Social networks have firmly occupied their niche in the tech industry, as well as in the work of bloggers. Bright, colorful, and well-composed images carry a powerful emotional charge. Meanwhile, there is a popular misconception that only professionals can create such images, which is not entirely true. There are many tricks and software for creating graphics for social networks, such as Stencil maker online.
What You Need to Consider For Creating Effective Graphics
First of all, you need to imagine what you want to achieve from your reader. After that, it will be easier for you to understand how to design social media posts.
It’s Good If You’re an Artist, But Even Better If You’re a Psychologist
Most people are accustomed to perceiving text at the level of logic. Graphics favorably differ from texts in that they do not require mental effort. This is especially true for social networks. The target audience of social networks is typically young and ambitious users. That’s why contrasting images saturated with positivity bring the best results.
Sports and a healthy lifestyle are stories that help promote any brand. Good styling involves the use of not only recognizable logos but also color combinations and fonts. For example, the following color combinations look advantageous:
- Red, blue, and yellow
- Green, orange, and magenta
If an image needs to contain multiple captions, it’s a good idea to combine serif and sans-serif fonts. Serif fonts are more eye-catching, so they need to be used sparingly. This achieves a more effective transfer of the main idea. It can be just one word or phrase, as long as it matches the general mood of the image.
It is not recommended to place the text on a colorful background. It is also important to choose suitable combinations of background and text colors. If there are raster images and inscriptions, it is desirable to spread them to different corners of the composition. The free space around its edges will allow you to separate the graphics from the main text of the message.
Put Yourself in Your Reader’s Shoes
You must imagine yourself as a user to create social media graphics. As a rule, the reader’s eye zigzags from the upper left corner to the lower right. Spacing text and graphics away from each other helps to create the right emotional mood. Be especially careful with exotic designer fonts. They are not intended for important information, as they lose readability.
Such fonts are better suited for greetings. Here they become an additional element of graphics. Multi-colored fonts on white backgrounds work well, achieving a joyful, festive atmosphere. On the other hand, business information requires minimal use of graphic fragments, high contrast, and an abundance of free space.
Most social network users access the Internet not from a computer but from a smartphone. Unlike a computer, the smartphone screen is not horizontal but vertical. This should be taken into account in order to avoid resizing graphics and changing their proportions. On the other hand, the small screen size of mobile devices means small fonts should be avoided. And finally, vector graphics are preferable to raster graphics as they:
- Are less vulnerable to stretching or shrinking
- Load using much less RAM
- Are generally not overloaded with small details
- Save time on image preparation
Some Useful Programs for Creating High-Quality Graphics
First of all, it is recommended to start with free software. They are easier to learn and do not require serious expenses for the purchase of a license.
- Synfig Studio. It is a powerful 2D and 3D graphics editor for creating both single images and animations. Working with layers, photorealistic rendering of images, and the use of cloud technologies – a unique set of advantages for a free product.
- A program that requires some artistic skills. It contains many customizable tools: brushes, pencils, and pens. Ideal for creating logos. Thanks to vector scaling, it allows you to get high-quality images of any resolution.
Not to mention the powerful professional tools that contain all the tools to create artistic masterpieces.
- Corel Draw. One of the most powerful vector editors. It allows you to combine dozens of layers, edit objects independently of each other, and combine and merge them for joint processing.
- Adobe Photoshop. The most advanced raster editor. With this, you can create incredible stories and special effects. It all depends on the user’s imagination. Unfortunately, mastering these skills is not easy, but the result is worth it.
Conclusions
It’s not a problem at all to create graphics for social media. It doesn’t require any special art education or long-term training in the use of software products. At the same time, it is useful to know some basic principles of working with colors and fonts and have a developed imagination.
