How to design instagram highlight covers
How to Make Aesthetically Pleasing Instagram Highlight Covers — Homemade Social
Written By Becca Booker
With the ever-changing Instagram algorithm, it is becoming increasingly important to utilize IG stories to create consistent engagement & show authenticity! IG stories are a great way to interact with your followers & give them a behind-the-scenes of what you’re all about.
A great way to increase the traffic to your page is to save your Instagram stories to highlights so followers can refer back to them for information and entertainment. A big aspect of a cohesive theme and establishing a solid Instagram aesthetic, which we talked about in our recent blog post, is creating highlight covers. These are easy to create & make highlights more user friendly, while incorporating brand colors and themes.
A great website to use is Canva (it also has an app, but it’s not as easy to use). This site offers a ton of FREE templates & icons to use on highlight covers. You can also upload your own photos to turn into Highlight covers. The possibilities are endless! This is the perfect opportunity to be creative & try your hand at graphic design.
Have a few Instagram highlight ideas in mind? Watch below for an easy step-by-step tutorial on how to Instagram highlight covers & be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Enjoy!
Brief Outline to Creating IG Story Highlight Covers:
Go to canva.com
Once on the homepage, search Instagram Story
Choose any template
Clear out any text or images on the graphic
Add an icon, “illustration” or text. Play around with fonts to match your brand and aesthetic!
Type the Cover category
Duplicate that graphic for the # of covers you’ll need
Customize each cover’s icon and title to correspond with your category.
Don’t be afraid to switch up the background color either! Just make sure they align with your brand and Instagram content. Download templates as a png file
Go to the Instagram app and click on a story highlight
Click More at the bottom of the story and choose Edit Highlight
From there you can edit the cover with your new designs!
Here are some other social media-related blog posts:
How to Use Instagram Stories Highlights to Wow Your Customers
3 Tips To Increase Your Engagement On Instagram Stories
Our 3 Favorite Instagram Story Apps
4 Tips For Service-Based Businesses To Improve Their Social Media Presence
6 Tools Every Content Creator Needs Under $25
How To Stay Up-To-Date With Social Media Trends
We hope you enjoyed this blog post and found it insightful! Making your Instagram highlight ideas into a reality through on-brand highlight covers can do wonders for helping you establish a cohesive theme and Instagram aesthetic overall! Be sure to follow along on Instagram at @homemadesocial_ and let us know if you have any questions! You can also subscribe to our weekly newsletter for social media tips & tricks & to stay up-to-date on the latest in the digital industry!
Becca Booker http://www.
homemadesocial.com
How to Create Beautiful Instagram Highlight Covers (40 Free Icons)
Instagram Highlight covers make a great first impression.
Located right below the bio section of your Instagram profile, they provide a polished look for your Instagram Highlights and draw attention to your best Instagram Story content.
And you don’t have to be a hip influencer to use them. Orgs of all stripes from government institutions to Fortune 500 companies use them to great effect.
Covers are an easy win for any brand that banks on aesthetics. (And on Instagram, that’s everyone.)
The good news is that even if you don’t have access to a graphic design team, they’re easy to make.
We’ll walk you through all the steps to create your own Instagram highlight covers. As a bonus, we have a free pack of icons to help you get started.
How to create an Instagram highlight
How to create a new Instagram highlight from your profile
How to create your own Instagram Highlight covers
5 tips for using Instagram highlight covers and icons
Download your free pack of 40 customizable Instagram Stories Highlights Icons now.
Optimize your profile and set your brand apart from the competition.
Create highlights to keep your best Story content at the top of your Instagram profile permanently.
1. In your Story, tap Highlight in the bottom right corner.
2. Choose the Highlight you want to add your Story to.
3. Or, tap New to create a new Highlight, and type out a name for it. Then click Add.
And that’s it! You just created an Instagram highlight.
Have an idea for a new highlight? Or maybe you want to add a few different Stories at once?
Follow these steps to create a new Highlight from your Instagram profile:
1. Go to your profile and tap the +New button (the big plus sign).
2. Pick the Stories you want to add to your new Highlight. Pro tip: Instagram gives you an archive of your stories going back years. So don’t be afraid to do a little digging for those Story gems.
3. Tap Next and name your new Highlight.
4. Choose your Highlight cover, and tap Done.
Don’t have a highlight cover yet? Read on.
Instagram will allow you to use any image you like for your highlight covers.
BUT your brand deserves better than just “any image.”
This space is prime real estate for converting lurkers to followers. You want to leave an impression.
If you’re crunched for time, Adobe Spark has pre-made covers that you can customize and use.
But if you want more control over your Instagram brand, these steps will show you how to easily build a great Instagram highlight cover from scratch (or almost-scratch).
Step 1: Log in to Visme
Log into your account on Visme or create a free account on visme.co.
Step 2: Create a new image that is sized for Stories.
From the main Visme dashboard, click Custom Size in the top right corner, then type in the Instagram Story image dimensions (1080 x 1920 pixels). Click Create!
Step 3: Get our free icon set
Download your free pack of 40 customizable Instagram Stories Highlights Icons now.
Optimize your profile and set your brand apart from the competition.
Once you’re done downloading, unzip the file and choose your favorites. (You can use them with or without our professionally designed backgrounds.)
Step 4: Upload your icons to Visme
Go to My files in the left-hand menu, click Upload, and select the icons you would like to add.
Once you upload the icon image, click on it. If you can’t see your icon on your canvas after you’ve uploaded it, don’t worry. It’s most likely because the icon is white lines on a transparent background. We’ll fix this in the next step.
Step 5: Create your background
Right-click anywhere on your image and click Background. A quick-access background bad will appear in the top left corner of your workspace. Here, you can select a background color, or add a brand color in the HEX code field.
When you change the background color (to anything other than white, your icon will appear).
Step 6: Download your highlight covers from Visme
Name your project. Then click Download in the top right corner. Choose your file type (PNG or JPG are both fine). Then click the Download button.
Download your free pack of 40 customizable Instagram Stories Highlights Icons now. Optimize your profile and set your brand apart from the competition.
Get the free icons right now!
Your cover will be downloaded to your hard drive.
Repeat this process with other cover designs.
Pro tip: Now is a great time to make sure your Instagram account has your Story archive enabled. This is important if you want to go back and see your old Stories without downloading them to your phone.
Step 7: Edit your existing highlights to add your new covers
You no longer have to add an image to your Story (where all your followers will have to swipe past it) in order to make it a highlight cover.
Instead, you can just edit the highlight directly:
- Go to your Instagram profile.
- Tap the highlight whose cover you’d like to change.
- Tap More in the bottom right corner.
- Tap Edit Highlight.
- Tap Edit Cover.
- Choose the image icon to access your phone’s photo library.
- Choose your beautiful cover.
- Tap Done (actually, tap it three times.)
Do this for each of the stories you want to add covers to.
Voila! Your on-brand Instagram highlight covers are now gracing your profile and unifying your look. Magnifique.
5 tips for using Instagram highlight covers and icons
Now that you know how easy it is to make your own unique highlight covers, we’ve got some time-saving tips to make them as effective as possible.
Show off your brand’s aesthetic
Your brand has its favourite colours, font, capitalization—and possibly even some favorite emojis. Your highlight covers are definitely the place to show these off.
That said, keep in mind that less is more. Those little portholes are pretty small, after all. Clarity is key.
Don’t be afraid to experiment
Your Instagram highlights don’t have to do it all. They can do one thing very well.
For instance, Red Bull’s highlights used to be fairly conventional (e.g., Events, Projects, Video, etc.) But now they give each of their athletes their own highlight. All we get is a face, a name, and an emoji. Intriguing.
Meanwhile, the New York Times takes Stories literally. They populate their highlights with exhaustive yet readable primers on complicated political subjects. They also create fun, snackable Stories about appealing subjects.
Either way, their cover style is perfectly consistent, which helps make the wide reach of their topics more manageable.
Be consistent in your organization
There are absolutely no rules when it comes to organizing your Instagram highlights. (Brb, my inner librarian needs to go rail antacids.
)
But, some brands organize their highlights like they would their website (e.g., About, Team, FAQ). Some brands organize by collection or product (e.g., Winter ‘20, New Arrivals, Makeup Line).
I’m here to tell you that however you choose to organize, remember to approach it from your audience’s perspective.
In other words: if they know what they’re going to see, they’re more likely to tap.
Highlight the Stories that matters most
Ask yourself what’s most important to your audience. What are they here to see? This season’s collection? Today’s schedule? Or something that is useful for the longer-term, like, for instance, how to pair your flagship earbuds?
The Met, for instance, prioritizes potential visitors. It keeps a helpful guide to this week’s exhibitions at the top of its highlight reel.
Convert your audience to customers
With the right covers, you can introduce new eyes to your best shoppable Stories and swipe-up content (if you have an Instagram for business profile with more than 10,000 followers).
Try using our shopping bag icon, for instance.
For more tips on selling products using your Instagram Stories, check out our complete guide to Instagram shopping.
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How to quickly make a beautiful cover for Highlights on Instagram
The growing functionality of the Stories section has long made working with Instagram* Stories a separate strategy for interacting with subscribers. In Stories, they make quests and advertise blogs and products, conduct surveys and communicate in joint live broadcasts.
Previously, Stories were available for 24 hours, but due to the popularity of the format, the Instagram* developers allowed to save content using the new Stories format, Stories Highlights. It is also called the "Actual" section - it allows you to save stories forever, and also - to fix them immediately after the profile description. You can also sort, name, and change the appearance of pinned stories. nine0003
And if you need to plan Stories, use SMMplanner's super-advanced Instagram Story Builder*.
You can make the Featured Stories section visually appealing by editing their covers, which can improve the overall look of your account.
Saona's Instagram* store made covers in the same style as the Instagram profile avatar* - a good solutionLet's figure out how to do it yourself, without resorting to the services of different "specialists". nine0013
How to add a cover to Stories
Let me tell you a little secret. To add a cover to Stories, it is not necessary to publish it in Stories, as many people do.
Incomprehensible characters will only cause negativity among your readers.
I advise you to do it this way:
- Click "Edit Current" and then "Edit Cover"
- Open the gallery. The button is hidden at the very beginning of the row (on the left)
- Select the desired image and save the cover
Stories cover apps
Okay, we've learned how to upload covers. But how do you find a unique cover that suits your style? We have collected several ways, you will definitely find something for yourself.
- Flaticon
This resource offers tens of thousands of icons on a variety of topics. You can use ready-made thematic catalogs or enter the desired topic into the search (for example, "food") - the service will show all the icons that match the request. nine0003
- Pinterest (App on the App Store or Google Play)
We go into the application and write in the search "Cover for Instagram *".
You will be given bright and interesting collections suitable for different very different accounts.
- Canva (app on the App Store or Google Play)
Those who read the SMMPlanner blog know what Canva is. If not, read the article “Designing Content Without Photoshop”. So you can create an icon or an inscription to your own taste in Canva, however, it will take some time. nine0003
The whole procedure consists of several steps:
- Create a new template.
- In the "Elements" section, look for a suitable image (or upload your own).
- Placed in the center.
- Save and upload to Instagram*.
- App For Type
This method is suitable for those who like bright and interesting inscriptions. The application has a lot of inscriptions, settings and more than 50 fonts.
You heard right. This is not banter, but real advice. Even in Google you can find something interesting.
Try it, it gives pretty good results.
Ideas and types of cover design for Stories
When drawing up a strategy or preparing a content plan, bloggers and SMMs are guided by the target audience. You will laugh, but when choosing a cover, you need to do the same.
Covers are different, that's why the profile is perceived differently. Conventionally, they can be divided into 3 categories:
- Standard covers
Suitable for bloggers, ordinary users and all accounts with a lifestyle theme.
- Thematic covers
Suitable for professionals of all professions.
- Business covers
For example, Black Star did not bother (by the way, you already know how to make a similar cover for yourself). But if you want to stand out, you can't do without covers like the ones on the right. nine0003
Tip for those who want to update their cover but don't want to dig through apps: you can save any of these collections and upload them to Instagram* right now.
Leah Canarskaya , SMM specialist :
In addition to the obvious function of navigation and stimulating the sense of beauty, Stories Highlights perfectly help businesses implement activities to engage users in content, including sales promotion. This means that you can collect and share subscribers' reviews about your products and services in the "Actual" section, save contests and winners, write about delivery conditions, payment, returns and other relevant information. And my advice to you is that since the captions for the icons of Actual Stories do not contain a sufficient number of characters, it is best to turn to the creation of high-quality, easily and quickly understandable to the user, covers. Don’t force your Instagram guest* to think and search, make it easier for him to purchase a user’s path, since the functionality allows. nine0013
Do you need covers for Stories Highlights
It seemed to me that only lazy people do not use covers for Stories.
No! It took me about an hour to find the examples above. Many still don't use Stories Highlights at all.
This means that even now this method is great for standing out.
Yes, this will not affect the increase in coverage or the influx of subscribers, but it will help in other ways. For example, I recently searched Instagram* for people who bake at home. With equal criteria, one of the accounts I found stood out - as you might have guessed, it was well-designed, and Stories were packaged in windows with bright, and most importantly, understandable covers on the splash screen. This is where my search ended and I happily placed an order. nine0003
Whether or not to cling to the cover is your choice, but it certainly won't do you any harm.
To recap
Creating covers is quick and easy if you know where to look for inspiration or ready-made options. Use any of the methods above: Flaticon and Pinterest are a treasure trove of cool icons, collections, and more, while Canva and App For Type let you create your own custom cover.
One thing is obvious - there is nothing complicated about it. With the help of these services (even without a sense of taste!) It will be possible to collect something interesting for any account. And how to beautifully arrange the entire account, you can find out at the master class "Designing an account on Instagram *". nine0003
For information on how to upload photos to Instagram* from a computer, follow the link.
The article has been updated. First published: October 22, 2018
TOP 3 cover apps
A cool app that's perfect for creating elegant plain color covers for Stories Highlights. There are all kinds of color palettes of various shades, so you can easily and quickly arrange your archive of stories in your favorite style. nine0003
Workflow:
- Log into Adobe Sketch.
- Click on the plus sign, which is located at the bottom right and select the tabloid format.
- Go to the settings of any brush and select the color change category. Here you will see a wheel with a color scheme, where you can choose the optimal shade.
- Click Finish. Next, hold down the screen and fill in the sketch for the future cover of Instagram Highlights with the selected palette. nine0028
- Don't forget to save the picture.
- If you want to make a couple of covers, then you need to delete the old sketch layer and add a new color as described above.
- If you want to make several images of the same tone, then just move the arrow on the wheel a little to the side and choose the gamma a little darker or lighter.
Another cool theme that allows you to create cool Instagram Highlights covers with original calligraphy. The service has twelve templates of ready-made inscriptions in the public domain, then for a fee. nine0003
Please note that background covers must be prepared in advance to use this application. The first resource we talked about, that is, Adobe Sketch, will help you with this.
Action algorithm:
- First, open the application.
- Go to the gallery and find the background cover on which you will apply the inscription.
- Next, select the category "Tech" if you want to use free text templates. If you want to use paid fonts, then go to the "Font" category. By the way, 53 fonts are available in the paid version of the application, 26 of them are in Russian. nine0028
- Now put the caption in the middle of the cover and save the picture. This can be done from the menu at the bottom of the page.
Very cool service for creating Highlights covers. It's more than just pictures. Speaking simply about the complex, this service allows you to engage in WEB-design.
With Canva, you can design awesome covers with special themed icons. Interestingly, working with this application, there is no need to pre-create covers in color. Everything is much simpler here. nine0003
Action algorithm:
- Go to the "Your story" section and choose any shades for your Highlights cover.
- When you have chosen a suitable color scheme, press the plus sign located at the bottom right.
- Then go to the graphics category and select the appropriate icon. At the same time, please note that it is better to make requests in English. For example, if you want to make a sports-themed cover for Stories Highlights, then type “sport” into the search engine. nine0028
- The next step is to choose from the options that appear either a paid version of the icon or a free one.
- Place the icon in the middle of the image and click Share.
- The last stage is the publication of the finished cover in the story.
How to replace the cover for Stories Highlights
Look, if you just need to replace the existing cover, then the procedure is as follows: nine0028
