If your social media photos and visual content have poor quality or look like any other post, they won’t likely engage your audience.

Survey data shows that 46% of marketers believe their marketing strategies’ success is critically dependent on photography.

The figure highlights the importance of good photography to create winning social media marketing strategies and run successful campaigns.

The million-dollar question now is, how do you take your photos and visual content to the next level to help you hit your social media marketing targets?

Find out by reading the four photography tips below, including best practices for social media visual creation.

1. Invest in feature-packed tools

Using a reliable photo editing tool is a no-brainer if you want high-quality photos for social media.

However, achieving social media marketing success takes more than creating and taking stunning photos.

You need to get your photos and other visual content in front of your target audience and post regularly for continuous engagement.

The catch is, posting your visual content and photos across multiple social media channels can take a lot of time and work.

To do this successfully, you must be strategic with how, when, and where you post and share your content.

You should also post your photos and visual content at optimum times and frequencies to ensure maximum engagement.

Using reliable and feature-packed social media management (SMM) tools is key.

Consider using Planoly, Hootsuite, or Vista Social, some of the best SMM platforms modern marketers use.

For instance, Vista Social’s content calendar and auto-publishing features simplify planning, organizing, and posting your photos and visuals across your social media feeds.

You won’t need to manually publish each post since the platform can automate the process.

Read this complete review on the Vista Social platform to know how this feature works and learn more about the tool’s other sophisticated SMM features.

Social media has become a powerful tool for individuals looking to turn their passion or skills into a profitable side hustle by reaching a wider audience and building a thriving online business. Invest in the right social media analytics tools to help you distribute your social media photos and visuals seamlessly and, in turn, boost your chances of succeeding. Social media AI tools can further enhance your strategy by automating content creation and optimizing engagement.

2. Apply the basic principles of photography

Just as there are essential tips and tricks to writing great content, there are vital principles for taking stunning social media photos.

The secret sauce to taking amazing photos for social media is this: applying the fundamental principles of photography.

You can always experiment and develop your photography and visual content style later to best suit and represent your brand.

However, you can never go wrong when you adopt these basics.

• Light. A good photo requires some form of light, regardless of the aesthetic or style you’re aiming for.

Ensure the light doesn’t overexpose your photo or underexpose it and make it too dark that viewers can’t see anything.

• Composition. You could get the lighting right but still ruin a perfect photo due to poor composition.

Nail your photo’s composition and avoid bad subject placement or taking a picture with a wonky horizon.

• Subject. Even the best lighting and composition can’t save your photo if your subject is off.

If you want to create compelling visual content that draws more eyeballs to your post and brand, you need an interesting subject.

Your subject should immediately resonate with your audience to evoke emotions and encourage engagement and action—from likes to purchases.

Most of the time, the best way to step up your photography game is to learn to apply the key principles correctly.

3. Avoid over editing

Filters, and effects are great for enhancing your social media photos.

However, avoid over-editing by applying too many filters and effects since this can affect your photo’s authenticity, clarity, and appearance.

The key is to strike a good balance between filtering for creative purposes or artistic expression and keeping your photos true to the original.

Follow these tips to make your photos and images pop without going over the top with the editing.

• Bring up the vibrance slightly instead of the saturation to make your images more colorful. Over-saturation is a surefire way to over-edit your photos.
• Tweak your photo’s highlights and shadows to keep it real-life looking. This way, your photos avoid having shadows and highlights that are too dark or light, especially in high-contrast lighting.
• Consider cropping your photos to achieve the rule of thirds (if you didn’t accomplish this with the raw picture). Doing so gives your photos a more dramatic and creative flair. Thus, resulting to better composition.

The photo above focuses on the land area, not the sky, by filling the bottom two-thirds with land and the top third with the sky.

It also helps to straighten your photo’s alignment to avoid crooked horizon lines.

Over-editing your photos can impact their content performance across your social media platforms.

You can test this by posting over-edited and well-edited photos on the same social media network.

Then, implement a content tracking strategy to see how each photo performs and compare their results.

You’ll see how your perfectly edited photos fare against the overly-edited ones. The results can help guide and shape your future social media photos.

If software development has reliable performance testing tools, you can use A/B or split testing tools to test your social media photo variants.

4. Ensure proper white balance

Poor white balance can change how your photos “feel,” but it’s not always easy to spot.

For example, taking a photo of a summer salad with a color temperature that is too cold can give your picture a blue tinge.

It doesn’t evoke a welcoming feeling or keep with your subject’s theme.

Adjusting the white balance can fix this quickly.

Most modern smartphones and cameras are pretty good at automatically nailing the white balance. But they don’t always get it right.

Modify the white balance settings for indoor lighting, daylight, and others.

Consider trying each one to find the white balance setting that makes your photo look as natural as it does in real life.

If your smartphone doesn’t allow manual white-balance adjustments, try using reliable third-party photo editing apps that give you more control.

For instance, web-based photo editor Colorcinch offers features that allow you to tweak the white balance by adjusting your photo’s color temperature.

You can move the hue, saturation, and temperature sliders to achieve the white balance you want for your photo.

Nail your social media photos and other visual content

Getting the perfect photos for social media doesn’t always mean hiring expert photographers.

Start with this guide’s photography tips and tricks to ensure you have high-quality, creative, stunning, and compelling photos and visual content.

The main goal isn’t to take the best photos but to create pictures that engage and convert your audiences. And ultimately help you reach your social media marketing goals.

The post 4 Photography Tips To Level Up Your Social Media Photos appeared first on Photo to Cartoon – Cartoonize Yourself & Create Avatar Characters for Free.

Having a good profile picture is a must. It’s the first thing people see when they visit your social media profile, and it’s what makes them stay or leave. If you want to make the most of your social media presence, then you need to make sure that your profile picture is something that will attract people and make them want to interact with you.

In this article, we will show you how one of these tools worked for us and why it could be useful for you too.

Why Should You Have a Good Profile Picture?

You probably know that having a good profile picture is important for your online presence, but do you know why?

Your profile picture can make or break your chances of getting noticed. It’s the first thing people see when they visit your profile and it’s what they’ll remember when they look back and think about their time on your website. Your profile picture is also the first thing people judge you by; if they don’t like what they see, they won’t stay around to find out more about who you are as a person.

That’s why it’s so important to have a good photo up there—your picture can help set expectations before someone even visits your site!

6 Best Web App Profile Picture Maker

If you are looking for the best profile picture maker, you came to the right place. Your profile picture is like your business card. Whether it’s for your youtube profile picture, Instagram profile picture, or you just want to create a cool profile picture that you can show to everyone, these photo editing tools can help you to make them.

#1 Colorcinch

To give your photos a style that’s all your own, Colorcinch is an easy-to-use online (and offline) image editor packed with many effects and filters. As a result, it excels as an all-around editing software for images. Colorcinch is a browser-based program that eliminates the need to download any files.

Colorcinch has tools to enhance photos and create profile pictures. You can upload high-resolution photos and make your own images striking. It can have editing features from simple exposure adjustments to adding custom filters to your own profile picture.

#2 GIMP

GIMP is an online photo editor that is free and is thought to be the best free alternative to Adobe Photoshop. It comes with a lot of professional tools for retouching and editing images, drawing freehand, and changing the format of images.

GIMP gives you powerful tools to make your profile photos stand out, whether you’re a hobby photographer or just learning how to use a smartphone to take photos. GIMP also has a fully customizable interface, and since it’s open source, you can add your own filters and features.

#3 Instasize

One of the most popular Instagram tools and mobile photo editors for creative people is called “Instasize.” It has a clean, easy-to-use interface that lets you instantly improve the look of your photos with tools like contrast, exposure, saturation, and clarity. With the photo crop tool, you can also change the size of photos to fit any social media platform, such as TikTok or Snapchat.

#4 Picture Editor

With the Picture Editor tool, you can easily crop and resize your photos. If you want, you can also completely change the way your photos look. Picture Editor lets you add filters to your profile pic, giving them the look you want, just like the other online image editing tools we’ve talked about.

You can easily add text and shapes to your pictures using the interface for the Picture Editor. You can also “beautify” your pictures, make avatars, and do other things.

#5 Online-Image-Editor

Online-Image-Editor is an easy-to-use photo editor that lets you upload photos and change them without making an account. There are a few simple tools you can use, like rounding the corners of your photo. You can also add a frame, crop, and do other things with the platform.

If you want to use more advanced features, click on the Advanced tab. Here, you can cut out shapes and put them on top of your image, as well as change the file format and do other things.

#6 Lunapic

Lunapic is a simple site featuring an image/video upload box on the home page. The left side of the screen has tools that make Lunapic quickly accessible. It lets you paste images, create slide displays, and retro-color photos. It contains a voting system and over 200 photo effects. In addition, opens photographs from a web URL, which is convenient.

Tips on How to Achieve a Great Profile Pictures

There are many ways to achieve a great profile picture. You can use different tools and apps or you can even do it manually. But if you want to make your own, we recommend trying out these steps:

• Be sure that your profile picture is clear and easy to see.
• Make sure your profile picture is consistent across all social media platforms.
• Choose a picture that is not too dark or too bright. If it’s too dark, it may be hard for people to see what you look like; if it’s too bright, the colors might be unnatural and distracting.
• Choose a good filter for your profile picture. Filters help enhance the look of your photo and make it more interesting without taking away from the subject matter (you).
• Choose a frame that complements your picture’s mood and feeling but doesn’t draw attention away from the main focus of your image

The last thing you want is a blurry image of yourself on one platform, but then have another image that’s clearer on another site!

Conclusion

A profile picture maker is a great tool for creating your social media profile image. It is important that you have a good profile picture, as it is the first impression people get of you. A profile picture maker is a good way to create a profile picture as they make it possible to edit your photos and add fun effects to them. You can even turn your photo into anime, giving your profile picture a fun and unique twist.

And that’s it! You’ve now got a great-looking profile picture. There are so many other tools, apps, and websites out there that can help you make a fantastic profile picture. We hope you enjoyed this article and found some useful tips for yourself.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to use these tools or want to share your own experiences with us please leave us a comment below! We’d love to hear from you 🙂

The post 6 Best Profile Picture Maker Online appeared first on Photo to Cartoon – Cartoonize Yourself & Create Avatar Characters for Free.

If you plan to design any image that would be used on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, it would be wise to get the appropriate sizes and resolutions required by these platforms before designing the images.

This article will discuss what dimensions and resolutions you should go for if you want your images to appear well on devices, including Desktop Computers, Laptops, iPads, and iPhones.

Social media images and device resolutions have grown dramatically in the past few years. Hence, developing an effective social media strategy can be challenging when you don’t know all the dos and don’ts of designing these assets.

Popular Social Media Image Sizes

When it comes to social media images, size matters. Depending on the platform you’re using, images will need to be a specific size to perform best. So, here’s a quick guide on image sizes for some of the most popular social media platforms.

Pinterest Image Sizes

As a designer, it’s essential to know the ins and outs of different social media platforms, especially regarding image sizes. On Pinterest, vertical images tend to work best. Since Pinterest is a visual search engine, you must care about designing the best pictures.

Profile pictures, banners, board images, and pins are different images used on Pinterest. Below are the sizes for the same.

Pinterest banner size: 1920 x 480 px

Pinterest profile picture : 160 x 160 px

Pinterest pin sizes:

• Normal pins: 2:3 (1000 x 1500 px)
• Square pins: 1:1 (1080 x 1080 px)
• Infographic pins: 1:3
• Carousel pins: Both 1:1 or 2:3
• Story Pins: 9:16

Pinterest board image size: 1:1 (600 x 600 px)

Instagram Image Sizes

Instagram is a popular image and video sharing platform with mostly smartphone users. Various image resolutions work for Instagram.

Let’s look at all image sizes so the uploaded images don’t look pixelated.

Instagram post size:

Square images: 1:1 (1080 x 1080 px)
Vertical images: 4:5 (1080 x 1350 px)
Landscape images: 1.91:1 (1080 x 566 px)

Instagram story size: 9:16 (1080 x 1920 px)

Instagram reels size: 9:16 (1080 x 1920 px)

YouTube Image Sizes

YouTube is the most popular video-sharing platform, with 2.5 billion active users. YouTube recommends the following sizes for various images, including channel banner, thumbnail, and profile pictures:

YouTube channel banner: 2560 x 1440 px
YouTube channel icon: 800 x 800 px

YouTube Video size:

• 4K – 3840 x 2160 pixels
• 2K – 2560 x 1440 pixels
• 1080p – 1920 x 1080 pixels
• 720p – 1280 x 720 pixels
• 480p – 854 x 480 pixels
• 360p – 640 x 360 pixels
• 240p – 426 x 240 pixels
• 144p – 256 x 144 pixels

Twitter Image Sizes

Adding images to your tweets makes them stand out. Also, if you plan to run ads on Twitter, then knowing the image aspect ratios will be good as the images with the right dimension tend to perform the best.

Twitter profile picture: 400 x 400 px
Twitter cover photo: 1500 x 500 px

Image post: 900 x 450 px

Facebook Image Sizes

Now comes Facebook, one of the oldest and most used social media platforms with nearly 3 billion users. You can share a wide variety of images and videos on Facebook. Let’s take a look at the image sizes.

Facebook profile picture: 1:1 (400 x 400 px)
Facebook Cover photo: 2.7:1 (1125 x 633)
Facebook Video post: 16:9 (1280 x 720 px)
Facebook ad: 1:1 and 1.91:1 (1080 x 1080 px and 1200 x 628 px)
Facebook Stories: 9:16 (1080 X 1920 px)

Blog Image Sizes

If you have recently started a blog, you would be required to create many high-quality graphics works and images to attract an audience. Even though, you can upload images of any resolution, following a standard dimension and quality, will also help you in social media marketing as well.

Below given are some commonly used blog image resolutions:

Blog featured image: 1200 – 628 px
Infographics:  600 – 1100 px in width and up to 2000 px height

Popular Device Dimensions/Resolutions

There are a lot of different devices out there with different screen sizes and resolutions. As a designer, it’s essential to know the most popular dimensions and resolutions to create images that look great on all devices.

Smartphones and desktops are the most commonly used devices for surfing the web. But the number of tablet and TV users is also on the rise.

Smartphone

Smartphones comes in different sizes and form factors. The screen size of these devices changes drastically from device to device. But the aspect ratio and resolutions are pretty similar among them.

XHDPI: 360 x 640 px
FHD: 1080 X 1920 px
WQHD: 1440 X 2560 px

Laptop and Desktops

Pretty much all laptop follows a standard aspect ratio of 16:9, which comes with a resolution of 1920 x 1080. But the size differs greatly when it comes to monitor display side of things. With the introduction of wide and ultra-wide displays, the aspect ratio and dimensions have changed a lot.

But following the standards size guide, the 16:9 aspect ration is the one to go with. You can increase or decrease the actual resolution depending on the device, but the same aspect ratio will do.

If you work on a Mac, consider using a powerful and effective Mac cleaner to optimize the performance of your device.

TV

With the introduction of smart TVs and streaming platforms, the number of people who consume content on TVs has increased. Depending on the size, the dimensions and resolution of the TV differ a lot.

But here are some most commonly used TV sizes and their resolution.

• 2160p: 16:9 (3840 x 2160 px)
• 1080i or 1080p: 16:9 (1920 x 1080 px)
• 720p: 16:9 (1920 x 1080 px)

Wrap Up

As a designer, knowing the different social media image sizes and resolutions is essential. By understanding the specifications for each platform, you can create designs that are appropriately sized for each one.

Apart from the aspect ratio, you should also keep the resolution in mind as popular platforms like YouTube is available on TVs too. So, the images have to look crisp and sharp on large screens. If you need to resize your images quickly, check out this photo resizer.

The post Social Media Images and Device Resolutions Guide for Designers appeared first on Photo to Cartoon – Cartoonize Yourself & Create Avatar Characters for Free.

Imagine describing a visual scene in words – just how clearly are we able to deliver our message?

Let me tell you about some boats. There are five boats in the water not far from the shore. One big boat, two medium sized boats and two little ones. The two little boats are on the left of the big boat. One medium-sized boat is in front of the big boat and the other one is behind the big boat. The water is deep blue and crystal clear. You can count each and every rock in the water. Most are submerged but a few rise above the water.

Does this sound boring and redundant to you? It does to me.

Why describe it in words when I can just show you this picture:

The thing about text is that you first have to read it, then make sense out of it and only once you understand it, can you finally form an image of it in your head. That’s a lot of work.

Even then, the image you form may turn out to be different from what the person was trying to convey

Imagine going through your everyday social media content but it’s all in text. Sounds horrible right?

Social media has become a place where we don’t just share personal updates, but are also actively consuming content and interacting with businesses at an extremely rapid rate.

The inclusion of visuals in posts has led to an increase in engagement by 37% on Facebook and 35% on Twitter. A study by Buzzsumo found that on an average, posts with images receive 2.3 times more engagement.

In this article, we’ll take a look into how visuals play a big part in audience engagement and how you can optimize yours.

Why are visuals so important?

Let’s break down the reasons for why images do so well on social media.

1. We’re hardwired to process visuals faster.

Back in the time of the first humans, our ancestors were heavily dependent on their sense of sight to identify food or danger in the wild. Over the years, we’ve had an evolutionary reliance on our vision.

From the time we are born, it’s our eyes we depend upon to understand the world around us. It takes our eyes only 150 milliseconds to identify images or symbols and just 100 milliseconds to give meaning to it.

Our brain can process images 60,000 times faster than words and text and also retains 80 percent of what we see as opposed to just 20 percent of what we read.

2. We love color.

Colors are visual cues. They influence our moods and feelings. When we see an image, our brain passes a judgment on it, and 62-90 percent of this judgment is made on the basis of color alone.

Smart usage of colors can contribute to evoking positive or negative emotions, and also emphasizing and de-emphasizing certain areas of the image.

3. We like to see faces and expressions.

Imagine your boss sends you this message: “Come see me in my office”.

That’s a bit scary right? You don’t know what to expect.

What about- “Come see me in my office :)”?

That’s much better.

An expression sets the tone for any kind of communication. Research shows that we’ve started to perceive emoticons the same way we perceive real faces.

In fact, recognizing faces and people is so important to us that a whole section of our brain is dedicated to just that. It’s called the fusiform gyrus. When we see a face, the neurons in our brain become extremely active and excited.

So next time you post something, consider adding a face to it. Or better yet, a familiar face. Make that fusiform gyrus happy.

4. We crave simplicity in this complex world.

To the mind, images and symbols are simple. We are born to perceive information visually.

Reading and writing come later with time.

This is why infographics work so well. They break down complicated information into smaller, easily digestible chunks and give it to you in a visually attractive format.

This is also the reason why road signs rarely have any text. A symbol depicting students crossing a road is easier to understand than a sign that reads ‘Slow down! There are children crossing the road ahead!’

5. We remember images better.

Think about the first time you rode a bike. How old were you? Who taught you?

Can you picture it in your head?

We tie images to memories. That’s how we’re tuned to remember things. We don’t remember things in words or sounds, only visually.

Studies show that after 3 days of reading text alone, we only remember 10% of it. But if we present the same text along with a picture, we’ll remember 65% of it.

The many types of visuals you can use on social media

It’s a good idea to have multiple types of visuals in your arsenal. Some are easy to get and some require work and money. But serve your audience a good mix of visuals and you’ll never become monotonous.

1. Photography

Original photography brings in a whole lot of social currency. These are authentic and share your unique perspective with your followers. Your followers immediately feel a sense of connection with you when they see the world through your lens (literally).

While it is true that photography involves a lot of money and time, you don’t always need a professional photographer to take photos for you. A quick smartphone snap can also work most of the time. So be sure to be posting plenty of your photography.

2. Stock photographs

Why spend valuable time and resources into original photography when you can get high quality stock photographs instead? Some feel that stock photography is overused and would fail to engage with the audience.

But this is not true, stock photographs are designed to attract the audience and drive them into engagement.

What you must ensure is that the stock photograph falls in line with what you’re trying to convey and is edited to look like it belongs to your brand.

3. Illustrations

Digital artwork provides an attractive alternative to photography. Illustrations help convey complex ideas and information in a way that’s pleasing to the eye and easy to consume. What’s more is that they can give your brand a voice or tone and can help you weave specific narratives.

Based on the style you choose, you can make your content feel fresh and new, sophisticated and cool, trustworthy and dependable or any other sensation you want your audience to feel.

4. Text as a visual element

Sometimes words are more powerful than an image. That or you neither have the budget, nor the time for graphic design and photography. Either way, you can always get creative and turn your text into a visual element.

Pick out some elements from the text that you think are especially fun or interesting for your readers, and explore how you can make them stand out visually.

For example, pick a fun quote, play with its font, size, style, colors and placement. Choose a fun background that makes the text pop and voila, there you have it.

You can explore the use of free AI voice generator to convert your written content into spoken words, providing an additional layer of engagement for your audience.

5. Data visualization

A line of numbers is complicated and unappealing. Put that data into colorful, creative graphs, charts and other visualizations of facts and it’ll draw readers in to make sense of complicated data.

This is why infographics will always remain popular, they’re easily shareable and break down complex information in a way that anyone can follow along and understand.

Here’s how you ensure your image game is strong

With the millions of images being uploaded onto social networks each day, how do you ensure yours is among the best? It’s essential to integrate visuals into your content architecture, ensuring that images support and enhance the narrative flow of your posts.

Here are a few techniques that’ll ensure that your images are always engaging:

1. Competitor analysis

It’s a good idea to analyze what your competitors are doing with their image strategy. Understand what kind of visuals they use, what colors they use and what fonts they use. Understand their strengths and identify their weaknesses.

There are many tools and tactics you can use for this activity, including generating a special Instagram social media report that compares the best performing visuals of your competitors.

This will help you make a comprehensive image strategy that’s set to beat your competitors and engage with your audience.

2. Play on emotion and sentiment

The way to resonate with your audience is to form an emotional connection with them.

It’s the key to having a long-lasting impact on your audience.

Now I’m not saying start posting images that’ll get your audience emotional. I’m talking about simple emotional responses, like laughter. Getting your audience to literally laugh out loud will make it more likely for them to like, share, comment and remember the visuals.

Another way to do this is by understanding how your audience feels about trending topics and images. Do this by performing a sentiment analysis on these images. Once you know how your audience feels about it, you can post images that validate and reinforce what your audience feels about the topic.

3. Identify the right elements

Let’s take a look at Amazon Prime. Amazon Prime usually posts scenes and memes taken directly from its own OTT content. An infographic or stock image probably won’t work for them.

On the other hand, a social media analytics software like Radarr is better off posting data visualizations and infographics rather than photography and stock images.

You need to explore and first determine what elements bring a positive response for you. Based on what’s working, you focus your efforts on those elements that are relevant to you. Thus there’s really no point in going all in and blindly using all elements and formats.

4. It’s all about telling a story

Images are a medium through which we tell stories. Every visual you post tells the story of the post and also contributes to the story of your brand.

This is why you should never stuff your posts with random images, like this.

Data visualizations work because they take numbers and weave a story out of them. Text as an image works because the colors, size and font, all tell the user a story.

Every post has a narrative and the image needs to be contributing to it. The images you post need to either make it more understandable or more entertaining for the user.

5. Monitor image impact and optimize on the go

It’s a good idea to track your images across the digital landscape. You can monitor the impact of your visuals through image analytics.

Image analytics is a process of identifying information and data from images on the internet using AI. Thus, it can recognize attributes in an image and help you judge how impactful it really is.

You can make edits and additions to the images based on the result to ensure it gives you the desired impact.

Make this a part of your image strategy process to ensure all your visuals are up to the mark and will bring engagement.

Final Words

The trick lies in knowing your own audience and creating an image strategy that is tailored specifically for them. Visual content is a uniquely attractive way of putting across your value proposition and reaching out to potential customers. When done right, it’s among the most powerful online marketing tools that the social media world has ever seen.

Guest Author: Soham Khatri

The post Images and Visuals: How Do They Boost Audience Engagement? appeared first on Photo to Cartoon – Cartoonize Yourself & Create Avatar Characters for Free.

Sometimes all it takes is a little inspiration that leads to innovation or invention. This statement stands true when it comes to brainstorming about new products or services. The brainstormers seek aid from a variety of sources, and images are one of them. We all know humans are visual learners, and images are a powerful source of inspiration. The term ‘visionary’, which is derived from vision, is also used for a person who is capable of picturing the long-term outcomes of any action.
Brainstormers also tend to picture the long-term consequences of any idea that strikes their mind.

There is a high probability of brainstormers getting inspired by images as compared to other sources like written content or audible sources. The adage, “an image is worth a thousand words”, is true. Images are capable of telling stories. It takes a simple click to reflect an entire story revolving around the emotion, moment, and subject captured in the image. Any of the aforementioned factors featured in an image can inspire you and help you come up with an innovative idea about a new product or service.

You may not agree with what is written above yet, but we have put together a few details that can help you understand how images can be a source of inspiration. We will discuss their connection with brainstorming as well. Read on to know more details.

What is Brainstorming?

Brainstorming can be defined as the practice of creative problem solving where a person or a group of people keep a problem in mind and come up with creative solutions to that problem. This technique involves thinking without any known restraints and interruption. Brainstorming usually occurs at the very beginning of a project to create a simple list or even a complete roadmap.

Usually, the teams working on a startup use this method to generate feasible ideas. The entire process of brainstorming involves generating ideas, no matter how silly they are, and sharing knowledge with other people until the whole group or team reaches a feasible conclusion. You can also improve team collaboration through brainstorming.

The process of brainstorming includes defining the problem, doing research, thinking about solutions, coming up with ideas, and finally discussing it with peers and listening to their opinions about that particular idea. A result-oriented brainstorming process involves the visualization of data during the entire process. Moreover, no one is allowed to interrupt when someone is sharing their ideas.

Why is Brainstorming Needed for Ideas About New Products or Services?

It should be noted that brainstorming is generally carried out to solve a commercial or technical problem. The venture of launching a new product or service falls in the category of a commercial problem. A startup looking to create its mark in the industry and differ itself from the rest of the crowd will look to launch a new product or service that sounds innovative.

Take the example of a startup that works on modular furniture items. The items sold by such a startup need slight modification for change in their shape and, ultimately, the application. Such a startup would want to come up with a product that can be used as a chair, table, or even a footrest while looking remarkable. The best way to come up with the design of such a thing is by brainstorming about it. The team assigned with the task of designing such a product needs to brainstorm about it. They can take help from multiple sources for this purpose.

Similarly, an organization that offers brand-building services may get assigned the task of building the brand of a business that deals in sports merchandise. The most effective way of building a detailed roadmap to work with innovative ideas for an effective brand-building service is brainstorming about it. The team can think about various ideas and look for the gaps in the market to satisfy the needs of customers who are still looking for a sports merchandise brand that takes care of their needs.

As the above-given examples perfectly explain, you need brainstorming to come up with new products or services. A clearly defined problem that exists for a team is the start of a brainstorming process. The conclusion of this process is when the brainstormers reach a feasible roadmap to solve that problem.

How Can Images Help You Brainstorm Innovative Ideas?

While multiple things can help brainstormers come up with innovative ideas about new products or services, images hold their own place. A simple image can help you learn and explain tough concepts and get inspiration. Isn’t the brainstorming process a combination of all the aforementioned tasks? The answer is yes! Images do the same thing as well.

Think of the examples we have given above; what if they need some inspiration to build a roadmap? They will look for inspiration. And when you look for inspiration on the web, images can be a great helping hand. Images can tell you how the existing players, which happen to be your competitors, are working on their products or services. They show you how you can offer products or services in a similar category with an innovation. Moreover, images can help you identify the gap in the market.

Brainstormers can use pictures as writing prompts. All they need to do is find an image that is somehow relevant to the matter they are brainstorming about. And then write whatever comes to their mind. Once they are done writing, they may find it a waste of time. But after some time, they may find a gem in their writing. Similarly, pictures can evoke the right mood or emotion in a person brainstorming about something.

Platforms that can help you get images for inspiration!

We have listed some platforms that can help you get images for inspiration while brainstorming about a new product or service. Further details are given below:

Google Images

Google, without any doubt, holds the largest database, and nothing else comes even closer to it. The same is true in the case of images. Google Images can come in handy for brainstormers who look to use images as inspiration. All they need to do is access Google Images and input the relevant keyword in the search box. Once they do it, they will find plenty of images related to the keyword entered in the search box. These images can help them get inspired.

Reverse Image Search

Brainstormers can search by image to get inspiration. Take the example of modular furniture. If you want to come up with a product that can be used in place of multiple furniture items, the best way to do it is using a reverse image search. There are plenty of picture search utilities available online, all you need to do is search by image as a query, and it will search similar images indexed on the web to give you a wide variety of ideas.

Social Media

When it comes to inspiration through images during a brainstorming process, you can’t overlook the importance of social media. From common social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram to specifically designed platforms for sharing images like Pinterest, Flickr, and Tumblr, you can find a wide variety of images. These images might relate to the problem you are working on during the brainstorming process. All you need is inspiration, and sometimes social media is your last resort.

Wrapping Up

The main objective of brainstorming is to get inspiration for a revolutionary idea, and images can be a great inspiration, especially when you are looking to come up with a new product or service and make a logo design with the help of a logo maker. We have discussed brainstorming, its need for new products or services, and the role of images as an inspiration in the process of brainstorming. Moreover, we have also discussed some sources for visual aid during the process of brainstorming.

We hope these details will help you understand how images inspire a revolutionary idea during the process of brainstorming. With that being said, we wish you luck with your future brainstorming ventures.

The post How Can Images Inspire You When Brainstorming? appeared first on Photo to Cartoon – Cartoonize Yourself & Create Avatar Characters for Free.

Visual content is critical for any online presence to be effective. In fact, it is an essential part of successful social media management. Not only do images and videos make it easier to show off your brand personality, but they also make your messages more interesting as well as more digestible.

But effective social media visual creation doesn’t just involve communicating through photos, videos, and similar media. There are best practices to follow in order to maximize the response to every visual you publish.

Here are 10 valuable tips for creating visuals for your brand’s social media presence:

1. Have an overarching social media management strategy

Visuals aren’t just about prettifying what you want to say. Each one you create should contribute to and advance your social media marketing strategy. So before you start designing your organization’s visual content, make sure you know the answers to the following questions:

• What unique value does your company offer?
• Who is your audience? What are the best ways to communicate with them?
• What problems do you solve for your customers?
• How should you measure your campaign’s success? What are your most important metrics?
• What is the overall objective of your visual content?

Answering these questions will direct your social media visual creation efforts. It will help you be intimately familiar with your company’s overarching strategy and ensure that your visuals make a solid contribution. You can check out the best social media management tools to help you get on top of your social media game.

2. Never stray from your brand image

Don’t fall into the trap of constantly trying new design ideas or chasing potential virality. The best social media visual creation strategy is to use a consistent design style that reflects your brand voice and image.

Branding consistency on your social media accounts should go beyond using a single color palette and choosing similar templates. Every element—your graphics, copy, layout, music, etc.—should reflect exactly the personality that your company portrays. You could also try making a QR Code with your company logo in it to enhance your company’s brand image.

If you mean to be sophisticated and competent, there’s no need for fun and hip, no matter how well the style has worked for other brands. Similarly, if your brand personality is youthful and spirited, it should reflect in your visuals, no matter your message.

3. Tap into your audience’s emotions

Tell stories that are consistent with your target audience’s experiences and highlight the emotions they might be feeling. Show that you understand their journey and that your brand is genuinely interested in what happens beyond the sales transaction.

But when relying on emotions for your visual content, remember that the goal isn’t always about warming hearts and causing tears (although that could also be very effective, if it suits your brand). Making your audience laugh is also a good way to create an instant connection with them. If you’re able to do this consistently, they’ll eventually be conditioned to associate your brand with positive feelings and will be more likely to patronize your company.

4. Create your own content

It might be tempting to use pre-built templates, but what will your audience think when they see the same design used by another brand? Additionally, using stock photos and other ready-made media might seem like an incredibly efficient way to create the visuals you need. However, they might also be too generic and unappealing to your audience.

Audiences value genuineness that stock photos might not deliver, so stop using them. Simply editing a stock photo can take it from boring to interesting overnight.

It’s always better to create original content that reflects your brand values and speaks to your audience on a personal level. Whenever possible, show your actual products and real users of those offerings. This will better enable your viewers to relate to your content and ensure that your message resonates with them.

5. Repurpose other content

Part of your marketing strategy should be to determine how to maximize the value of all your content. Just because something was created for one platform, it doesn’t mean it can’t provide value for another. No matter the type of content, there must be a way to repurpose it using different kinds of visuals and through different community platforms. The trick is in making sure your content is complimentary, not repetitive.

If you have a blog, your social media accounts will be a good place to share visual snippets of useful information and drive traffic to your website. You can create infographics out of survey results and make personalized videos out of customer testimonials. Whitepapers can supply content for an entire podcast series. You can also create useful documents like checklists and charts.

6. Feature your users’ content

Social media is an excellent place to create real connections with your target audience. It is a good platform to foster a community they take part in. Lead discussions or launch campaigns that will encourage them to participate. You can also find ways to gather video responses from your avid fans. When you do these things, pay close attention, and you’ll find gems of content you can highlight as social media visuals.

Featuring user-generated content (UGC) makes it easier for your followers to feel like they’re a part of a community of like-minded people. It gives them something genuine to relate to, and it fosters a feeling of authenticity. When UGC involves an endorsement, it can be much more powerful than anything you create on your own. To tie things up even more, you can embed your user-generated content on your website with a social media aggregator.

Launching custom user-generated content apps takes UGC participation to the next level by providing always-accessible mobile creation tools. Dedicated user-generated content apps enable intuitive content generation and frictionless submission, empowering customers to become brand ambassadors.

7. Brand all your visuals

Different people consume content in different ways. When you share a visual on your social media account, users will have many ways to share it. Some will use the platform’s official share button, but others prefer to send the link, some might take a screenshot, and others might even print it out to show others.

To make sure that all your visuals can still be traced back to you, make sure you brand them. Create a logo with a recognizable name and include them in your designs. When possible, add a link to the original post or at least include the official name of your social media account. So whenever or however it is shared, you still get the credit and the mileage.

8. Customize visuals for every platform

When you create visuals, tailor them to every platform. Think beyond dimensions and ensure you consider the platform’s culture and unwritten rules before posting. Keep in mind that every platform has its own conversational context, and audiences typically have an expectation of what they’re going to get when they visit these sites. You need to understand those audience expectations and preferences, so you don’t come off as an intruder.

9. Use clear calls-to-action (CTAs)

No visual content should be created merely for design’s sake. Each one should serve a purpose, and that purpose should ultimately lead to sales. When you publish any type of content, make sure you declare exactly what you want your audience to do through an effective call-to-action. It could be on the visual itself or as accompanying text. Either way, the message should be concise as well as compelling.

For example, publishing a relevant quote on achieving success might be useful for building your brand presence. But think of how much more value the same visual will offer if it can directly drive traffic to your website. All it takes is a call-to-action statement like “Ready to reach your peak? Click here to register.”

10. Split test your visual strategy

It’s easy to make assumptions about your audience’s preferences, but you can’t truly know what works until you’ve tried it and checked the results. But even if you’re already hitting your targets with your current visuals, wouldn’t you want to know if there are little tweaks that could boost conversions further?

When creating visuals for social media, every element of the design can make a significant impact. So, your split tests should involve only small changes. This will enable you to pinpoint exactly which design change contributed to the change in response.

It helps to change only one variable at a time. For example, center-align on one and left-align on the other. Use a GIF on one and a static image on another. You can also experiment with various CTAs.

Wrapping Up

Every social media management strategy should involve the creation of compelling and consistent visual content. It is the best way to engage audiences and capture their interest enough to absorb what you want to say.

But if you want to make social media content creation work for your brand, you can’t be lazy about it. Make the effort to create original, non-repetitive content. Ensure that each one is consistent with your brand. And, use it as a way to truly engage your audiences.

Apart from being more interesting and memorable, visual content is also more shareable. By following these best practices, you can pursue a visual content strategy that isn’t just digested but also shared.

The post 10 Best Practices for Social Media Visual Creation appeared first on Photo to Cartoon – Cartoonize Yourself & Create Avatar Characters for Free.

A long time ago, when my team and I decided to prepare a guide with the best elements of video content we had no idea that video thumbnails would be such a vital ingredient. We learned our lesson the hard way.

Video thumbnails are in the same league as the title and intro section of video content. Some experts consider thumbnails more important than the other two. Then there is the study that found 90% of the best-performing videos on YouTube have custom thumbnails.

Even if you don’t use custom thumbnails, YouTube or other media platforms that host your videos will auto-generate thumbnails for your content. So, why not create them yourself and reap the benefit of custom thumbnails. Here is a small guide on how to create effective video thumbnails.

Choose the Right Size

There is no one-size-fits-all in video thumbnails. The dimensions and ratio will change according to the media platform. Animated video production can also be tailored to fit different platform requirements, ensuring your content looks its best everywhere.

Always choose a large size that can be reduced to match the platform’s requirements. Doing the other way round will result in blurry thumbnails on big screens. You can do it yourself or delegate the task to a video animation company or utilize an AI thumbnail maker.

The most popular media sharing platform, YouTube, has clear specification requirements for thumbnails. The minimum and maximum sizes are 640×360 pixels and 1280×720 pixels respectively. The ideal aspect ratio is 16:9 and the upper limit for thumbnail uploads is 2MB.

It’s undeniable that thumbnails are a vital part of video marketing. Hence, test them on various devices and screen sizes before uploading the video.

Choose Contrasting Colors

The creator of the video thumbnail need not be a color expert to know that white font with a light background isn’t a pretty image. Well, that’s what many of them do. For a second forget about thumbnails. Text written using a light font in a light background is difficult to read even in large images.

Text, if there is any, in the thumbnail must be clear and easy to read. Hence, use contrasting colors so the text easily stands out. The use of contrasting colors attracts attention and the videos are less likely to be skipped.

Use Text and Opt for the Best Font

Now that the color combination for the thumbnail is decided, it’s time to think of the ideal font. Like the logo, the font is a brand element that the audience uses to identify and remember you. Hence, use a consistent font type and style in all the images.

The font type and style must reflect your brand personality. Plus, it should be nice and clear to read. You don’t have to stick with the font type and style with all the marketing assets. Develop a style guide to decide on the font type and style to use for each group of brand assets.

Make Use of Close-Up Images

Bear in mind that a video thumbnail isn’t just a placeholder. Creating effective thumbnails should be part of your brand strategy.

Despite the small size people want to see the thumbnail image. The image supplies vital information that the viewers use to decide whether to watch the video or not. Close-up images help users grasp the content and details displayed in the thumbnail.

For the same reason, use faces to create human-to-human and emotional connections with the users. In addition, the face must express an emotion. People are drawn to emotion. Seeing an emotional expression, which suits the video content, people feel a sense of familiarity that’ll prompt them to watch the video.

Maintain Consistency

If the choice is between watching something new or opting for content from a familiar source, people are more likely to watch content from a tried and tested source.

A sense of familiarity helps a great deal in marketing videos. Hence, try to be consistent with the thumbnail design.

Incorporate your logo in all the thumbnails. Ensure people have no trouble recognizing you by using similar fonts, colors, and other elements. Similarly, unless required otherwise, maintain a consistent tone and voice style using tools like AI voice over and AI video maker to keep your content seamless without extra effort.

Follow the ‘Rule of Thirds’

The ‘rule of thirds’ is an essential guideline used in photography and filming. It deals with the placement of the main subject in areas with the best chance of drawing the viewer’s attention.

The basic idea of the rule is to divide the screen into nine equal-sized grids using vertical and horizontal lines. The main subject of the thumbnail is placed at the intersection points to make the image interesting, captivating, and dynamic.

When applied diligently, the thumbnail creators are less likely to waste valuable real estate on the screen. Sometimes there could be more than one main subject – a text and a face.

Thumbnails Must Be Accurate and Not Misleading

At all costs avoid clickbait, misleading video thumbnails. The image you use reflects the context of the video. Hence, it should be a static teaser of the content inside.

Identify the most important frame in the video and modify or use it as a thumbnail. Even better, create a custom thumbnail that is known to increase the video play rate.

Thumbnails could also determine the fate of other marketing campaigns. Users only see the thumbnail when they open video newsletters that you send using email marketing software. Misleading thumbnails could increase the unsubscribe rate and doom your email marketing campaign.

Although misleading thumbnails will earn you a click, you’ll lose the trust of the users. Click-through rate isn’t the most reliable metric to gauge the performance of a video, especially when the bounce rate is equally higher.

Not just the viewers, YouTube and other platforms, including Google, will penalize by demoting the video in the search results. 

Test, Monitor, Analyze and Repeat

Bear in mind that a video thumbnail isn’t just a placeholder. Creating effective thumbnails should be part of while creating marketing videos, spend a considerable amount of time designing thumbnails.

It’s universally agreed that thumbnails play a key role in attracting viewers and making them open the video. But unfortunately, there are no metrics or tools provided by YouTube to monitor the performance of thumbnails.

This doesn’t mean there is no way to track its performance. Schedule videos with two different thumbnails (and keep everything else the same) and carry out A/B testing. Monitor the click-through rate to measure performance.

Final Thoughts

A thumbnail is a window that gives viewers a glimpse of what’s inside the video. A well-made thumbnail will ignite the spark of curiosity without revealing the secrets of the content inside.

Thumbnails per se won’t have any great impact on the audience. Your video thumbnails must be creative and compelling. The above-mentioned tips will add the much-needed magnetic property to thumbnails. They’ll attract attention and boost the video click-through rates.

About Guest Author: Christian Stanciu

Christian is a freelance video editor, owner, and post-production coordinator of Veedyou Media – a company offering video editing services to videographers, marketing agencies, video production studios, or brands all over the globe.

The post How to Create Effective Video Thumbnails appeared first on Photo to Cartoon – Cartoonize Yourself & Create Avatar Characters for Free.

Whether photography is your hobby, side hustle, or your core business, you want to be the best at it, right?

Publishing your photos on social media is the best way to connect with potential clients and nurture a community that admires you for your work.

Social media networks could make you the next big brand in the world of photography. But there are so many social media platforms for photographers out there; which one should you go for? As part of your multichannel marketing strategy, it’s essential to choose the right channel because it will define your success in the end.

To ease it out for you we have come up with a list of the best networks for connecting with the fellow photography community.

Let’s explore.

Top 13 Social Networks for Photographers

1. Behance

Behance, which began as a portfolio publishing network, is nothing less than a LinkedIn for creative people.

Designed by Adobe, Behance lets you share your portfolio and any images you like. Other users on Behance can also comment on and like your photos. 

You can learn from a network of photographers by looking at their work and their response to your work.

You can also find professional opportunities on the platform. Finding work becomes easier since your portfolio is already built on the site. 

As a creative on Behance, you can also live-stream your work. You can also explore Adobe Live, an online community of creatives. Here, they share their ideas on multiple topics like illustration, graphic design, and motion design, in addition to photography.

2. Visura

The Visura platform is not solely for photographers. Here, editors and other creative freelancers can connect and forge their networks.

As the premier virtual home for photographers and photo editors, the platform offers a streamlined way of accessing resources and communicating in a personalized way. 

You will find a section for the spotlight, within the platform, in which you can see the highlighted posts that have gained the highest traction and views. 

In another section called “Events,” you can discover opportunities and upcoming events. Another section called “On media” offers a range of best-ranking blogs related to photography, photo editing, etc.

3. Pinterest

Pinterest is not the same as other social media platforms out there. Here, it is not much about gaining followers or getting likes. Pinterest marketing is more about SEO (keyword optimization for your pins) to be shown in this visual search engine for many years. 

You can get links to your website and attract potential clients. So, in a way, you can get business to your website by simply sharing images on Pinterest. 

By using beautiful pins, you can show your talent for photography to the world. You can opt for quick sharing to draw more people to your work within a short period of time.

Many people even try to find professional photographers for events and weddings through Pinterest.

4. Exposure

Every photograph encapsulates a story within, and if you believe the same, then Exposure is the right place for you. Through this platform, you can share stories behind the photos you take.

With its free plan, you can publish about three stories per month. The platform offers multiple features like unlimited photo uploads, media embedding in photos, auto-resizing of images, and more.

You can also use your domain name and embed your stories within your posts. When you go through the stories posted on Exposure, you will get the feel of going through a magazine.

5. Instagram

Everyone is Instagramming these days. And why shouldn’t they? It is one of the most happening platforms for millennials and Gen Z. 

With the popularity of Instagram increasing with time, it is one of the most crucial platforms for photographers to be using.

We can say that being Instagram-famous is a big victory. Instagram offers you space to unleash your photography skills and lets you engage with your followers.

You can enhance your overall social media visibility by being well-established on Instagram. It is not just about your portfolio. You can show your latest work or even keep a daily photography journal.

The way you use the platform is up to you. But once you have enough followers, you can get job offers and even money to run ads for interested parties. Make sure you select the best time to post on Instagram to get the most out of it.

6. 500px

This platform was launched in 2009 and can be called one of the leading social media networks for photographers.

At 500px, photographers share their fabulous photo creations, get wonderful exposure, take part in photo contests, and get licenses for photos.

Here, content, growth, and recognition are three of the most important things. 

Through this site, you can view your photos in high definition. You can also sell your photo license on 500px with a 60% share of the final price. One possible shortcoming with this platform is that it does not offer categories for the photographs.

7. Steller 

Founded in 2014, Steller is yet another social media network for photographers that allows users to develop a story, share feedback, and trade ideas with others on the platform.

Mobile users can also design mini-magazines or albums with their photos. You can post an album of your photos and make a story around the album. You can upload images directly from your smartphone’s gallery, and pictures look amazing in the page layout. 

Steller has a feature where the platform features your story, getting you better exposure as a photographer.

Other than posting stories and uploading images, this platform enables users to explore cool things to do and places to go. It helps in curating content as well as future adventures.

8. Tumblr

Tumblr is one of the oldest and prominent platforms for photographers since the rise of sharing pictures and videos online.

Though Tumblr is a 14-year-old microblogging site, it has only gotten better with time. It was the foremost platform to display the real power of photographs in the era of social media. 

It lets photographers share content that individuals can reblog with a single click. Every reblog increases the possibility of your content going viral.

It has retained itself as one of the best free social media sites for photographers for years because it widens your engagement and gains you a higher reach.

9. Facebook

Having a social media page for photography on Facebook does increase your chances of gaining reach and popularity.

Engagement on Facebook pages isn’t as high as on other social media sites. But the individuals that follow you via this site are more likely to become quality buyers.

Other than that, boosting your photography through Facebook ads can be beneficial. Apart from its reach, it allows you to target specific demographics that are most likely to get in touch with you. Additionally, you can connect Facebook Ads to Google Sheets to efficiently track and analyze your ad performance.

10. Ello

Ello is a social media network and a global community of artists devoted to creative excellence. It was designed as an ad-free alternative to existing social networks.

It has pivoted from its previous Facebook-like incarnation toward a Pinterest-like website showcasing art, photography, fashion, and web culture. 

Ello has various features, including an emoji autocomplete, NSFW settings, and hashtag enactment. It is preparing to add other features like private/direct messaging.

You can create a network with other creators by joining the global community of artists on Ello. Some of the top talents in contemporary art are part of this platform. 

11. Flickr

People have been using Flickr even before social media became popular. While it may seem that Flickr is kind of old, it is still one of the best places to keep your photos online.

While Instagram can provide a lot of social media connections, it cannot be used to protect your photos online while also allowing people to look at them.

The free version of Flickr has a maximum limit set at 1,000 photos. You can utilize most features without signing up for a pro account. Also, the best thing is that you can keep HD photos without paying. 

12. Youpic

The key feature differentiating regular websites from Youpic is that it hosts more professionals than amateurs. It serves as a means of channeling ideas with photographers on the platform.

While Youpic is primarily free, you can also get an affordable plan at $4.99 per month or even a premium plan at $9.99. You can get a great deal of money in exchange for this amount.

The basic plan on Flickr is available free of cost, but an upgrade is required for additional features and benefits.

The paid plans start at $6.99 per month and gives you unlimited uploads and storage, advanced statistics, and ad-free browsing.

13. Vero

Vero is yet another underrated social media network for photographers that helps them reach potential viewers. 

It is also used for sharing thoughts and reviews on books, photos, movies, TV shows, links, and much more.

Unlike many other platforms, Vero doesn’t let the resolution of your image decrease. It showcases your photographs in full resolution.

It also enables landscape and travel photographers to seamlessly catalog photos by location. Sharing links through the platform is another useful feature of this social media network.

Parting Words

No matter how many marketing strategies you work on, social media is important if you’re a photographer. Even if you opt for more than one platform, you will only gain from showcasing your work on various platforms. Possibly, increasing your reach.

Since the services offered by each of these websites are distinct, you should choose the option best suited to your needs.

On top of that, if you wish to take your photography and photo editing skills to the next level, don’t forget to check out Colorcinch.

About Guest Author: Sweta Panigrahi

Sweta is a Senior Content Writer at SocialPilot. Her strongest pursuit is to capture social media happenings in her well-researched blogs. From codes to meme posts, her search history is a confounding mess. When not typing out blogs, you can find her in a sunny corner scribbling poems.

The post 13 Best Social Media Networks for Photographers in 2022 appeared first on Photo to Cartoon – Cartoonize Yourself & Create Avatar Characters for Free.

In today’s digital age, rich media is everywhere. Brands have clocked in on the fact that images, graphics, and video content tends to perform better in terms of audience engagement. 

Multimedia captures our attention more than simple text, making it an excellent medium for delivering information and messaging. Design-forward thinking can greatly empower your brand, creating an aesthetic and visual appeal around it. 

Not only is it essential to incorporate multimedia into your brand’s messaging, but it’s also integral to use the right kind of multimedia. This is where you’ll need to strategically go about creating just the right designs that complement your brand image and make for compelling content.

When implementing website design services, it’s an excellent idea to incorporate visuals. Visuals help establish your brand’s personality, theme, and story without you having to say much and without your user’s having to read through a ton of content. Visuals are a great way to capture the audience and reel them in to explore your website or social media more. 

8 Design Tips to Make Images Look Creative

Whether you’re a beginner or have been a creator for years, these design tips are bound to help freshen up your content. As a creator, you know how challenging it is to keep content fresh and unique; use these tips to help inspire your next creative projects. Let’s begin!

1. Colors 

There have been countless studies exploring the psychology of color in consumer decisions and marketing. Specific colors help consumers and users make certain associations. For example, blue tones are typically associated with trust. Another study showed that 93% of consumers make associations based on the visual appearances of brands.

However, we wouldn’t recommend creating graphics and images that follow color psychology per se. Try to establish a personality for your designs; if you work at a Nashville web design agency and you’re making them for a brand that doesn’t have brand colors yet, go for colors that complement the brand image. 

Does the brand want to look dependable or exciting? Fun or serious? Then pick colors that convey these associations to the audience. If you’re creating social media images, take a look at color theory studies and use different colors to tell different parts of the story.

2. Experiment with Lines

Play around with lines in your images, this will also need a bit of research. Lines play a more important role than you might think. Lines guide the audience’s eye to the focal point of your image.

The user’s eyes follow the lines in your image to go through it, you can use these lines to create a visual journey. Pay attention to where the lines lead your users, and how you can best draw their attention to the most important elements in the image. 

3. Play with Typography

Similar to lines, the typography used the right way can be a game-changer for your images. Experiment with different fonts, don’t be afraid to use different fonts within the same image. Asymmetry in typography can be very visually appealing if done right.

And similar to lines, fonts can be used to direct the viewer to the most important elements in your image. It’s important to make sure your images are still readable, no matter what font or typography you use. 

Unless you’re going for abstraction, your images need to be quickly readable and require minimum effort. People in the digital age are not exactly known for their high attention spans!

4. Experiment with Contrast

Whether you’re creating graphics or editing images, they need to pop! A lack of contrast can make your images look flat and dull. Experiment a bit with the contrasts in your images, not simply in editing but in colors and tones. 

The colors you pick, and what elements you create with them need to be thought out. The element you want to pull the audience’s focus into should pop while other elements can be more muted so the focus is pulled away from them.

Darker colors against muted backgrounds and vice versa can greatly help make your work look more creative and vibrant. Designers can often get stuck working with the same palette, but if you have the liberties to incorporate more colors, go right ahead and experiment!

It’s also important to be careful not to go overboard with the contrast! Too much contrast can make images look harsh and amateurish. Play around with high and low tones, different color contrasts, and see what works best.

5. Scaling

Not every element in your images needs to be the same scale. Experimenting with different sizes and scaling can make your images look more exciting and trendy. Asymmetry done right can work in the favour of your designs. Use scaling to draw attention to certain elements and away from certain elements.

Scaling also helps draw the audience in given you use something attention-grabbing and compelling as a dominant element in your design. A quote or statistic or fun fact is excellent for drawing user attention to text images. On the other hand, a catchy picture or bright colors, in general, are great for images. 

Think of it like “clickbait” in a sense, your images need to have some degree of clickbait elements to draw focus to them. Scaling is an excellent tool at your disposal that can help you achieve this effect.

6. Declutter

Declutter your designs! Unless you’re going for an abstract effect, get rid of any element that isn’t necessary to the overall aesthetic or content. Use space to give your designs a cleaner look. Not every inch of your design needs something, leaning into the simplicity can be a game-changer for it!

If you’re working with colorful elements, it’s especially important to utilize negative space. Spacing the elements out against a contrasting background will help them stand out even more. You can achieve this with both black and white base colors depending on what the overall aesthetic of the design requires.

7. Hierarchy

Establish a hierarchy of elements before you begin creating a design, going from most to least important. 

Especially if your images are a part of a sales funnel, it’s integral to get the most important bits of information out first. Establishing a hierarchy depends on what your design’s priorities are, what are you looking to achieve with your images? Are they sales images? Are they infographics? What purpose do they serve?

This will help you decide which elements get more attention than some of the others. Primary, secondary, and supplementary messaging all need to be decided before you create an image design.

8. Follow a Direction

Did you know that users read images in specific patterns? They either read in an “F”, “Z” or “E” pattern. This means that their eyes follow a specific direction when scanning an image. 

This is why we’ve stressed the importance of creating a path or ‘visual journey’ for your audience to follow, through lines, hierarchies, and typography. Your designs need to follow a direction and place elements strategically where the user’s eye goes first to get the most out of your images.

Create your images with one of the “E”, “F” or “Z” patterns in mind and position the most important elements accordingly. This will grab the user’s attention according to your priorities and help them along the visual journey you’re creating!

+ Bonus Tip

9. Consistency

Establish a set of typography and colors for your images. This doesn’t need to be a hard and fast rule, you don’t need to commit to a certain aesthetic forever, treat colors and fonts as temporary frameworks. 

Especially if we’re talking about social media feeds, it’s important to maintain some consistency so your feed looks uniform. Decide a ‘theme’ for your feed and stick to it for a batch of your work, then when you get bored, simply switch to a different theme.

Take this Instagram feed as an example, the color palette pulls the feed together, creating a sense of cohesion. Even though the images are all different, they contribute to the overall aesthetic of the feed perfectly, without compromising their individual qualities.

Consistency is key if you’re creating images for social media or a website, as it plays a significant role in building engagement with your audience. Similar to colors, pick out a set of fonts that you’ll restrict your image design to, these don’t have to be one or two fonts, you can have three or four depending on your preferences. 

The key is to stick to a set and create content that is consistent with the predetermined theme.

If you’re a designer and are feeling a creative block, worry not! The internet is a magical place with fresh, new content every single day that is bound to kickstart some creative inspiration in you.

Top 5 creators to follow for design inspiration in 2022

As 2021 comes to a close, you’re probably feeling like you’ve maxed out every idea that could freshen up your content. Now that we’ve gone over the design tips, let’s take a look at some of the best illustrators and designers to follow in 2022 for inspiration!

1. Yukai Du

Yukai Du is a graphic designer; she creates eclectic animations and still images. She uses lines and blocks for her incredibly creative images. 

Although the designs can look pretty simple at a first glance, a closer look will demonstrate the artist’s ingenious use of lines and patterns in her work. Every element works together to create a uniform piece of design! 

2. Andrea Stan

Andrea Stan is a letterer and designer. Her feed is an excellent place for inspiration if you’re into trendy image designs and logos. Her use of typography in her designs is also impressively masterful.

Eccentric typography placed against even base colors helps the text stand out perfectly. If you’re looking for inspiration on how to kick your text-image designs up a notch, this is definitely worth a visit! 

3. James White

James White is a digital artist whose feed is one big dose of 80’s nostalgia blended with sci-fi aesthetics and colors. 

White’s attention to detail and masterful use of shapes and bright colors to illustrate the theme is exactly the kind of inspiration you need to do the same!

Even though his feed is consistent in terms of color palette and aesthetic, each image is unique and impressive on its own as well. We highly recommend visiting his feed for some design inspo in 2022!

4. Mary Kate McDevitt

Mary Kate McDevitt is a graphic designer and letterer. Her feed is excellent inspiration for aspiring letterers out that that need practice on playing around with typography.

Her designs are simple, with only a few elements and colors, but her unique use of typography makes them look impressively creative and eye-catching. Her designs are incredibly popular and have even been featured in stationery.

5. Alex Perez

Alex Perez is another excellent graphic designer. His feed is the perfect inspiration for using lines right for your designs. 

Perez’s feed also some impressive lettering inspiration for beginners. His image design is deceptively simple, however, if you look closely you’ll see how lines are used to guide the user’s eye in each design. 

His designs are clean, with ample use of space used to help the elements of his designs pop.

Final Takeaway

The world of design is constantly evolving and changing; this means designers need to keep up and change alongside emerging trends. We hope these tips help you improve your design game and get the most out of your images. 

In case you’re short on inspiration, visit the feeds we’ve recommended for a healthy dose of creative inspiration! Happy creating!

The post Simple Design Tips to Make Images Look More Creative appeared first on Photo to Cartoon – Cartoonize Yourself & Create Avatar Characters for Free.

Presenting business ideas and solutions in the form of virtual representations, aside from drawing more traffic to your business platform, is also a means of communicating informatively to people. Graphics design regarding digital marketing in the present improvement in technology is a must for your business. This design helps you communicate and creatively solve problems.

Graphic design is a key feature of digital marketing, it highlights plans to discover what an image uniquely portrays which makes it different and easily get publicized. Furthermore, it is also a proven way to engage people, build brands, and create awareness that will in turn influence the consumer’s decision-making process.

 If you are a trader and you are not utilizing the graphics design platform for your business activities you are certainly missing out a lot, knowing that the human eye is always attracted to virtual objects.

The team of Colorcinch has the passion and aim of creating an environment that ensures designers relate with people with like minds, irrespective of their previous knowledge and experience. They ensure all photo editing complications are dealt with.

If you need to know the reasons why graphic design is important in digital marketing, this post is for you.

Develop your Pattern 

You should be aware that what you display about your products is of great importance, graphic design is a major factor in passing information to your consumers or the public because it tends to give an insight of how your services would look like, a good designer should be able to communicate ideas and solutions through chart, reports and graphical illustrations.

Having in mind that your major purpose is not just about the outcome (profits), but to ensure your brand secures its position in the labor market. Also, you should have a pattern that should be unique and separate you from the populated market. A modern logo and creative graphic design is good. Your client will be able to identify your products at a glance, being fully aware that the human eye tends to remember virtual objects than mere write up though they are still effective.

Creative Design Attracts More Attention Than Written Post

Having an attractive and creative design is just a way to bring people to your platform, your graphics should be able to give people insight/ a general idea about your product even before inquiring more about them. It should be very captivating such that it will leave a positive impression on your client and they will just be curious for more information. 

Your design is what will speak for you when you are physically not there. Unlike written words, people tend to ignore too much write-up on a post and focus more on the images on it if it contains both graphics and writes-up.

Represents The Business Identity

A design shouldn’t just contain a creative set of pictures and logos that would just be admired and appreciated, it should have a feature of passing information to the public about the company in a graphical format. That is to say, it should generally represent the company’s philosophy, and creatively reflect the state of the company.

Enhances Sales

If your design is captivating and creative whereby it passes a message about your products, potential clients will of course come to patronize you, thereby leading to an increase in sales. For instance, an individual needs something and goes to the market or checks online. The only reason he will choose a particular product is if he is impressed by the designs or desired products.

Goes Beyond Language

People find it very easy to interpret a virtual form of an activity or object rather than those written in various languages. Despite that person may have a primary language, graphics help to bring people together in understanding a particular theme.

Makes You Soar Above Competitors

Do the research and take an inventory of what your competitors are doing that is keeping them at the top. Try to create something different from the normal. Something that will make potential clients always want to click and know more about your products. Because truth be told, customers evaluate different sources before deciding on the one to purchase from. 

So in a case like this, your business should have a good graphic design quality. It’s an important aspect of your marketing plan. If not, it will tend to fail in the online marketing place. Moreover, the aim is to make your brand outstanding with confidence and to ensure your ideas are delivered creatively. You can also use social media management tools for your daily social activities. It will help you to post your creative graphics on a daily basis.

Publicize And Market Your Brand

What is a business without an effective marketing skill. This entails when the trader seeks different means to reach out to the public. It is one of the most crucial parts of a business. If there are no customers, your business is as good as not existing.

Digital Marketing advertising is something that seems tough to digital traders. However, to be able to get the clients, graphics design quality should be top-notch. So it can advertise your product more efficiently via email marketing, blog outreach, brochure advertising, and so on.

For instance, if you are advertising on any social platforms, like Facebook and Instagram and you have a poor graphics design on the business logo, it may lead to losing a client. Knowing fully well that people spend time on these platforms, it will be very wise to get a good graphics plug. You may also generate dynamic QR codes to track, analyze, and retarget your customers.

A good number of organizations invest in promoting the decision-making process of their targeted audience. The design agency takes part in the decision-making process, whereby they design the color fonts, size and provide a good digital experience. Examples of these graphics objects are; Banners, flyers, postcards, brochure templates, slide templates and email templates.

Final Thoughts on the Importance of Graphic Design in Digital Marketing

A good graphics design is almost the backbone of your company in the digital age. It plays an important role in communicating craft ideas in the form of virtual representation. We have also seen that human memory tends to easily recollect graphical information, which is an easy form of communication.

The importance of graphic design cannot be overemphasized. It creates a relationship and easy access between the business owners and the general public. So if you want a massive turnout both in profits and ranking, an effective advertising campaign is necessary.

The post The Importance of Graphic Design in Digital Marketing appeared first on Photo to Cartoon – Cartoonize Yourself & Create Avatar Characters for Free.