Wading into Design

Jan 15, 2021

2021 is my year to wade into the ocean of social media posts and build my brand. In preparation, I spent the summer social distancing and taking pictures of parks and surroundings. Other photographers shared images for use in my social media designs as well.

The sun shone in my window and travelled across my wall. The line on the screen blinked in competition with the ticking wall clock. My dictation software waited for me to speak twelve inspiring sentences to type across the screen’s blank page.

Online videos taught me how to take the quotes, match with themed pictures, and create slides. I selected PowerPoint to design my posts because of program familiarity. Taking the images and placing them on size appropriate social media slides was straightforward. Determining the coordinating sentence required more thought. Creating a textbox was in my prior skillset. Selecting the font elements proved challenging.

The social media post design process confirmed additional design courses would have benefited as I only had, from my communications program, one class on magazine design layout. Social media posts were not even in the scope of our awareness at the time.

Selecting one of the numerous fonts involved going through the list and visually examining which one best fit the picture. Each font had to compliment the image and content and fit within the picture’s confines. The shape of the font was essential to ensure it was accessible. In my first few slides, I was conservative with basic fonts and limited colours. Then I started to play with different art and colours before saving them in a social media appropriate file. This process was time-consuming, taking approximately half an hour for each slide.

Each finished post plays with words, pictures, and colours to share a message that is more than the sum of any of its parts. Wading into the design of social media posts taught me about layout, design, messaging, and patience. I plan to share twelve posts, a new post every two weeks on my Facebook and Instagram accounts, until the end of 2021.