26 January 2022

How to design an on-brand Instagram feed

Does having a beautiful Instagram feed really matter, or is it just something that bloggers and influencers care about? This blog post will break down exactly why it DOES count to have an on-brand Instagram feed, and how to achieve it.

So, you’ve got your logo, brand guide, typefaces and colour palette, but HOW do you apply that in real life? How do you keep your image on-brand, and pull through your look and feel from your website and printed material through to your social channels? Consistency. That’s the key to creating a coherent brand, that’s how your customer will learn to trust your brand, love your brand and stay loyal to your brand; and here’s how you do that:
“If Instagram is the way your audience is first interacting with you, it becomes your business card, your storefront, and your first coffee chat, all wrapped into one.”

If your imagery is scattered with random fonts, colours, filters and layouts, what is that saying about your brand and service offering? Where will that consistency show up, if not in the way you advertise your business?

But, don’t panic. There are steps to be followed – and no, you don’t have to be a designer to follow them.

The following few hints will instantaneously create a cohesiveness, and with that the brand recognition, trust and sense of ease you want to instill within your customer (and make your Instagram feed POP!).

 

So, let’s jump in:

01 :: Choose a filter and stick to it. 

Whether you’re going Clarendon, Aden (or any of the filter options Instagram provides you with), or you are playing around in an editing app such as Adobe Lightroom, choose one filter AND STICK TO IT.

It might be tempting to swipe through the filters and pick which works best with your image – because different images show up in different ways, but choosing one image and adjusting the intensity of it will do your feed a world of good. The tonality, sharpness, contrast and hue will automatically blend together on the feed to make a “bigger picture”, so whether you want to go for dark and moody, light and bright, or even black and white, pick a preset and stick to it.

02 :: Create a “rhythm”

There’s a reason why we as humans are drawn to rhythms or patterns, it envokes a sense of trust, a feeling of ease and a kind of comfort in knowing what to expect. If your brand uses a mixture of text posts and image posts, create a pattern – alternate text and image, post in rows of three or create symmetry in your grid. This way when looking at your feed as a whole, the eye is drawn to different posts in a logical sense and the customer is not overwhelmed with a mish-mash of content.

03 :: Use ONLY your brand fonts

Fonts may seem like a fun way to spice up a design, and we know it can be very tempting to change these up depending on the message of the post, but just as consistency in the photo filter adds to the brand picture, so does the font. Chances are your designer has spent hours hand-picking the right fonts to convey your brand message accurately, and even if two fonts look SO CLOSE to each other to the naked eye, using inconsistent fonts stand out like a sore thumb. Play with the weight of the font, capitalise important words and even go italics if you must, but sticking to two or three core fonts will immediately create that line of consistency throughout your feed.

04 :: A colour palette is your friend 

Last, but certainly not least, keep to your brand’s colour palette. Colour and the meaning behind it is very important in design, and your brand colours communicate a message to your customer long before they have time to read your content or look at your images. You can read more about the psychology of colour in design here.

So, to answer your question:

“Does having an on-brand Instagram feed really matter?”

If you want your audience to approach your brand with:

– An instant sense of trust

– A clear visual understanding of your story

– More confidence + intention with every post you create

YES, yes it does.