Graphic Designing
Everything visual, one hand.
Read moreGraphic Design · Delhi NCR & remote
One square, resized four ways, fails four ways.
Feed, story and reel are three different shapes with three different crops and three different viewing behaviours. Designing one and exporting it three times produces three compromises.
Short answer
Social media design produces visual content for platform feeds, stories and short video formats. The main discipline is designing per format rather than resizing one master — each has a different aspect ratio, a different safe area where interface elements sit, and a different attention pattern.
Designed per format
Safe areas respected
Legible at thumbnail size
Source files handed over
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01 The premise
The feed is the real design brief.
A social post is not viewed on a white background at full size. It is viewed at thumbnail scale, in a vertical scroll, between a friend’s photograph and a video, on a phone held at arm’s length, frequently in daylight, usually with the sound off. That is the actual brief, and design that ignores it loses before it is read.
Two consequences follow. First, contrast and scale have to be far stronger than they would be in print — small type disappears entirely at feed scale. Second, the message has to survive being understood in about half a second, because that is the decision window before a thumb continues moving.
The other discipline is formats. A square feed post, a full-screen vertical story with interface elements at top and bottom, and a reel frame that must be legible while moving are genuinely different design problems. Resizing one into the others produces text under a profile bubble and a message cropped out of the frame.
02 Formats
The formats, and what each needs.
Approximate shapes and the constraint that matters in each.
| Format | What it needs |
|---|---|
| Feed post (square or portrait) | Strong contrast, large type, one message. Portrait occupies more screen and generally outperforms square. |
| Story (full-screen vertical) | Safe areas at top and bottom where interface elements sit. Text placed there gets covered. |
| Reel frame (full-screen vertical) | Legible while moving, and legible with the sound off. Text is the primary channel, not a caption. |
| Carousel | A first slide that earns the swipe, and a reason to continue on each subsequent one. |
| Ad creative | Designed for the placement it will actually run in, with the platform’s crop anticipated rather than discovered. |
| Profile assets | Profile picture legible as a small circle; cover images that survive being cropped differently on each device. |
03 Design rules
What makes social design work.
Rules that come from the feed rather than from taste.
Design rules
- One message per piece. Two ideas in a feed post means neither is read. Split it into two posts.
- Type large enough for a thumbnail. If it is unreadable at thumbnail scale, it is unread. Test it before publishing.
- Respect the safe areas. Interface elements cover the top and bottom of stories and reels. Design around them.
- Legible with sound off. On-screen text is the primary channel for video formats, not an accessibility addition.
- Consistent visual signature. A recognisable look so your content is identified before the name is read.
- High contrast. Feeds are viewed in daylight on imperfect screens. Subtle contrast disappears.
- A template system. So content can be produced weekly without commissioning each piece individually.
Free content review
Look at your feed at thumbnail size.
Scroll your own profile quickly on a phone. Which posts stop you, and is the text even readable? That is the only test that matters, and most content fails it.
- Judged in a feed, at real size
- Templates so your team can produce weekly
- Source files always handed over
- Same-day reply, all 7 days
Free review
Get a free quote
Four details, and a real reply today.
04 Approach
Templates versus commissioned pieces.
Most businesses need both, and the ratio matters commercially.
- Templates for routine content
- Weekly posts, offers, quotes, announcements. Built once, filled in indefinitely by your team.
- Commissioned for campaigns
- Launches and paid campaigns, where the creative is doing real commercial work and deserves individual attention.
- A recognisable system
- Both should share a visual signature, so template content and campaign content look like the same business.
- Editable by your team
- Templates delivered in a format your team can actually use, not only in software they do not have.
- Refreshed periodically
- Templates tire. Refreshing them annually is cheaper than commissioning every post.
— Graphic Design
Related services.
These sit next to social media design and are usually bought with it. Same person doing the work in each case.
— Questions
social media design — your questions.
Straight answers, including the ones that cost me work. If yours is not here, ask it — I reply the same day.
The concept, yes; the artwork, no. Feed, story and reel are different shapes with different safe areas and different attention patterns. Resizing one master produces text under interface elements and messages cropped out of frame.
Portrait generally outperforms square in feeds because it occupies more screen. Stories and reels are full-screen vertical with safe areas top and bottom. Platform specifications change periodically, so the current ones should be checked rather than assumed.
Both. Templates for routine weekly content that your team fills in, commissioned design for campaigns and launches where the creative is doing real commercial work. Commissioning every post is expensive; templating everything makes campaigns look ordinary.
Frequently because they cannot be read at thumbnail size, or because they contain two messages instead of one, or because they look like advertising in a feed of personal content. All three are visible immediately when you scroll your own profile on a phone.
Yes, and they are different. Ad creative is designed for a specific placement and crop, and it has to work for people who have never heard of you. Organic content can assume some familiarity; advertising cannot.
Templates are delivered in a format your team can use, so routine content can be produced without coming back to me. That is the point of templating, and it is worth insisting on rather than accepting flat files.
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Design for the scroll, not for the portfolio.
Send me your recent posts. You will get an honest read on whether they survive a feed at thumbnail size, and what to change first.
- Designed per format, never resized
- Judged at thumbnail size on a phone
- Templates so your team can produce weekly
- Source files always handed over
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