In today’s world, communication has become a key ingredient of life. When it comes to businesses, sending clear messages to the target audience gets its deserved reward, leading to the expansion of market share. Nowadays, companies use a variety of social networking channels for their wealth of branding and sales opportunities. However, these are also the places where you have to be at your creative best to attract customers and push back competition. Having powerful graphic designing skills can be a blessing in this sense.
Of the various social media platforms, Instagram has a base of over one billion active smartphone users, half of whom log in daily. Its tremendous potential has managed to onboard nearly 71% of the US companies, of which at least 90 are the established brands. If you dig into surveys, you will learn as much as 80% of Instagrammers follow a minimum of one business out of the existing 25 billion such accounts, and 60% of them look for products. The engagement percentage is also higher compared to anywhere else, standing at 2.2%.
From this, it is easy to comprehend the power of this platform. Hence, the role of communication and messaging becomes bigger. To know more check insta4likes.
As a graphic designer, you have to ensure that you don’t do anything that affects your brand’s performance, and thereby the potential opportunities. For this, five things are essential to remember.
Five things to avoid in graphic design for Instagram
1. Ordinary work
Out-of-the-box thinking has to be there to draw the attention of the customers. If you repeat what others are doing, either a handful of users or no one will have an interest in you. So, play around with layouts, colors, and shapes as much as possible to help your brand shine. However, it doesn’t mean you can ignore the brand value and experiment whimsically. You have to look at both ends to take your customers to the sales funnel. To be safe, you should analyze your graphic design from every angle and then only publish it.
2. Complicated or busy designs
Sometimes, too much flexibility and freedom lead to overexcitement and reflect on the designs of the brand logo, social posts, etc. But it would help if you reminded yourself that such practices could dilute the brand’s messaging. Even if you use filters, your focus has to be on beautifying an image and not adding frills. Too much of design complications can distract users from the primary information. Use proper blank spaces so that the design is breathable; throwing excess elements, whether colors, fonts, and images, can only harm your intention.
3. Erroneous graphics
Using different types of fonts in excess in any design can be a grave mistake. It can affect readability. To avoid the overkill, one should restrict the choices to not more than three varieties of fonts. Also, many graphic designers don’t pay enough heed to grammatical and spelling errors. But you have to be careful as these things can show your brand in poor light. Particular language and grammar issues can even change the meaning of communication, causing enough distress for the brand image.
4. Deviation from the actual requirements
Although it applies to everyone, graphic designers must be aware of the type and nature of communication that will go out on Instagram. For this, sticking to the brand values is highly crucial. Your ideas and imagination can overpower your sensibilities while designing. Hence, it is best to concentrate on the business’s primary needs, cross-check the progress to discover the early signs of departing from the central concept, etc. If what you design doesn’t serve your company’s real purpose, then it has no use.
5. Generic stock images
The need for posting frequent updates can make you rely on stock services for their photos. But keep in mind that even other brands can be doing the same thing. Due to this, the chances of getting confused with your competitor can increase. If limited time is the primary concern, you can use stock imagery, but opt for some unconventional ways to make it look better and unique. Apply filters and overlays intelligently to be effective.
Instagram users are the new generation. You have to understand their psyche and adapt to their tastes. If you are deep into this, creating impactful designs will never feel like a tiring job. The original ideas and concepts will keep coming to your mind. So, allow and align them with the brand’s principles. You will be able to fulfill any requirements.
For inspiration, you can conduct a bit of research on rival channels and see what they are doing. You don’t have to copy them, as it will be another blunder from your end. Just watch and think about how your designs can be better than theirs. Figure out elements that are missing or represented poorly. You can fill those gaps through your designing competency.
