Designing for Instagram
In this short blog I explore the relatively unspoken discussion of designing for Instagram outside of client work. Throughout, I consider themes of whether there is a criteria, why is it unspoken of and some of the pros and cons. I then set myself an open brief of designing a poster “for Instagram”, exploring themes and trends I’ve discovered.
Is there a criteria?
Now, most people who use Instagram have an understanding that the platform runs off an algorithm, this dictates how content is seen or interacted with. Design and how it engages with your audience obviously has a level of subjectivity to it, for example, select people will only take a liking to your work and others may not, depending on how extreme or abstract it is.
Design, like most things, follows and adopts themes or trends, which can be translated through popular mediums like fashion and music collateral. For example, trends potentially started through Instagram — designed posts like the use of expressive typography and or photomontage artwork — has made a strong appearance with graphic t-shirts taking over the streetwear scene.
With consideration to a criteria it's hard to say, however, as discussed appealing to your tailored audience plays a role towards this. With consideration, one could say that the criteria is subject to the audience you’re trying to reach. For example, if your work lies within the aesthetic of Electronic and DJ style music, one could expect to see bold and striking typographic compositions, potentially through clean sans serifs or illegible custom typography.
Is it spoken about?
A possible reason why it’s not spoken of could simply be the fact that it is completely overlooked as a primary reflection of professional work, with its intended purpose being for social media. Furthermore, people may wish to differentiate their client work from their Instagram to create a division between client work and work for ‘fun’. Although, many designers do use Instagram as the primary medium to share their work, in turn it could therefor be seen as a marketing professional tool.
The pros and cons
With consideration to the benefits or drawbacks of designing for Instagram, the discussion is still quite open ended. A benefit could be designing outside of client work allows you as a designer to be expressive and unbound, creating work solely for yourself. This is also a great opportunity for you to enjoy design for yourself without external considerations or looming deadlines. However, a drawback could be that if the primary output is to design for Instagram and thus social proof, it could detract the meaning and worth of work. For example, as designers our role is to support the client and help solve a particular problem, yet is this achievable if Instagram is the motivating factor for the commission of work, and to what end is that solving a problem?
My task and how I found it
As a short brief, I tasked myself with designing a digital poster inspired by trends and aesthetic themes I’d seen online and taken a liking too. I really enjoyed this task as it gave me the opportunity to design freely without large consideration to brand regulations and application parameters. However, a challenge was that it was quite open ended, meaning the task didn’t have much grounding in terms its purpose.
We’d love to know what you think! Let us know what your thoughts are!