
3. Select Replay animation to watch the build-in a second time.
4. Press Escape to close the preview without creating anything.

Turn a template into your own design

1. Select Use this template in the preview. Or hover a card and select Use.
2. Wait for the card to stop reading Opening…. The editable copy opens in the Creative Canvas editor.
3. Select the name in the canvas header and type your own name for the design.
4. Edit the content of each layer.
5. Press Save.

Import a Photoshop file or an image

1. Open Content > Templates.
2. Select Upload in the page header. The button reads Importing… while it works.
3. Choose a .psd file to get each readable Photoshop layer as its own box.
4. Or choose a .png, .jpg, .svg, .webp or .gif file to get one full-bleed layer.
5. Wait for the editor to open.
6. Add text or shapes on top of a flat image with the tools in the topbar.

Add a layer

1. Select Text, Image, Shape or Template in the topbar to drop that layer on the canvas.
2. Select Apps for the Celebrations and Event Board blocks, and pick one from the flyout.
3. Select Data to insert a live field from a data source.
4. Press Escape to close a flyout.

To feed a design from a live source, read live data on screen.

Position and size a layer

1. Drag the layer on the canvas. Alignment guides appear as the layer lines up with the canvas or another layer.
2. Drag a round corner handle to resize the layer from that corner.
3. Nudge the selection with the arrow keys. Hold Shift for a coarser step.
4. Hold Alt with an arrow key to resize the layer.
5. Open the Box tab to type exact percentages, set the rotation, or press an alignment button.

Edit the text on a layer

1. Double-click a text layer on the canvas to retype it in place.
2. Press Enter to keep the new text, or Escape to cancel it.
3. Or select the layer and edit the Text field in the Box tab.
4. Select Tag beside the text field to insert a live value.
5. Pick a tag such as the company name, the date or the weather.
6. Read the "Preview:" line under the field to see what the tag resolves to.

Style a layer

1. Select the layer.
2. Open the Box tab.
3. Set Font, Weight, Color and Align.
4. Tick Auto-fit, or type a font size.
5. Set a Background fill. Untick None first if the layer has no fill yet.
6. Open Advanced for the frame color and width, the corner rounding and the opacity.
7. Use the same Advanced section for the arrange order, the lock and the hide control.

Set the canvas size

1. Open the Canvas list in the canvas header.
2. Pick Landscape · 1920×1080 or Portrait · 1080×1920.
3. Or pick Custom… to type a width and a height in pixels.
4. Read the line under the stage, which repeats the stage size and the layer count.

Name the design and save it

1. Select the name in the canvas header and type a new one.
2. Set Owned by if your workspace has locations, so the right team can edit the design.
3. Press Save in the topbar.
4. Watch for the button to read Saved, which means nothing is left to write.
5. Press Ctrl or Cmd with Z to undo a step. Add Shift to redo it.

See the design as a screen shows it

1. Press Save first, so Brix does not ask you about unsaved changes.
2. Select Preview in the editor topbar.
3. Check that the live tags and the bound fields resolve to real values.
4. Select Exit preview, or press Escape, to go back to the editor.

Work bigger without leaving the editor

1. Select the fullscreen icon in the canvas header.
2. Keep dragging and editing layers. The canvas stays live.
3. Press Escape, or select Exit fullscreen, to go back to the normal layout.

Open a saved design

1. Open Content > Templates.
2. Select the Your designs tab.
3. Select a card to open that design in the Creative Canvas editor.
4. Or select New design in the page header to start from an empty canvas.

Delete designs you no longer need

1. Open the Your designs tab.
2. Hover a card and select the checkbox in its top-right corner.
3. Hold Shift and select a second card to take a whole range.
4. Select Delete N in the bar at the bottom of the page.
5. Read the note about playlists and schedules.
6. Confirm the deletion.
7. Select Clear instead if you picked the wrong cards.

Edit a classic template

1. Open the Your designs tab.
2. Select a card in the Classic templates section.
3. Type over the fields in the Content section. The preview on the right follows as you type.
4. Pick an Industry and a Style at the top of the left column.
5. Switch between Landscape and Portrait, and between Auto, Light and Dark.
6. Tick Brand fill to paint the design in your brand colors.
7. Toggle the Motion chips to turn each effect on or off.

Publish a classic template to a screen

1. Select Publish to screen in the header.
2. Pick a screen from the list.
3. Read the confirmation, which names the screen.

Where to go next

• To make the layers move, read animate a design.
• To limit what another team can change, read share a template and lock what others can change.
• To play the design in a sequence, read build a playlist.