How to create your own set of social media templates

Do you struggle when you sit down to design a social media post?
The blank page can be intimidating. You might know what you want to say, but you don’t know how to make it look.

Take some time to do a little work up-front and move forward knowing you’ll always have a design to sit down to.

If you enjoy taking a crack at design projects, try this formulaic approach to creating a graphics pack of your own:

• Pick 3-5 hex codes you want to use. One or two of them should be true colors… the other 3-4 should be light neutrals and a variation on black. Copy the Canva template below to see my example.
• Create a “Instagram post” Canva document (1080×1080 pixels).
• Create 10 pages.
• Make 8 of them your light neutrals or your variation of black… and 2 of them your color(s). This is typically the ratio you’ll want to uphold in your feed.
• Pick a font (this should come from your brand guide). Paste this block of filler text into the text box (this is about the length of a sermon quote/devotional thought).
  • Filler text to paste: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit.
  • Adjust the font size until the text box takes up slightly less than 1/3rd of the page.
• Pick a secondary font (this should also come from your brand guide). Type your website URL into this text box and shrink it to about 1/3rd of the size of your primary font. Decrease the opacity to 50%.
• Now – play! Copy the text blocks, change their alignment, and play with different pairings.
• You can incorporate 1 other design element per page. Here are some ideas:
  • A photo with its transparency dropped significantly (enough so the text contrasts with the background)
  • A shape taken from your logo, location, or interior design (Ex: I have a client who worships in an A-frame building; his posts always include a steep angular color block.)
  • A third complementary font to emphasize a single word
  • A transparent texture over the top of the entire design

I did the first few steps for you! + examples at the link above!

Once you’re done with this project, you’ll have a set of simple, impactful, cohesive graphics that you can reuse over and over. Mix sermon quotes & devotional thoughts with high-quality pictures of your happy people and you’ll have a feed you can feel proud of.

Questions? Want someone else to do it for you? 🙂 Just get in touch.