5+ Instagram Mistakes To Avoid By Graphic Designers!

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Communication is a very important aspect of modern business. Businesses that can communicate clearly to their target audiences regarding their brand propositions stand the maximum chance of grabbing the largest market share.

Now, Graphic designers play a very important role here while designing
attractive images –

  • including brand logos,
  • website content images,
  • brochures,
  • business cards,
  • and advertisements

…that stand out from the clutter and are able to impress the audience and increase sales conversions.

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Graphic designers also play a very important part in social media! An unarguably one of the biggest channels of communication where companies engage with their audiences.


Have you ever thought –

Why Businesses Aim to Be on Instagram?

Most businesses have an active presence on social media like Facebook and in particular, Instagram.

Instagram that was among the first social media that was designed ground up for the smartphone generation.

Not unsurprisingly, it has clocked up more than one billion active monthly users with a half of them logging in daily.

Realizing the enormous potential of Instagram,

  • 71% of American businesses, including 90 of the top 100 brands, have already established their presence on it.

According to the latest statistics by blog.hootsuite.com,

  • 80% of users of Instagram follow at least one of the 25 million business profiles
  • and 60% of the users discover products on this most happening platform.

Perhaps the top reason why this is a happy hunting ground for businesses is –

  • it engagement rate of 2.2% that is more than the combined rates of its competitors.

With Instagram playing such a large role in business communication and interaction with the target audiences!

It is extremely important for graphic designers not to make mistakes that can make the brands underperform and lose out on the potential of Instagram.


Some Common Instagram Mistakes Every Graphic Designers Should Take Care Of

1. Not Rising Above the Ordinary

Even though thinking out-of-the-box may sound overused and clichéd, it still remains very sound advice for graphic designers.

As a graphic designer, if you stick to what has been done by others, you are very unlikely to be able to create anything refreshingly new that will capture the attention of the target audience.

To make a mark, you need to be constantly experimenting with colors, shapes, layouts, etc.

..to communicate the brand promise better and in a way that rises above the usual clutter on Instagram.

Of course, when you experiment, you should not just go arbitrarily crazy because you need to constantly reinforce your brand values and encourage the customer to travel along the sales funnel until the conversion really happens.

Mindless experimentation can confuse the audience, especially when they stray too near to that of the competition.

It is a good idea to test out the graphic design before publishing it to ensure that it does not conflict with earlier communication or confuse the audience.

Businesses that lack the critical mass of followers on Instagram can engage the services of specialist agencies like gramblast to boost the number of followers, views, and likes.


2. Over Complicating the Design –

Just because designers have a lot of leeway and flexibility when designing brand logos or social media posts, there is a natural tendency to keep on tweaking the design and ending up with something that is evidently overworked and without the simplicity of design that appeals to all users.

It is important not to overuse the filters that are available on Instagram –

  • beautify to the extent that is necessary to make the photos more appealing but
  • resist the temptation to dress it up since the more complicated your design becomes, the harder it will be for the user to extract the real information.

Remember to allow enough blank spaces for the design to be able to breathe.

  • The inclination to overcrowd the available space can make designs unattractive.
  • Too many colors, images, fonts, etc. can be confusing to the users and prevent them from focusing on the real intent of the communication.

3. Using Stock Images –

Stock images can certainly make life convenient for graphic designers and also make the cost of designing less.

However, the problem of using stock images is that users invariably will have seen them in various other situations and they will automatically know that the designer has taken the easy way out.

Stock images tend to, therefore, dilute the impact of the design and make it look amateurish.

The immediate conclusion users tend to arrive at after seeing a stock image in a design is that –

  • the business is not professional and the products are likely to be tacky.

It is instead, far better to shoot photographs that can then be incorporated into the designs.

  • Shooting photograph is easier and more economical than before and every business can now afford it.

4. Not Paying Attention to Fonts, Spelling, and Grammar –

Rookie graphic designers usually make the mistake of using too many fonts in the same design.

Even though it can be great fun, users find dealing with too many fonts extremely irritating and difficult to read.

Typically, anything more than three font types can be overkill.

Most graphic designers tend to be dismissive of spelling and grammar but silly mistakes can negatively impact on the quality of the brand and the professionalism of the business.

Incorrect language and grammar can lead to –

  • confusion and mistakes of interpretation of the facts and leave a company looking foolish.

5. Not Following the Client’s Brief –

One of the most common mistakes that graphic designers make is –

  • to get carried away by their own ideas of design and communication of the brand values.

It is very important to ask for –

  • a proper brief from the client before starting on the design project
  • and then check from time to time whether you are not departing from it.

There is really no point in designing something that is of no of use to the client.


Conclusion

There are a whole lot of mistakes that prevent graphic designers from designing a brand logo or marketing communication for posting on Instagram.

Graphic designers must be very careful to ensure that –

  • they understand what the client really wants to achieve and
  • then develop the design so that it meets the objectives.

Designers must also understand –

  • how users interpret social media posts
  • and take care to design communication that not only stands out but is also easy to understand and remember.

Did you also had a bad graphic designer experience? What was it? How do you come out of a solution?

Share them in the comments to help others not to get trapped by graphic designers mistakes!

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