Creating an Instagram Aesthetic

When creating a presence on social media, establishing a branded look and feel is part of projecting a strong and effective image to attract your target market. Having a recognizable visual identity, including a well-designed logo and a strategically selected color palette, can help make your online presence appealing and memorable.

Most social networks, like Facebook, LinkedIn and X, do not require the same attention to visual detail as Instagram because of the differences in how the main account pages are laid out. Instagram’s account page layout shows multiple images side by side in a grid pattern. On a mobile device, between nine and twelve images might appear on screen at once, creating a visual checkerboard.

Your posts to other social networks typically show up as a list on your account page and quickly disappear down the feed. When someone arrives at your Facebook, LinkedIn, or X account pages, they see one post at a time as they scroll down to see the next one. The layout of those account pages is not static.

Planning out your posts can help you produce an aesthetically pleasing Instagram grid. Not paying attention to the visual aspects of your Instagram posts can result in a sloppy or chaotic grid. Creating an aesthetic on Instagram involves a number of considerations, steps, and tools. Here are some ways you can optimize your Instagram grid.

Establish a color pattern. Working with your brand’s color palette and sticking with it can help produce a more harmonious grid. That means using key brand colors not only in your graphics but in your photographs as well. For videos, adhering to a strict color palette is far more challenging and expensive. But you can upload a custom video thumbnail in your brand colors to appear on the grid before the video starts to play.

Establish a visual pattern. While using a set color palette can create a sense of order, you could choose to go a step further and create a more prominent visual pattern. This can be accomplished by alternating the types of visuals that are featured on each post. For example, you could post a quote image - a graphic with text overlaying a colored background - or an illustration. You can alternate the color of your graphics based on your brand’s color palette.

In between those graphics, you could then post photographs or videos with or without thumbnails to break up the color blocks. How often you alternate depends on the pattern you’d like to create on your grid. Keep in mind that the images shift as you add new posts which can disrupt the pattern. One way to keep the pattern consistent is to publish multiple posts at a time.

Use a visual app or tool to create your aesthetic. Being able to see your grid layout before publishing it is helpful. There are apps for planning out your grid from a visual standpoint such as Planoly and Sprout Social’s Grid Planner. To make grid planning easier, these apps provide you with the ability to drag and drop drafted posts into any order until the visual pattern you are trying to create emerges. Then you can schedule the posts to appear in the correct order.

Even though you don’t need to pay the same kind of attention to visual patterns for Facebook, LinkedIn, or X, creating a consistent look and feel and strategically placing your logo and other branding elements on the account pages can help tie your social media presences together.

Remember that even though you are concentrating on creating a specific visual aesthetic, paying attention to your text content is even more important. Unless you are a purely visual brand, make sure to craft compelling captions for your Instagram posts and use best practices, including the right hashtags.