Monetary rewards aren't the only way to recognize your employees and celebrate their accomplishments. Non-monetary recognition like award certificates creates emotional attachment with the person receiving the recognition. 

While non-monetary recognition has many forms, we’ll focus on the most popular one: certificates.

Don't just rely on cash to recognize and reward your employees, make it more memorable. Give them award certificates that they can hang on their walls or frame and display on their desks. With gift certificates, you combine monetary reward and non-monetary recognition into one. 

To find the best certificate template, we’ve curated a list of the latest and most beautiful certificate design ideas for 2019. Our list includes assorted certificate design templates for awards, gifts, and diplomas from Envato Elements and GraphicRiver. Plus, we'll share some award certificate examples.

Top Certificate Design Templates on Envato Elements (5 Fresh Design Examples)

There are various types of certificate design templates that'll work best for a specific occasion. There's a simple and clean certificate to celebrate the achievements of your employees. You can also provide training or seminar certificates for seminars, training, or workshops they've attended.

Whether it be award certificates, gift certificates, or diplomas, here are our top picks for fresh design templates on Envato Elements that'll create a lasting impression:

1. Modern Certificate

Conveniently create your certificate of appreciation with a modern aesthetic using this editable certificate template. Its flexible design can be used for your employee recognition, corporate events, and a lot more. 

Fully Editable in Photoshop, AI, and Word with 0.25 bleed, 300 dpi—it's CMYK print ready. It’s also available in portrait and landscape layout.

2. Elegant Gift Certificate

This beautiful business gift certificate template exudes a lot of elegance and luxury. Any recipient of this gift certificate will be delighted.

The value of the gift certificate can be immediately seen because it’s placed on a golden ribbon background. Plus, the sparking border won’t go unnoticed. It’s very easy to edit on Photoshop, so you can customize it according to your needs.

3. Multipurpose Certificates

Quickly create any professional looking certificates from certificates of achievement to award certificates with this multipurpose certificate design template. It's got straight to the point design, highlighting a ribbon and trophy icon.

You can easily change the colors to match your branding preferences. Plus, choose from 12 certificate styles to suit your taste.

4. Certificate/Diploma Template Pro

This is a modern take to a diploma or certificate. It still carries the usual traditional style, but it's been amped up with modern design elements like swirls/curves.

It could easily be used for certificate awards, recognition, qualifications, training, seminars, or anything academic or corporate related activities. With well-organized layers, you can easily tweak this according to your preferences.

5. Abstract Certification Template

Abstract designs are also exciting elements that you can add to your certificate of achievement or certificate of completion. This editable certificate template with abstract elements will definitely make your certificate stand out.

With clean structured files and editable texts, you can personalize this printable certificate template in an instant.

Envato Elements (Design Without Limits)

Sign up for Envato Elements to get unlimited access to over 1.3 million digital assets. This includes unlimited use of graphics and templates (certificate templates too!), from web themes to business presentation templates, and more—all for one low price. 

That’s right! Download as many certificate templates and graphics as you want, then customize them to fit any of your project needs.

21 Best Certificate Templates Available on GraphicRiver (For 2019)

Recognizing and celebrating the efforts of your employees, students, or volunteers can be made possible with a stunning certificate. This will make them feel appreciated and highly valued.

Celebrate their contribution and award their achievements easily with  these 15 beautiful and most creative certificate design templates on GraphicRiver:

1. Award Certificate

This template comes in A4 paper size so that if you need to mail the certificate award, you can easily do so. This certificate comes with four free fonts. Easily customize the template to suit your needs. This template is perfect for anyone looking for a traditional looking award design.

2. Modern Certificate

The modern certificate has a professional design. On the certificate, there's a place where you can add your logo. Easily add any image you need to by dragging and dropping the image into the image placeholder. This template comes in landscape and portrait so that you can decide how you want the certificate to look. Modern certificate template can be used in Microsoft Word, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator.

3. Modern Certificate Design

This template has a modern certificate design and is easily customizable. Quickly add any image you want to the certificate by dragging and dropping the image into the placeholder. This template is A4 paper size and can be used in Microsoft Word, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator. Choose from portrait or landscape orientation. So, you can choose an orientation that fits what you need.

4. Clean & Professional Certificate

This quick and easy-to-customize template only has dotted line vectors as its design elements, making it clean yet still with modern touches.

5. Modern Multipurpose Certificate

With this professional certificate template made in Photoshop, award anyone for completing any course, training, degree, or job. It's got two color variations with customizable image and text too.

6. Corporate Certificate

To keep it sleek, use this corporate looking printable certificate template. Choose from four different colors with just a single click to suit your brand.

7. Modern Gift Card Certificate

Promote your business, products, or services using this gift certificate template. This certificate design template PSD can immediately be made into a discount card, coupon card, gift token, gift voucher, gift certificate, cash card, and a lot more!

8. Diplomas & Certificates

To stay traditional with a modern finish for your diplomas and award certificates, this editable certificate template is a guarantee to make you stand out. Just select from nine different styles, and you’re ready to print!

9. Clean PSD & MS Word Certificate

With PSD file and MS Word document included in this template, create your unique and creative certificates at your most convenient time. It's got a flexible design so you can use it for probably any type of certificate awards, recognitions, etc. 

10. Technical Diploma

Technical Diploma  is a perfect diploma design template for educational institutions looking to celebrate the graduation or commencement exercises of your students. It’s PSD-file ready for printing in five different colors. 

11. Gift Voucher Certificate

With Photoshop and AI formats, provide a professional looking gift certificate in a matter of seconds! It's got resizable vector elements and fully customizable texts so you can print a gift certification that truly marks as your own. 

12. Modern Dynamic Diploma Award Certificate

May it be landscape or portrait format, this beautifully designed template is fully editable in AI. With three different colors, you can conveniently set up a branded certificate. 

13. Professional Certificate or Diploma Templates

Whether you want to print a corporate certificate or diploma, this highly editable Photoshop certificate design template is made just for you. It includes four border and background styles so you can design your diploma or certificate within your preference. 

14. Educational Certificate and Diploma Template

Specially made for educational institutions, this is a smart, clear, and clean looking certificate template. It’s print ready with editable text layers and color shape layers.

15. Certificate PSD

This certificate of achievement template is best used for both commercial and non-profit organizations. It's got 2 PSD file that can be fully edited to make a standout certificate.

16. Simple Multipurpose Certificate

Simple Multipurpose Certificate This is a highly flexible certificate template that can be modified in InDesign, AI, EPS, or Word. It's got a simple but bold layout that'll captivate and delight the recipients.

17. Creative Corporate Certificate

With a stunning background image, this creative InDesign certificate design template is perfect for companies that want to recognize their people who attended training, seminars, or events.

18. Digital Certificate

To go above and beyond, this certificate design template exudes creativity, fun, and digital polish. Change and customize it easily in PSD, Illustrator, or MS Word.

19. Clean and Professional Certificate

This certificate has nice black background with gold and white font. The design of this certificate looks fancy and professional. Easily customize the template to make it look how need it to look. There's a space for your logo and company website. The name on the certificate is a nice cursive font that can be easily read.

20. Modern Certificate

This certificate template has a nice gold and black design. This template comes with a free font and is print ready. Choose from landscape or portrait to customize your template how you need it. This template can be edited in Microsoft Word, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator.

21. Modern Multipurpose Certificate

This template can be used for several certificate related purposes. It comes in A4 and US letter size and is print ready. Easily add any photo you want by dragging and dropping the image of your choice into the image placeholder. The certificate has a nice textured design that looks professional.

5 Quick Design Tips: To Make a Great Certificate in 2019

When it comes to a quick and easy way to raise the morale around your office or celebrate an educational milestone, nothing is more tangible and lasting than a certificate. All recipients will truly feel that their leaders recognize their efforts and contributions.

To create a meaningful and impactful certificate to award in 2019, you also have to pay close attention to how you design your award certificates. When using the great certificate templates from Envato Elements or GraphicRiver, make sure you follow the following certificate layout design tips:

1. Don't Clutter Your Certificate's Layout

While you may be tempted to put a lot of information and design elements into your certificate, this could be working against you. Too much information and visual clutter will distract people from the main focus of your certificate, which is to celebrate the person accepting the certificate or award.

Instead of trying to fit too many things on your certificate design at once, leave some white spaces between words and design elements. White spaces are a great way to better organize content and balance design elements by separating paragraphs of text, graphics, and other portions of your certificate helping your certificate look less crowded.

If you keep your certificate less crowded, it allows the reader to find the information they’re interested in much quicker. Thus, improving the visual communication experience. Otherwise, you’ll risk your certificate looking unprofessional and disorganized.

2. To Use or Not To Use Borders

Almost all traditional certificates in the past have had borders. But because of many trends in graphic design, the question of whether to use a border or not to use one is a matter of personal preference.

The key is to understand what the certificate is for. To use a border, theme it appropriately according to the nature of the recognition. You can’t just randomly use a border, especially if it'll clash your main objective and certificate design. Although, there are some borders with timeless and multipurpose certificate designs.

3. Brand the Certificate

Branding is also one of the most essential design tips when creating a great and effective certificate. You want the people receiving the certificate or diploma to remember your company or institution even after years have passed.

Your company’s logo is always a must to include in your certificates. But, branding doesn’t end there. When choosing an appropriate color scheme for your certificate, you should also put your branding guidelines into perspective. Use your brand colors and apply them accordingly to your certificate design. Most creative certificate design templates have a variety of color schemes that you can choose from to match your branding needs.

4. Design Your Certificate With Typography

Typography is often overlooked when it comes to designing certificates. But, it's essential to communicate your content and your visuals more effectively. Typography is the art and technique of arranging the letters or characters of your certificates or diplomas. It includes the proper usage of font styles, font sizes, and typographical emphasis like bold, italic, or underline.

As much as possible, aim to use only one to two font styles. But, readability should be your priority. It’s also important that you assign different font sizes for the different body of thoughts in your certificate. For example, the recipient’s name should have a big font size compared to other content for emphasis.

5. Bring Your Certificate to Life With Images and Icons

Usually, it's recommended to stay away from using a background image in your certificate. Not only that it'll affect readability, but it might also add to the visual clutter. However, there are exceptions to this. You just have to make sure that it's got enough contrast to the texts.

On the other hand, instead of using a background image, use a small image that can appear as borders. You can also add appropriate icons like stars, trophies, or ribbons for award certificate templates.

10 Times to Use a Certificate

If you don't use certificates in your business already, you should consider them. They be used to recognize achievements and bolster employee morale. Here are ten award certificate examples:

1. Completed Training

If you're a manager and an employee finished their training, then you can give them a certificate of completion. This certificate is great for rewarding training that takes a long time or helps them advance in their career. When you give an employee a certificate, it lets them know that you recognize their effort.

2. Employee of the Month

Giving an employee who's been working hard a certificate enables the employee to know that their hard work is appreciated. This recognition doesn't have to be limited to just the employee of the month. Recognize any employee who's completed a really tough project.

3. Contest Winner

If you had a contest in your company, give the winners an award certificate along with their prize. An award certificate gives them something to display proudly in their office our home.

4.  Perfect Attendance

Is there an employee who's never missed a day? Is there an employee who works long hours? Award them for this achievement by giving them an certificate of perfect attendance award. Giving a perfect attendance certificate award let's your employees know that you see their great attendance and acknowledge that it's important.

5.  Big Seller Award

If you're in the sales business, award people for high sales. This can be an awards certificate for that employee who sells the most over time. The sales award certificate could also be for an employee who lands a really big sale for the company. Let the employee know that you appreciate their selling expertise.

6. Retirement Award

Do you have an employee who's retiring soon? Let the employee you that you appreciate the work they did for the company. Give them a retirement award for all their hard work and years of achievement with the company.

7. Volunteer Recognition

Does your company rely on the help of volunteers? Or, do your employees volunteer in the community? Is there a group or a volunteer who always helps no matter what? Give them an award to show them that you appreciate their hard work.

8. Team Awards

If your company relies on teams, then there's probably a team that works well and excels at their work. Reward that team with an award or certificate, letting them know that you appreciate their teamwork.

9. Welcome Awards

Are you hiring new employees? Let them know that they're welcome at your company by giving them a welcome award. This will make them feel welcome and ease any nervousness that they may have about starting a new job.

10. Safety Award

Does your company require safety to get the job done? Reward that employee who goes out of their way to maintain a safe work environment for everyone. This encourages other employees to be safe as well. And it also shows the employee that you appreciate their efforts to maintain a safe work environment.

Create Tangible & Lasting Memories With Award Today

Creating your professional certificates for awards, gifts, or diplomas doesn’t have to be stressful. With the large collection of certificate design templates from Envato Elements, select the best certificates suited for your brand, objectives, and needs.

Plus, get more editable certificate templates from GraphicRiver. Easily customize them for a positive impact on your employee recognition or educational programs. An award certificate makes it easier for you to create a meaningful and lasting celebration of your people’s hard work and achievements.

Editorial Note: Our staff updates this post regularly—adding new certificates so you can recognize the achievements of your staff and customers.