The social network Instagram is demanding when it comes to adding publications to your page. Vacation videos, food photos, selfies in the gym – grainy, blurry, and dark photos will not be remembered by anyone. And no one will remember a flat and boring profile without any design in Instagram. The only way to fix the situation is to prepare for design changes. What kind? It’s time to learn the secrets and mysteries of the social network.
Instagram profile filling – layout styles
A profile description with creatively crafted details in the “About Me” section, a colorful avatar that emphasizes the profile’s theme, a couple of links, and a non-standard nickname – these elements would have played into the hands and helped gather new followers on Vkontakte or Facebook. However, different rules apply to Instagram pages. Text no longer carries information or emotions. It is worth filling out an Instagram profile in one style, and with the help of non-standard content that can shock, impress, or inspire. Other recipes for popularity no longer work, so it’s time to experiment and take the graphic elements of the profile to a new level.
Get inspired by your favorite accounts
It is difficult to immediately bring a page on the social network Instagram to a unified style or image without having the appropriate experience or knowledge. Curiosity can help reduce the distance to competitors. Why not take a look at competitors in the same field and learn a couple of tricks? Such as adding descriptions, organizing the feed of publications, combining color and style. If it is difficult to find examples, it is worth looking at well-known profiles (@AirBnb, @Apple), or using hashtags in the search bar and finding approximate design options for your own page from there.
Change the color scheme of the profile
Design and style on Instagram are often associated not with individual photos, but with all the posts added to the feed. If each picture easily displays particularly expressive colors – pink, gray, black and white – then a follower or a casual viewer will immediately become interested in the rest of the works presented in the profile.
If it is difficult to match each time to a separate color scheme, it is worth using thematic filters available on the social network or extensively represented in the AppStore and GooglePlay.
Add chess order to your profile
A feed with publications exploiting the theme of a chessboard cleverly complements any pages on Instagram. With skillful combination, even a random viewer will be unarmed against complex constructions where different colors alternate or – photos and text.
Such an unexpected way of design has long been adopted by owners of online stores, alternating useful information with images of products, advice and recommendations with costumes or selected outfits.
Try changing the boundaries
The classic form of an account is a rectangle with square photos arranged from the top left corner to the bottom right. The social network’s invented order can easily be changed by using additional frames on the pictures. White stripes at the top and bottom, colorful circles, non-standard decorations forming a unified complex of color and shape. It is difficult to manually process the “borders”, so it is better to trust professionals like Instafit or Squaready – pre-prepared templates will help save a lot of free time.
Experiment with geometric shapes
In addition to profile borders, Instagram makes it easy to use unusual geometric shapes that form a strange but deliberate union. Square, circle, rectangle – due to the white background around the photos, the social network presents a grid of publications in a very non-standard format.
Add mood – color in profile design
A beautiful Instagram profile is impossible without a well-designed profile and post layout. Before deciding on the presentation, you will have to break down the page to its basics. If the goal is to present a business in a new light, then it is necessary to present the product in the appropriate tones (bedding should be presented in bed tones, and enthusiasts-handmakers can easily present a collection of available assortments on a repeating background of scattered tools and available “ingredients”).
It is even easier for artists and art workers. Dark tones that emphasize the author’s idea and evoke a philosophical contrast will suit paintings. However, travelers can easily color their profile with something colorful and bright.
It is better not to change the chosen mood theme too abruptly (if experiments are necessary) – an unexpected shift in the theme is unlikely to be liked by subscribers and new viewers.
Tonality and Filters
Having a consistent style in publications is not an easy task. Only professionals and those for whom beautiful design is not just a goal, but the meaning of life, can add pictures of the world around them, products or special offers while maintaining the mood and overall color scheme without interruption. If the plan to stand out from the crowd is not yet accepted, why not cheat and use filters? A photo or individual image can easily be adjusted to almost any format if suitable tools like VSCO or AColourStory are at hand, capable of performing wonders.
Arrange photos in a grid – either in a straight line or diagonally
Taking photos in the form of a separate grid consisting of 3, 6 or 9 parts is not a new technique, but it is still actively used by travelers, artists, and owners of advertising profiles.
You don’t have to manually divide the photo into parts – graphic editors like TilePic are capable of doing all the rough work. Just upload the source and the content will be automatically divided into equal parts and made available for sequential uploading to Instagram. As a plus, the service immediately marks the order of adding content to the page for grid preservation and proper organization.
Choose a photo collage
The use of photo collages to decorate profiles on Instagram is becoming less common. Bloggers, authors, and enthusiasts are increasingly turning to external methods of decoration – through grids, separate color schemes, or cleverly embedded geometric shapes. Since the “photo collage” is outdated, why not bring back the classic style? By selecting appropriate images and carefully considering the style, the page will come to life with new colors and look fresh and unusual compared to competitors.
Try puzzles and mosaics
Photos, collected in parts from scattered details, completely repeat the methodology of conducting a profile using grids. Even the scale is the same – 3, 6 or 9 parts, folding vertically and horizontally. The difference is a unified presentation over a long period of time. If the grid still implies diversity in terms of standard posts, then with a mosaic, you will have to stick to the concept until the bitter end.
Top 3 apps for creating unique designs
Even beginners can create a well-designed profile on Instagram manually at the start – carefully selected photos, a unified style, and unique formatting of the feed with publications can capture the attention of the audience around you in just a few hours of free time. But what about situations where it’s important to add content daily while maintaining a consistent style? Spending hours on manual processing is a crime. It’s better to use professional graphic editors and helper applications for iPhone with iOS and mobile devices running on Android:
- Crello. A multifunctional tool that allows you to flexibly design for Instagram in a single style. With the help of available templates, pre-selected fonts, and unexpected combinations, photo editing will no longer take up a lot of free time – there will be a chance to bring each individual frame to perfection in just a few minutes. Another 30 seconds will be needed to add content to the social network.
- Canva. A well-known and continuously developing application fully prepared for Instagram design. The developers have prepared a bunch of ideas for each profile, and also took care of details such as format and resolution. If it’s about Stories, the canvas in Canva will automatically adjust to 1080×1920 pixels. Need a collage? No problem – such a section has long been provided. Want to compose a grid – and again, it’s a precise hit. You can even work with the editor online, without subscriptions or one-time payments. The only thing you need to take care of is registration and choosing free backgrounds, fonts, and templates.
- Snappa. A time saver that allows you to prepare designs for any occasion in semi-automatic mode (layouts for websites, web design, attempting to beautifully design a profile on social networks). It’s time to forget about endless experiments without functional support – Snappa will speed up all processes and also suggest what to do and which elements to forget.
Making a beautiful Instagram is difficult without experience or accumulated ideas, but everything can be easily changed. A couple of visits to competitors, a few experiments with style and color solutions, and now random viewers and subscribers are leisurely browsing the feed with publications and dreaming of repeating it on their own experience.