CMS Design Studio

Learn how to use Shape’s CMS Design Studio to create emails, landing pages, social media graphics, print materials, videos, and other branded marketing assets from a single design platform.

CMS Design Studio

The CMS Design Studio is Shape’s all-in-one content creation platform for designing and publishing marketing assets across multiple channels.
Think of the Design Studio as your organization’s creative workspace. Whether you’re creating a marketing email, building a landing page, designing a social media graphic, or preparing a print flyer, everything can be created from one centralized location.
Unlike traditional design software, the CMS Design Studio is integrated directly into Shape, making it easy to create, customize, and distribute branded marketing materials without leaving your CRM.

Accessing the CMS Design Studio

If your subscription includes the CMS Design Studio, you can access it from anywhere within Shape.
To open the Design Studio:

From there, you’ll have access to your organization’s templates, saved designs, and Shape’s design library, where you can create new marketing assets or edit existing ones.

What Can You Create?

The Design Studio supports a wide variety of content types.
Available design categories include:

• Email Templates
• Landing Pages
• Social Media Graphics
• Print Materials
• Videos
• Posters
• Business Cards
• Custom Designs
• Uploaded Designs
• Segments (for email marketing)

Whether you’re launching a marketing campaign or designing everyday business materials, the Design Studio provides a centralized place to create and manage your organization’s content.

Starting a New Design

There are several ways to begin creating content.
You can:

• Browse Shape’s professionally designed template library.
• Start with a blank design.
• Upload your own design.
• Import existing HTML (supported content types only).

The template library includes a large collection of ready-to-use designs that can be customized with your organization’s branding, messaging, and images.

The Design Editor

The Design Studio uses an intuitive drag-and-drop editor, allowing users to build professional designs without coding.
Depending on the type of content you’re creating, available design elements may include:

• Text
• Images
• Buttons
• Videos
• Icons
• Columns
• Testimonials
• Background images
• Custom coding options (for supported design types)

Most users can build professional marketing assets simply by dragging elements onto the page and customizing their appearance.

Responsive Design

For supported content types, the Design Studio automatically provides responsive layouts to help ensure your content looks great across different devices.
Responsive previews are available for content such as:

• Email Templates
• Landing Pages

Users can preview desktop and mobile versions before publishing to verify the final design.

Customizing Your Brand

Every design can be customized to match your organization’s branding.
Common customization options include:

• Fonts
• Colors
• Logos
• Headers
• Footers
• Spacing
• Images
• Overall layout and styling

This allows organizations to maintain a consistent brand identity across emails, landing pages, social media, and print materials.

Working with Images

The Design Studio includes built-in tools for managing visual content.
You can:

• Upload your own images
• Browse included royalty-free stock images
• Browse included royalty-free stock videos
• Replace existing images
• Resize images
• Use background images (supported content types)

This makes it easy to create polished marketing materials without needing separate stock image subscriptions.

Saving and Publishing

As you work, remember to save your progress regularly.
The Design Studio supports saving drafts while you’re designing.
When your design is complete, publishing options depend on the content type you’re creating.
Examples include:

• Publish a landing page
• Publish to connected social media accounts
• Send an email
• Download print-ready files

System Templates

Organizations can create reusable templates for their teams.
Users with the appropriate permissions can create templates that become available throughout their organization, allowing everyone to work from approved, branded designs instead of creating content from scratch each time.
This helps maintain consistency across departments while reducing design time.

Permissions

Access to the CMS Design Studio can be managed through user permissions.
Organizations can control who can:

• Access the Design Studio
• Create new designs
• Edit templates
• Publish content
• Create shared system templates

This allows administrators to maintain brand consistency while giving users the flexibility they need.

Best Practices

• ✓Start with an existing template whenever possible.
• ✓Save your work frequently while designing.
• ✓Use shared templates to maintain consistent branding.
• ✓Preview responsive designs before publishing.
• ✓Keep branding consistent across all marketing channels.
• ✓Organize your designs so they’re easy for your team to find later.

Frequently Asked Questions