20 Most Creative Certificate Design Templates (Modern Styles for 2021)

What better way to let your employees, students, coworkers or volunteers know you appreciate and celebrate their hard work than with a beautifully executed certificate of achievement? Creative certificate templates can help.

Just one of the many stunning certificate template designs offered at Envato Elements

If you want to create a certificate of achievement for a special celebration, Envato Elements and GraphicRiver have the very best creative certificate template designs. Today we'll share the 20 most creative design ideas to be found at both sites. Whether you're a fan of modern certificate template designs, minimalist certificate design, or unique certificate design that's really out of the box, there's plenty to see.

Ultimately, the best certificate design template is going to depend on your focus. So, how will you decide on your certificate best design options? Check out this list for certificate design ideas.

Best Source for Creative Certificate Template Designs (With Unlimited Use)

Before we begin, let's talk about what makes Envato Elements one of the best sites for creative certificate design inspiration.

Elements offers truly creative certificate of appreciation.
Once you buy a template you can customise it to fit your needs.
Keep making changes to your template to adapt it for different occasions.
The modern certificates of completion at Envato will save you money. Download as many as you like for one low price.

5 Amazing Certificate Design Templates (From Envato Elements)

You've just seen a preview of the great reasons to use the templates at Elements. Now let's look at five of the amazing certificate designs available. Download one today, or enjoy this collection of cool certificate design ideas:

1. Abstract Creative Certificate Design Template

The Abstract Certificate template offers a colourful geometric background pattern on which you can write your text. The standout feature is the white overlay feature. It resembles paint dripping down the creative certificate.

The template is American letter size. The three vector EPS files are fully layered for easy customization in Adobe Illustrator. This creative certificate design has a lot of potential.

2. Modern Certificate Design Template Pro

Most creative certificate templates are going to be eye catching. But those working in creative industries will appreciate Certificate / Diploma Template Pro with its clean and artsy design and wonderful fonts. This minimalist certificate design uses a US letter size with a .25-inch bleed area and is well organized and easy to customize. If you're looking for a modern certificate design template with a stylish vibe, give this one a try.

3. Colourful Creative Certificate Design

Customize this colourful creative certificate to suite your brand. You'll have a creative certificate of appreciation in your hands in no time. The US letter size template comes with a help file is editable in Photoshop or Illustrator. If you get stuck, you can figure out where you went wrong and how to course correct. The certificate modern design elements here are really stylish.

4. Art Deco Certificate (Beautiful Certificate Design)

This Art Deco Certificate is perfect for those looking for amazing certificate designs with a whole lot of pizazz. One of the most creative certificates offered at Elements. This unique certificate design is US letter size, features cool art deco design touches. It's fully customisable in photoshop. Modern certificates are nice, but how about an unusual, cool certificate design like this one?

5. Modern Certificate Template with Paint Effect

Elements creative certificate of appreciation come in such a wide range of styles. This creative certificate takes its inspiration from a smear of wet paint of several hues semi-blended together. The modern certificate of completion comes with three vector EPS files in US letter size, which are fully editable in Illustrator. It's an excellent choice for a unique certificate with a modern design.

Envato Elements (Design Without Limits)

Envato Elements - Great template at one low price

Envato Elements' certificate design template designs are professional, versatile and easy to use. With unlimited downloads, choose as many modern certificates of completion as you want. Customize any modern certificates you like. Download, edit, and get your design completed today.

That's the beauty of Envato Elements. One low monthly fee = unlimited access to the best award certificate designs. You'll also get access to thousands of premium digital assets like logos, fonts, photos, business card templates and much more.

Not sure of what certificate style you prefer? With Elements, try out as many as you like. There's so many beautiful certificates to choose from. Find the best certificate design template for your project today.

If you're looking to buy just one creative certificate of appreciation, GraphicRiver may be a better option for you.

Best Source for Creative Certificate Template Designs (Buy One at a Time)

For more cool certificate design inspiration, GraphicRiver is another great resource. While Elements is the best award certificate design source when you want to buy many templates and other resources as well. GraphicRiver is better for those who prefer to buy a single template rather than many templates and resources as part of a monthly plan.

15 Most Creative Certificate Design Templates (Modern Styles for 2020/2021)

For a one-off template when your budget is tight, Graphic River is a great option for the best award certificate design. There's plenty of design inspiration for finding your certificate best design approach.

Let's look at 15 creative certificate design ideas from GraphicRiver:

1. Watercolor Corporate Certificate Template

When you need to celebrate an employee or student's achievement, this creative certificate design is a terrific choice. The beautiful pack of certificate templates features a yellow green watercolour design at the top of the certificate that gives way to white space. The files come in both portrait and landscape for your convenience. And this beautiful certificate design is fully editable in Illustrator.

2. Modern Certificate Template

This creative certificate template is a great selection for contemporary companies who are looking for creative certificate designs that fit with their corporate image. The A4 format comes in both portrait and landscape versions for your convenience. Customise the templates with your choice of Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. This certificate modern design approach is clean and stylish.

3. Modern Creative Certificate Design Template

Bring a smile to your employee's face and make them feel valued with this awesome modern certificate design template. The sleek design and colourful geometric shapes will impress the recipient and convey the professional look you're going for. The template comes in both A4 and US letter size. Customize it using your choice of Photoshop, Illustrator and Microsoft Word.

4. Modern Dynamic Diploma Award Certificate

Looking for some cool certificate design inspiration? Check out this cool template. Primary colours work well together. They'll always arrest the eyes. So, add your text and use the template as is or change the colours to reflect your brand.

Use this for your awards event, and make the recipient feel proud and acknowledged. The A4 template gives you a choice of either a portrait or landscape design.

5. Modern Minimalist Certificate

If you're looking for certificate design ideas that are bit more traditional, this professional template uses a simple duo colour bar down one side that ends in the certificate emblem. The best certificate designs are both memorable and stylish.

Choose between portrait and landscape. You can also change the colour of your bar, the background of your certificate and all other aspects of this design.

6. Certificate Design Template

Are you looking for a modern certificate of completion or achievement with a stylish flair? Then you've got to see this gorgeous certificate with its bright bold swirl of colour across the middle. The template is made in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. It comes in both A4 and US letter size. It also comes in three striking colours. But you can change image, text and colour to suit your taste and needs.

7. Creative Certificate Template

Nothing says we appreciate you more than this striking creative certificate template with its gorgeous wave of colour, line and texture down one side. It's also got a subtly patterned background.

The A4 template provides AI and EPS files. So, you can edit quickly and easily in Illustrator.

8. Corporate Certificate

Recognise a valued employee with this certificate of appreciation template. It offers a clean design with a touch of colour in the beautiful shards found in opposite corners of the template. These clean and colourful geometric shapes give the template a contemporary professional look while keeping the design simple.

9. Squares Certificate

This cool certificate design with its subtle monochromatic colour accents uses a similar idea to the one above. But it replaces the brightly coloured shards with square shapes of varying sizes. Customise the A4 template in Illustrator by adding your own text or changing the fonts and colours as needed.

10. Multicoloured Lines Certificate

This fabulous certificate of achievement can't help but catch the eye. It's got colourful swirls at the top and lower left corner. The A4 template comes in both landscape and portrait and is easy to customise.

11. Modern Multicoloured Certificate

For more certificate design ideas from the designer featured above, check out this template. It uses triangular flags across the top left of the design to add bit of fun and lightheartedness to the design. Like the template above, this one's also an A4 template that comes in both landscape and portrait. It's customisable in Illustrator.

12. Clean Certificate

Here's cool certificate design inspiration with a different touch. The A4 template uses a patterned background and poly line mesh design in opposite corners. Use either Photoshop or Word to customise your template quickly and easily.

13. Modern Multipurpose Certificate

Here's another modern certificate of completion and appreciation that uses corner shards to draw the eye to the text on the certificate. This certificate distinguishes itself by using a subtle illustration of a world map in the background. The US letter size template comes in three colour versions. Use it in landscape or portrait.

14. Creative Certificate Design

Never has black looked so good. Use this gorgeous template with its black background to make your text pop. Of course, if you prefer the traditional white background you can always change the colour when you customise the A4 template.

15. Certificate Template Design

Keeping with the black background theme, this certificate of achievement template features a stunning pattern of lines. The A4 template uses three colour variations. Edit it in Illustrator. There's also a full set of instructions just in case you need them. Check out this creative certificate template today.

How to Customize a Creative Certificate Design in Adobe Photoshop

Found the best certificate design template for your project, but not sure what to do next? Let's take a look at Adobe Photoshop and some key aspects you need to know to customize your creative certificate design.

We'll use this modern certificate template in this demonstration. You can download it now on Envato Elements. It also includes an Illustrator AI file and EPS file, if you prefer those formats.

Or you can work with a different creative certificate design template. The skills are transferrable.

modern certificate design — This creative certificate design template is available for download now on Envato Elements.

Let's get started:

1. The Layers Panel Is Essential

When working in Adobe Photoshop, especially when your modern certificate template is a PSD file, your Layers panel is essential. This is where we can see the layered pieces of the design. In this panel, we can hide, remove, add, and adjust content more easily.

If you don't see the Layers panel, go to Window > Layers to open it up.

Notice how we see a list of content here. Click on the eye icon to toggle visibility on and off for any part of the layered design.

In this example, the layers have been organized in folders. Click on the triangle beside the folder to expand them, so you can see the contents inside.

2. Edit Text With the Type Tool

Now that we know how to review our contents, let's turn to the Type tool. It's located in your Tools panel, and it looks like a letter "T".

Select the Type tool. Then, click on any existing text in your layout to edit it. Once the text is active, type and edit as you would in standard word processing software.

To add new text (rather than editing existing text in your creative certificate template), click in a space without text with the Type tool selected. Or create a New Layer in your Layers panel (click on the plus sign at the bottom of the Layers panel). Then click with the Type tool. Choose the method that's easiest for you.

3. Move and Adjust Your Layout

Let's say you want to move an entire part of your modern certificate design. Again, this is why the Layers panel is so important. Here, we can more easily select one specific part of our design.

In this example, we can open up the folder labeled Content in our Layers panel. Then, with the Move tool active, we can select any layer here and move it in our layout. Simply select the appropriate layer and then click and drag to rearrange these design elements.

4. Easily Change Colors

What if want to change some of the colors here? There are several different ways this could be achieved in Adobe Photoshop. Here's an easy one. You can try to change colors in a snap when working with shapes.

In this example, we'll look in our layer folder labeled Shapes. We can click on the thumbnail in any shape layer to open up the Color Picker. Then, simply select a new color by clicking in the color selection space. Click OK when you're happy with your selection. Photoshop will apply the new color.

5. Hide and Remove Design Elements

How about if you want to remove an entire aspect of your beautiful certificate design? Again, we can turn to our Layers panel.

Remember how we toggled visibility on and off? Click on the eye icon to hide a layer. This is a temporary way to remove content from your layout. For a more permanent solution, select the applicable layer and then click on the trash icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. This will remove the content completely.

5 Quick Tips for Amazing Certificate Designs

Now you've got a good idea of some of the creative certificates available at GraphicRiver. Here are some quick tips to help you create the very best award certificate designs:

1. Keep the Layout Clean

You've only got a limited amount of room to work with. So, resist the urge to add too much information to your certificate. Instead, add only the most essential information. Leave plenty of white space around text and images.

2. Choose the Right Template for Your Needs

Make sure the template you choose complements your design and the occasion. If your award is for senior citizens, stay away from childlike designs. Likewise, if you're presenting awards to children be sure to make them fun and lighthearted.

3. Keep Your Award Consistent With Your Brand

If you've got a brand, keep the colours, fonts and graphics you use on your certificate consistent with your brand. This makes the certificate is easily identifiable as coming from your company or organisation.

4. Add Specific Information

You want your award to be meaningful to the person receiving it. So, customise the certificate to reflect the unique qualities of each recipient.

5. Proof Carefully

When presenting a student, employee or colleague with an official certificate, check and double check their personal details. Also make sure all the text on the certificate is spelled accurately. There's nothing more insulting than receiving a certificate with one's name incorrectly spelt or with typos.

To find more great certificate templates check out these great articles:

Looking for Even More Certificate Design Ideas?

If you're still narrowing down what you're looking for in the best certificate design template for your project, check out these collections. There's plenty of beautiful certificate design to admire. Check them out to help you narrow down certificate design ideas today.

Where to Find the Best Certificate Designs in 2020/2021 (Envato Elements vs GraphicRiver)

There are a lot of places to find creative certificate design templates out there. Envato Elements and GraphicRiver are two awesome places to find the best certificate designs. They're different platforms. Let's take a look at how they differ:

1. Key Benefits of Envato Elements

Envato Elements is an awesome choice if you're a creative professional who does a lot of design work. Why? Well, one low fee gets you access to a giant library of professional assets. That's a library of creative certificate template designs, but also fonts, graphics, photographs, and much more.

With unlimited downloads, get all the content you need with one, low fee. It makes it easier than ever to find what you need and cost effective too.

2. Key Benefits of GraphicRiver (& Envato Market)

But let's not forget GraphicRiver. This is another awesome source of high quality content. Browse from a large library of modern certificate design templates—and then only download what you need.

GraphicRiver is a perfect choice if you're only looking to download one or two files. Keep things single with GraphicRiver—one download, one fee, no strings attached.

Your Choice (What’s Right for You?)

The best choice here is going to depend on your design needs and the scope of your professional work. If you're the sort of power user who regularly needs stock imagery, templates, and other professional assets, then check out Envato Elements. Sign up for Envato Elements today.

Or if you're just looking for single file downloads, but you still want the same level of high quality, check out GraphicRiver. There's plenty of modern certificate design templates there to choose from.

Choose Your Favourite Creative Certificate Design Template Today

So, what certificate style is best for you? Will you go with a cool certificate design? Or do you gravitate more towards beautiful certificates with more modern certificate design elements? How about minimalist certificate design?

Hopefully, these cool certificate design ideas helped you narrow down your focus.

To find the best creative certificate design, Envato Elements is an excellent resource. Find polished and professional templates that are versatile and easy to use. If you regularly need font, icons, PowerPoint business templates and other business and design resources, Elements offers unlimited downloads for one low monthly fee. This can be a great option if you want to test out several designs, to find the best certificate designs for your project.

To buy a single template, Graphic River is an excellent alternative for high quality amazing certificate designs.

Head over to either site today to choose your favourite certificate design template. Start creating award certificates that'll make your employees, coworkers, volunteers and students feel appreciated and proud.

Editorial Note: Our staff updates this post regularly—adding the best new creative certificate design templates with modern designs.

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