Social media design involves a thoughtful set of strategies to creatively apply design principles when making art and visual content for social platforms. It’s all about engaging and connecting with your audience in a visually appealing way!
In an era where every cooking mom showcases her culinary skills using #foodporn on Instagram, capturing people’s attention is becoming increasingly difficult.
With countless stunning photos and videos, how can you ensure your posts are noticeable? This is where social media design plays a crucial role.
While we understand that the field of social media is quite demanding and requires expertise in various aspects, excelling in social media design can truly set you apart.
Stick around to discover what “social media design” really means and explore 16 friendly strategies to bring this idea to life in your social media art!
The use of design to create visual content for social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter is known as social media design, or design for social networks.
Basic proficiency with typography, color schemes, information hierarchy, grids, editing, and visual creation tools are all necessary in this field, which blends knowledge of visual design and strategic design.
A post is most likely well-designed for social media if, while browsing through your feed, something in it instantly grabs your attention.
This strategy is important since traditional design elements like typography, photography, symbols, graphics, and color schemes are crucial for brand recognition and for solidifying a brand’s visual identity on social media.
You are establishing the “face” of your business on social media when you design the artwork for a post, so it must align with your communication strategy.
Furthermore, mastering one or two editing and visual production programs is insufficient to become an expert in social media design. The person in charge of the artwork needs to be well-versed in design concepts and approaches.
The individuals in charge of producing visual content for a brand’s many social media channels are known as social media designers or social media design specialists.
Among these experts are designers who have received specialized training in social media. Their expertise in graphic design allows them to create layouts and graphics that are optimized for various social media sites.
However, there are also social media experts who have mastered the use of creative tools and are skilled in creating visual material for social media, while lacking a design degree.
In this instance, they are typically individuals who already handle social media and provide design services as part of their duties.
Regardless of their professional background, social media designers, as we will see later, take on essential responsibilities for building the visual identity of an online brand.
Combining knowledge of social networks with skills in creating visual content, the social media designer takes on a set of important routine tasks. Check it out!
The social media designer works on formulating strategies for brands’ social networks. This involves activities such as
In other words, the work of the social media designer goes far beyond creating creative images. This professional is always planning what type of image will be posted, who the brand wants to reach,, and what it wants to say.
The social media designer is expected to be able to manage different platforms and creation tools, such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Canva, and others, to create and edit visual content.
Of course, it is necessary to keep an eye on new tools and resources that can improve the process of creating and editing visual content.
You know those brainstorming meetings where everyone throws out crazy and brilliant ideas at the same time? The social media designer is there, playing along and bringing fresh ideas for the visual content of the brands’ social networks.
And it doesn’t stop there. See other collaborations between the social media designer and the marketing team behind the management of a brand:
As you can see, the social media designer is an important piece of the social media marketing puzzle.
Notebook and pen in hand? Then write down these tips, because they are worth remembering.
A post is not strategic if it is not produced with an objective in mind.
Goals are essential for the post to capture the attention of the audience that is browsing the feed.
Not only that, defining goals allows you to create posts aligned with the brand’s marketing objectives, bringing the same identity to different social networks.
Check out some questions that help a lot when defining a goal for the design of your posts:
With this information, you can create artwork that not only grabs attention ut also reinforces your brand identity and goals on social media.
People take up to 90 seconds to form an opinion about a product when they first come into contact with it, and 62 to 90% of this initial interaction is based on colors, according to research on the subject.
This means that colors are extremely powerful when it comes to design. Each one of them is capable of awakening a specific set of emotions and temperaments in the public.
To give an example, just look at the “Stop” or “Stop” signs in traffic. They are not red for no reason. Red tends to alert people, capturing their attention more easily.
On social media, it is important to use colors in favor of the brand to awaken the right feelings in the public and have more success with the design.
Contrast is a great way to grab your audience’s attention!
It makes the image stand out on the screen by differentiating the elements, making one stand out more than the others.
You can apply contrast to color, typography, and shapes. With it, you can highlight elements and capture the attention of users in a creative and interesting way.
Illustrations, graphs, infographics, screenshots, quotes, photos, short videos, animations… you can use a variety of resources to create your own style in your posts.
Test new combinations and techniques to differentiate your post from others, especially from competitors, to highlight your art,, and, as a bonus, bytesting,g, you will learn new things.
It is important to have standardized templates for the different types of formats or content of the brand on social media.
Templates help the audience understand what the content is about, in addition to contributing to the brand’s identity.
You can choose a standard template for a specific theme such as behind-the-scenes videos, mood of the day, UGC (user-generated content), among others.
Lines are very powerful visual elements in posts.
They guide the user’s gaze through other elements s well as conveying messages. A straight line, for example, refers to order and organization, while a curved line indicates movement.
You’re probably familiar with the word CTA (call to action).
A post can be wonderful and attract a lot of attention, but if it doesn’t propose a next step, it’s worthless.
So, don’t forget to add elements that encourage interaction or any other action that directs your followers towards your goal.
We have to agree that no one is on social media to read long texts, especially if they are boring. If the typography is not attractive, then reading becomes even rarer.
If you really want users to read your posts, use fonts that complement the image, bringing your design to life on social media.
Check out some typography tips that we have selected for you!
Readability
One of the most important things you should pay attention to is readability! It seems obvious, but when choosing a font, make sure that the audience can read the message.
“Handwritten” and “fancy” fonts, for example, can become illegible if used in long texts. Their use is recommended in specific cases to highlight information.
Font with or without serif
Fonts with serifss are recommended for continuous texts and forprinting;; they usually give a more formal impression.
They are recommended, for example, for law office art or more sophisticated restaurants.
In the title, it is important to use spacing between two letters or specific characters to improve readability.
This technique has a name; it is called tracking, and it is well known and used by professionals in the field.
Quantity
When it comes to the number of fonts in an image, the sky is not the limit!
Don’t add too many different fonts in the same artwork. The ideal is to use a maximum of 3 fonts so that the image does not lose its balance.
Graphic balance occurs when all the elements that make up an image are organized in such a way that the image conveys a sense of visual balance.
Below, see some types of balance that you can use in your designs.
When creating your post, remember that each element has a different weight. So, for an image to be balanced, you don’t necessarily need to divide the elements in half, okay?
You know that catchy song that you repeat so many times that you can’t get it out of your head? Well, it’s a little bit similar with design.
Repetition involves frequently using the same set of colors, fonts, and logos. Over time, repeating these three elements gives your brand a unique and easily recognizable look.
This way, you start to create a brand identity, which is very positive for generating recognition and engagement on social media.
The scaling of various elements in an image is called scale.
A fundamental resource that helps users understand the concept and message you want to convey in your post.
By applying scale, you can highlight elements in order of importance and in the order ou want users to see them.
Put everything together,, and it works! That’s pretty much it…lol
Joking aside, proximity is a design concept used to relate similar elements, whether through similarity in shape, color, font,, or size.
Putting similar elements closer together makes the design more concise and helps the audience perceive the elements as part of a whole.
Guiding your audience through the right elements is essential for them to reach a conclusion and understand the message you want to convey.
To do this, it is important to know the users’ viewing patterns, the most common being “F,” “E,” and “Z.” But how do you do that?
It’s simple: the letters indicate to the user the path to read a certain piece: a web page, an infographic, an image, among others.
It is important to include the most important parts of the post in this path to guide the user smoothly.
Knowing how to make the most of the available space in an image is an art.
The space around objects is just as important as the content you add inside. And this space can be used with a white border or in other more creative ways.
Remember to use them so that all the space is well worked and helps to achieve good results on social media.
The next time you need an image for your social media posts, remember to use high-quality stock images! These sites are like huge online libraries full of photos and illustrations available for download.
Are you looking for a graphic designer to handle your next social media designs? Click here to talk to our design experts.
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