Home » Misc » How to make instagram graphics

How to make instagram graphics


The 5 best free design tools to create social media graphics in 2022

As both a photographer and writer, I'm very aware of what gets me likes. Big, bright photos, graphics, and other images just grab our attention in a way no amount of words can.

The good news is you don't have to hire a designer or spend hundreds of dollars on software—there are some great free graphic design apps out there you can use to create incredible social media graphics. I've been writing about and using these kinds of tools for almost a decade, so I'm very familiar with what's good. And what isn't.

Here are the best free apps for creating social media graphics.

The best free graphic design apps for social media

  • Canva for template-based design

  • Adobe Express for scaling a side hustle

  • Pablo by Buffer for quickly making images to share on social media

  • Desygner for making your own designs

  • Snappa for creating occasional images

What makes a great social media graphic design app?

How we evaluate and test apps

All of our best apps roundups are written by humans who've spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software. We spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app as it's intended to be used and evaluating it against the criteria we set for the category. We're never paid for placement in our articles from any app or for links to any site—we value the trust readers put in us to offer authentic evaluations of the categories and apps we review. For more details on our process, read the full rundown of how we select apps to feature on the Zapier blog.

Social media posts have a very short lifecycle, so you don't want to spend hours creating them. That's why graphic design apps are crucial: instead of starting from scratch each time, you'll have a range of great templates and design resources (like stock images, icons, shapes, and text styles) ready to go. Then, all you have to do is mix and match things with your own brand elements to have something unique and powerful. 

And you don't need to pay huge prices to get incredible results. What makes graphic design apps free isn't a lack of quality. I've considered more than 30 free graphic design apps and found five incredible, free resources. Granted, some of these are more limited free plans of premium products, but they're are all up to the job of creating awesome images for your social media marketing channels. 

To evaluate each social media post maker, I spent a significant amount of time browsing hundreds of themes to get a feel for the quality of each one. I also created at least two test posts using the templates (with most of the favorites, even more). I generally focused on the overall ease of use and professional offerings of each app, but I also had some key criteria that each app needed to meet to be included on this list:

  • Is this app easy enough for anyone to use? Tools like Photoshop and Illustrator are incredible in the right hands, and unusable in the wrong ones. Social media management is rarely done by people with a design background, so any app has to cater to regular people. This isn't to say there won't be some learning curve, just that it doesn't require a textbook to climb. 

  • Is this app suited well for social media marketing? Again, Photoshop and Illustrator can do incredible things, but they are complete overkill for most people trying to create images for their social media marketing channels. I wanted apps that streamlined the process of creating strong graphics, not offering every tool under the sun. 

  • Is the app experience good? A free graphic design app has the potential to be, frankly, awful to use. But even if you're not (yet) paying for a service, you shouldn't be hamstrung by a slow, janky, and just unpleasant experience. Especially when there are great apps out there you could be using. 

  • Are the design assets varied and professional? It's easy to find social media templates online, but many of them are awful. You can't slap some cheesy clipart on a graphic that represents your brand, or keep recycling the same social media post design over and over. We only included apps that had assets that would allow you to represent yourself or your company in a professional light. (To be honest, this criterion cut the most apps.)

  • Can you use the app in multiple ways? If you create one post for Twitter, it should be easy to repurpose it for Instagram, or even for a flyer. Similarly, you should be able to quickly edit and update last year's Christmas sale post with this year's info. Apps that made this list had to be multi-purpose, rather than force you into one way of working. 

With that said—on to the apps.

Best free social media design app for template-based design

Canva (Web, iOS, Android, macOS, Windows)

Canva is a powerful, but still simple-to-use, template-based free design app. There are hundreds of thousands of templates, graphics, and photos you can use as part of the free plan (that goes up to millions of assets with a Canva Pro subscription).

When you open Canva, you're presented with dozens of possible templates for everything from posters to Instagram Posts. It's a lot to navigate, but there's great search built in. Click the search bar at the top of the screen, and look for something like "birthday instagram stories" to see more specific options. (I got more than 1,000 suggested templates just for that.)

Once you've found a template to work from, the drag-and-drop editor makes it simple to add your own resources. Click Uploads then Upload Media in the left sidebar, add any images or brand elements, and you can drop them straight into the editor. One tip: right-click on any element and click Send Back or Send Forward if you want to move it behind things like the text (which you can double-click on to edit) or the image frame. 

Like Google Docs, Canva enables you to share and collaborate with others, so if you want a second set of eyes on your design, click the Share button in the toolbar and then add an email address.  

When you're done, click Download to save your post for, well, posting. If you've accidentally included any premium assets, you'll have the option to pay to remove their watermarks (normally at about $1 per asset). It's handy if you only occasionally use Canva, but if this happens a lot, you should subscribe to Canva Pro for $12.95/month (or at least check out the 30-day free trial). Pro has heaps of extra designs, and some nice features, like automatic resizing, a social media scheduler, and the ability to upload your "brand kit," so you can easily add your logo, brand colors, and font to your designs. 

If Canva does the trick for you, you can probably stop here—it's an all-around winner. But if you're looking for Canva alternatives, keep reading.

Canva Price: Free for 250,000+ templates and 5GB cloud storage; from $12.95/month for Canva Pro, which offers 100GB storage, millions of assets, and more.

Best free social media design app for scaling a side hustle

Adobe Express (formerly Adobe Spark) (Web, iOS, Android)

Adobe is the biggest name in graphic design, so it's no surprise they have an app designed for making social media and web graphics. Adobe Express (which was on this list last year as Adobe Spark; it's since been rebranded and updated) isn't as well known as Photoshop or Illustrator, but it's better for most people who are looking to create graphics to share on social media. And it's free to get started. 

Template-wise, Express still falls behind Canva. It has less to choose from, and the search isn't as good. Don't get me wrong: there are still thousands of awesome free templates, but you're less likely to find that perfect template and more likely to have to spend a few minutes tweaking one that's close, but not quite there. 

One of Express's best features is Quick Actions. On the home screen, you can select things like Resize Image, Trim Video, or Remove Background to quickly make those changes to your photo or video—powered by Adobe's Photoshop and Premiere apps operating in the cloud, apparently. It's a really intuitive way to have access to what can be quite advanced tools in other apps.  

As an editor, Express has some pretty advanced features, but it keeps them out of the way. Almost anyone should be able to create a great-looking social media graphic with it, but if you want to drill in deeper and customize things more, there are advanced layer options, blend modes, color toning, and other features pulled from Adobe's better-known apps. You can generally access them by selecting any design element and checking out the right sidebar. It really hits that nice middle-ground: quick and easy to use for 90% of jobs, but with the more powerful features available for when you want them. 

Express is an excellent standalone app for designing social media graphics, but it's hard to overlook its integration with the rest of Adobe's Creative Suite. If you plan to scale your business to the point where you need to use (and pay for) Adobe's more powerful tools, Express is the way to go. You can create libraries (in the Libraries tab of the sidebar) that are available across all your Adobe apps and pull in photos from Lightroom or brand elements from Illustrator. Adobe Stock images and graphics are also available throughout the app. 

Adobe Express Price: Free for basic features and 2GB of cloud storage; from $9.99/mo for premium features, such as logo upload and placement, branded templates and tools, and 100GB of cloud storage.

Best free social media design app for quickly making images to share on social media

Pablo by Buffer (Web)

Pablo is a minimalist tool for placing text over the top of images, from the team behind the social media scheduling app Buffer. It couldn't be simpler to use or in its design. For me, that's a feature—but if you need something with more options, check out one of the other great apps on this list. 

Seriously, Pablo is a barebones post maker app. Open the website, and you're straight into the app. There's no need to create an account—because there are no accounts. In the center of the screen, there's a preview of your image. On the left, you can search for an image through Unsplash or click Upload Image to add your own. At the top of the screen, click Templates to choose from one of the six defaults. On the right, you can choose the size and shape of the canvas, add a filter, position the text, and insert your logo or another graphic. Click on the text to change its formatting, double-click on it to edit it directly. Oh, and click Reposition to change the position and crop of the background image. That's literally it. 

Once you're happy with your post pic (and it won't take long for you to be), click Share & Download to save your image or post it directly to Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram (or queue it up with Buffer). If you do queue it up with Buffer, you can also connect it to any of the other apps you use with Zapier. 

For all the lack of options, Pablo is still on this list. It makes it beyond simple to create basic-but-good-looking social media images, and by stripping most features, it makes it impossible to create ugly ones.  

Pablo Price: Free

Best free social media design app for making your own designs

Desygner (Web, iOS, Android)

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Desygner has some of the most advanced features of any of the apps we tested—while still being simple to use. If you don't want to go the template route (although it does have thousands of great templates to work from), additional features like a free-drawing pen tool and the ability to import from PDF, PSD, and SVG files give you a lot more creative freedom.

One of Desygner's best features is that you can upload and save your brand assets for use in every design, even on the free plan. When you log in, click Assets in the top bar. You can then create a color palette (I like lots of pink), upload images, create custom text snippets, and more. 

Then, when you're working on your design, you can access them at any time. For example, if you select Image > My Assets from the sidebar, all the images you've uploaded are available to drop into the design. It's the same for logos, text, and other elements. Similarly, when you select the color of anything, you have the option to choose from your brand color palette. 

If you create a lot of different designs every week, having everything ready to go in Desygner can really save you a lot of time. It means you can grab a template, and within seconds, have all the colors and graphics ready for your needs. Then, it's just a matter of posting it.

Desygner Price: Free; from $9.95/month for more templates and assets, as well as features like saving your own designs as templates.

Best free social media design app for creating occasional images

Snappa (Web)

Of all the apps on this list, Snappa is the only one whose free plan has access to the exact same templates, graphics, images, and other design resources as the paid plan. The catch is that, instead of having to carefully check what template you're using, you can only download three designs a month.  

If you only occasionally need to create images for your social media channels—or just want to create a one-off banner for your Twitter account or Facebook page—it's really nice to not constantly be running into upgrade notifications or selecting themes only to be told they're only available on the Pro plan. As good as Canva and Desygner are, the free plans do make you very aware that there's a paid plan they'd love you to be on. Snappa is a lot less pushy—but no less useful.

The other mild difference with Snappa is that its templates—while excellent—aren't as thoroughly themed as some of the other options, nor is there an easy way to search through them. You need to look at the defaults as a base you can customize and build from, rather than something ready-built where you're simply adding a photo and changing the words.

If you want to make a birthday post, for example, you should look at the templates and pick one that has a layout you like. Then, open it and add your own picture with the Bkgrnd tool in the sidebar—either by uploading one or finding one of the included royalty-free stock images that works for you. You can customize it further by clicking on Effects and adding a color overlay, blur, or other adjustment—most of which serve to make any text on top of the image more legible. 

Of course, you then need to add balloons. Because every birthday post has balloons. To do that, click the Graphics tool and then Icons. Use the search to find a balloon you like, and click to add it. To make sure everything lines up nicely, you can click the Toggle Grid option in the top toolbar and use it to position things perfectly. 

When you're happy with how things look, click Download to save your image or Share to push it directly to your social media accounts—so long as you haven't maxed out your free posts. If you have, you'll need to upgrade or save it to keep the file until the monthly limit resets.

Snappa Price: Free for 3 downloads or shares per month; from $15/month for Snappa Pro with unlimited downloads, shares, and integration with Buffer and your social media accounts.

Even the best tool can't make up for a lack of knowledge. Check out Design 101: How to make great graphics without design skills, and learn the principles you need to succeed in creating standout images for social media.

This article was originally published in October 2017 by Emily Irish.

How to Make Stunning Social Media Graphics Even if You’re Not an Artist

Not every social media manager is a pro graphic designer, but it’s often an expectation of the job. Luckily, we have recommendations for tips and tools to help you fool your followers.

Read on to learn how to make social media graphics that look professional.

What are social media graphics?

8 tips for creating simple and effective social media graphics

Examples of social media graphics to learn from

Helpful social media graphics tools

Get your free pack of 72 customizable Instagram Stories templates now. Save time and look professional while promoting your brand in style.

What are social media graphics?

Social media graphics are pieces of visual content that are shared via social networks.

This can include Instagram Stories, Facebook photos, TikTok videos, Twitter gifs, Pinterest pins, LinkedIn infographics, and more.

Other visual formats included under the ‘social media graphics’ umbrella include cover art, typographic images, digital posters, and screenshots. But basically: if it’s graphic, and if it’s on social, it’s a social media graphic.

While many social networks were launched with a focus on text posts (remember the glory days of the circa-2005 Facebook status?), graphics have taken over as the communication format of choice for every social network.

It’s not hard to understand why. Strong visual content can communicate an idea immediately. Studies also show that images stick with us longer than text: humans are 65% more likely to remember information if it includes an image.

Plus, graphics are a great way to cement a visual identity for your brand or business.

Check out Fresh Prep transforming a cut-and-dry testimonial into a pretty pull-quote graphic:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Fresh Prep | Meal Kit Delivery (@freshprep.ca)

… or Adidas’s eye-catching video collage.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by adidas Originals (@adidasoriginals)

… or Owlet’s colorful infographic:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Owlet (@owletcare)

Social graphics also tend to have a higher engagement rate than written posts.

Facebook posts with photos, for instance, get more likes and comments, and LinkedIn posts with images have a whopping 98% higher comment rate on average. Meanwhile, Tweets that include visual content are three times more likely to get engagement.

If you don’t fancy yourself an artsy type though, don’t worry. Read on for a crash course in designing social media graphics, inspiring examples, and the tools that’ll help you fake it ‘til you make it.

8 tips for creating simple and effective social media graphics

Use the correct dimensions

If you upload an image or video with the incorrect aspect ratio, it’s going to get stretched, cropped, or squished out of proportion. Not a good look.

Avoid the humiliation of an awkward re-size or auto-crop by tailoring your content according to each platform’s unique specifications. We’ve even assembled a social media image size guide to help you. How convenient!

And no matter the dimensions, make sure to always aim for the highest possible image quality. That includes pixels and resolution.

Whether their images are just text or photos and text, Get Clever always makes sure its images are looking flawless on the feed. We dare you to find a weird crop here!

Follow accessibility guidelines

While social media accessibility isn’t technically a requirement under Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCGA)’s latest compliance standards, it’s just good marketing practice to make content that everyone can enjoy.

Inclusive social media marketing is a nice thing to do and it’s good for business: win-win. You can find more info about inclusive design principles for social media here, but some key components to consider are:

  • Social media graphic text. Text in your social media graphics should be bold, legible, straightforward, and concise. Creating high-contrast images makes reading easy for everyone (the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCGA) recommend using a contrast of 4. 5 to 1).
  • Captions and alt-text. Use closed captioning and alt-text descriptions where possible to help any visually impaired followers to experience your social media graphics and videos. ( Here are some tips for writing great alt-text captions.)

Source quality stock photography

Maybe you’ve done your homework and already read our blog post on how to take good Instagram photos… but sometimes, the professionals just do it best.

Which is why you should bookmark this master list of free stock photo sites.

As you’re looking for imagery, though, it’s a good idea to try to be mindful of representation. Do the people in the photos reinforce stereotypes? Are you showcasing a diverse range of humans in terms of gender, race, age, body type, and ability? There are lots of photo banks now that specifically aim to amp up the diversity in stock photography, so consider sourcing pictures from one of these:

  • Vice’s Gender Spectrum Collection goes “beyond the binary” with its photos
  • Refinery29 and Getty Images’ The 67% Collection is intended to promote body positivity
  • Brewers Collective created two free disability-inclusive stock image libraries
  • Getty Images and AARP’s Disrupt Aging Collection fights ageism

Create one focal point

Images that are too busy or chaotic, with no clear main focal point, are less likely to catch anyone’s eye as they’re scrolling. Plus, if a social media graphic has 14 different visual components crowding for attention in one little square, it’s tough for the viewer to understand what the message or point is.

This Nike Running post, for instance, draws the eye directly to amputee runner Marko Cheseto, with the textured backdrop and orange hand-drawn elements acting as the supporting players.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Nike Run Club (@nikerunning)

Instead, make one element the focus of the image… though that doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be in the dead center. Remember the rule of thirds and place your image in the left or right third of the image to really please the eye.

Ooh, one last hot tip about image layout: don’t put anything important in the upper and lower 250-310 pixels, in case it gets cropped on certain devices.

Stick to your style guide

To ensure your social graphics are consistent with your brand and company goals, it’s helpful to create a social media style guide… and then follow it with every post.

On the Wealthsimple Instagram, their social team sticks to a simple combo of illustrations, their sans serif brand font, and a muted solid backdrop. Every. Single. Time. (Well, except for their New Year’s spectacular — but hey, there are exceptions to every rule.)

Visual strategies should be informed by audience research: what does your unique mix of followers and fans like to see on their feed? Are they a group who would appreciate lo-fi memes or people who prefer inspirational quotes rendered in soft pastels?

Once you’ve got a handle on what your audience vibes with, create a mood board with colors, textures, graphic elements, and inspiring visuals to help communicate your desired direction.

Your style guide should also include direction on how each channel will execute the vision: for Pinterest, do you have a specific way you’d like to design your pin board cover art every time? Share your style guide with everyone involved in your social strategy to keep everyone on the same (beautiful) page.

Get your free pack of 72 customizable Instagram Stories templates now. Save time and look professional while promoting your brand in style.

Get the templates now!

Brush up on your design basics

While your social media graphics are certainly an opportunity to get creative and express yourself, there are also certain universal design principles that every image should follow for maximum impact.

  • Contrast: High-contrast images are attractive and memorable. Contrast gives an image balance, and makes the image and text easier to read.
  • Repetition: Repeat a visual element (like color or shape) in the design to tie together otherwise separate parts.
  • Alignment: Nothing should be slapped on the canvas arbitrarily; aligning elements helps create structure and order for the viewer, even subconsciously.
  • Colors: Get familiar with a color wheel and choose complementary colors for your designs

This Adidas pic hits all the marks:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by adidas Originals (@adidasoriginals)

Keep it simple

We may have six thousand filters and effects and stickers available to us… but just because these tools are at your disposal, doesn’t mean you should always use them. Keep it simple: making sure your social media graphic is easy to understand is more important than showing off all the bells and whistles.

Resist the temptation to over-edit, and increase saturation with caution.

Allbirds resists the temptation to get too crazy with its announcement of a new sandal line: the backdrop is fun without being distracting, and lets the real star of the show (shoes! glorious shoes!) be the focus.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Allbirds (@allbirds)

Treat text with respect

Using text on your social media graphic? Make sure it serves a purpose: you want the text to improve, not obscure, your creative.

If you’re overlaying words onto the image, use a solid background or a photo or illustration that visually leaves room for it.

Take care with font selection — this decision can impact both legibility and tone. Futura and Times New Roman have very different vibes, you know? (That being said, if you’re going to mix fonts, pair a serif with a sans serif.)

Don’t forget to triple-check your spelling and grammar. If possible, ask someone else to give it a quick proofread, just in case.

Examples of social media graphics to learn from

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dank Mart (@dankmart)

Snack shop Dank Mart knows its audience is young, playful, and hungry, and so its Instagram account reflects that with vibrant colors and youthful themes.

Here, instead of just posting a picture of the latest inventory item, they overlaid the jar atop a colorful backdrop alongside cut-out graphic elements. It’s like they’ve dusted this whole post with cinnamon sugar, and proved even the most boring of grocery item can look hip and fun in the right context.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Fast Company (@fastcompany)

Business magazine Fast Company didn’t have custom portraits for all of the people they named on their Queer 50 list. But they were still able to create a consistent look for their social with graphic shapes and bold, contrasting colors.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Harlow Skin Co. (@harlowskinco)

BarDown didn’t necessarily have the best photo in the world (no offense to the “I woke up like this” Stanley Cup)… but it still looks professional thanks to the overlay of a Tweet and the logo in the top corner. The trick they’re using here to look professional is alignment: the Tweet is nicely centered and the logo gives a little room at the margins.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Summer Fridays (@summerfridays)

Sharing a quote or mantra is a surefire way to earn your post some attention. The key to doing it right is to make sure the color and font aligns with your brand as much as the actual sentiment does. With cool-girl skincare brand Summer Friday, the trendy sans serif and chic neutrals feel absolutely on-point.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Nike Run Club (@nikerunning)

At first glance, this post from Nike is just a cool, retro-inspired ad for the brand’s shoes. But subtle movements in the animated text catch the eye and draw you in.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Frank And Oak (@frankandoak)

Adding a thick border around a standard fashion shot is going to help this Frank and Oak post stand out as you scroll.

Helpful social media graphics tools

With the help of these apps, programs, and templates, even the most amateur designer can produce something compelling.

Venngage

The online web app can help you design graphics for all sorts of projects. Yes, it’s helpful for social media graphics, but you can also use it for presentations and reports.

The intuitive editor is great for design newbies, plus you get access to social-media-ready templates, a library of icons, and a chart generator. We particularly like the ability to add your brand colors/logo to any template with just a click.

Adobe Express

Adobe’s creative suite offers a whole bunch of different tools for a pro designer, but the quick-and-dirty Express (formerly Adobe Spark) is an excellent option for the beginner. Featuring a ton of professionally designed templates and assets for social media content, it’s a great way to dive in and generate some professional-looking graphics in a snap.

Try it out with our free templates, why don’t you?

Adobe Photoshop

The king of image editing software, Adobe Photoshop offers a huge swath of tools to make any of your visual dreams come true.

Cropping, color-correctly, combining images and type: anything is possible. It’s a little more robust than Express (above) so the learning curve is certainly higher, but put in some time with Adobe’s tutorials, and you’ll be lassoing and layering like a champ in no time.

Unfold

Stylize your Instagram feed with Unfold’s full suite of template collections. There are 400 custom templates here, with exclusive stickers, filters and fonts, too. No wonder it’s one of our favorite apps to recommend to businesses on Instagram. (Even Selena Gomez is a fan!)

Instagram Grid Hootsuite integration

If you’re thinking big picture with your visual identity on Instagram, you’re going to want to play around with Hootsuite’s Instagram Grid integration.

Use the app to create a grid of up to nine images, and then publish them directly to your Instagram account right from the Hootsuite dashboard. (Hot tip: Hootsuite’s scheduling capability lets you publish them when your audience is the most active on Instagram, for maximum engagement. )

Try it free for 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Looking for some gridspiration? We’ve got you covered.

Layout From Instagram

This free app from Instagram itself allows you to create collages with ease. Compile up to nine photos or images in a variety of layout combinations. You can then personalize the collage with filters and other elements before sharing to Insta.

AppForType

If you’re a typography lover, you’re going to fall hard for this one. There are 60 fonts to choose from to overlay on your photos or graphics, but you can also upload your own handwriting to use as a custom font.

A Design Kit on App Store

From the makers of the ever-popular A Color Story, A Design Kit features collage layout tools, stickers, 60-plus fonts, textured and patterned backdrops, and realistic paintbrush tools. Create a graphic here, even with the templates, and you’ll have something truly one-of-a-kind to share with your followers.

Infogram

Use Infogram to generate reports and infographics, including maps, dashboards, and charts. After all, using data in your posts might just convince your audience that you’re credible and authentic… and have the receipts to prove it.

This should be plenty to get you started on your social graphics design journey, but if you’re hungry for more expert advice, we sure don’t blame you. Now that you’ve got the skills, it’s time to talk strategy. Here are 12 tips for creating engaging visual content on social media.

Create more beautiful social media posts — and schedule them in advance — with Hootsuite. You can also monitor mentions of your brand on social media, engage with your audience, measure results, and more. Try it free for 30 days.

Get Started

Do it better with Hootsuite, the all-in-one social media tool. Stay on top of things, grow, and beat the competition.

Free 30-Day Trial

design for Instagram with VistaCreate online editor

Sign up to view this great offer

Anyone can post a picture on Instagram. And making an Instagram post that gets noticed is a whole science. But not with VistaCreate! It will replace an entire design studio, and it will become much easier to create magnetic Instagram content.

Create your first design

Easy to animate

Now you are a true motion designer. With VistaCreate, you can animate posts in a matter of seconds. Take a template and use simple tools to add wow animation to photos and backgrounds. Ready!

In Animation Designer

Huge set of simple and intuitive tools

Create Instagram posts quickly with the powerful VistaCreate editor.

Templates

Animation

Download

Edit

Change the size

Objects

Select Template

Professional Vistacreate designers created an impressive library of 100,000+ Design Shabellons-here everything that is needed for a quick start.

Edit the template

Add movement to your post

Do you want more energy in your Instagram post? If you need videos and animations, take any of our extensive collection of motion templates and elements.

Animate

Personalize your post

Add your voice and style to the design of the Instagram posts you edit. Upload photos, videos and graphics, and add or remove any element you want.

Go to the editor

Edit design

Customize the layout for yourself - edit the inscriptions, replace fonts, backgrounds, images and other elements.

Get started

How to resize designs

Save time by resizing designs with one click. It's easy - choose one of the popular formats or set your own sizes.

Start

Add the finishing touches

Make your Instagram posts look like pure fun - add animations, illustrations, stickers, icons, frames and more.

See objects

stock images of

VistaCreate has 1 million free photos, vectors, and more to encourage your creativity.

Stock Video

1600+ short videos at your fingertips that are easy to use in any motion format.

Font collection

More than 680 font styles available in 25 languages. And if that's not enough for you, upload your own!

  • Access to 70M+ royalty-free photos, videos and vector images

  • Remove backgrounds from images with one click

  • Create multiple identity packs with colors, fonts and logos for your brand

  • Upload your own images and instantly turn them into stickers

  • Invite up to 10 members to a team account and create designs together

  • Get unlimited storage for all your files and designs

  • Access the version history of your project at any time

How to Create an Instagram Post: 4 Easy Steps

  • step 1

    Select format

    Switch to Instagram post format to start creating.

  • step 2

    Select template

    Browse through all the Instagram post templates or use the search to dive into our huge collection of templates - and find the right one!

  • step 3

    Personalize

    Add, remove or edit any element to make the design exactly match your mood and style.

  • step 4

    Download and Share

    Download the finished post and share it on Instagram directly from the VistaCreate editor.

Create your first design

2400+ designs for Instagram

VistaCreate Builder is your quick assistant to create Instagram posts on any topic, for any audience.

Instagram post templates

FAQ

  • How to upload your design to Instagram?

    Click on the "Download" button - and the design will be saved in the "Camera Roll" section. Then upload the design to your Instagram account. Our team is already developing a feature that will allow you to post designs to Instagram directly from VistaCreate.

  • Can I use VistaCreate content for free (with and without modifications) when creating designs for social networks (Facebook, Instagram and others)?

  • Can I create a social media post in VistaCreate using only my own content?

100,000+ premium templates

We take care of the design - you are left with pure creativity. Create for fun!

To editor

What our users say about VistaCreate

Using VistaCreate has helped me improve my marketing and content creation skills. My audience has noticed how my social media content has changed and I get a lot of nice comments.

Read Charlotte's Story

If you're a small business owner with a lot of work on your shoulders, you can't do it without a time-saving tool like VistaCreate. Thanks to it, you also don't have to spend large sums to create beautiful designs for your company.

Read Jennifer's story

My visual content now looks much better than anything I've ever thought of. With VistaCreate, creating graphic designs is much faster and easier, so I have more time to run my business. This is such a power multiplier!

Read Kirsty's story

VistaCreate has a lot of features and is surprisingly easy to use. Thanks to this, I can bring my ideas to life. And it has helped me increase sales of my products and services to existing and potential customers tenfold.

Read Lisa's story

VistaCreate lets you create graphics so fast you won't believe your eyes! And because everything is fully customizable, I can create designs that fit my brand in no time!

Read Rick's story

Publications on

More design formats

How to design Instagram beautifully

On March 4, 2022, Roskomnadzor decided to restrict access to Facebook, and on March 11, 2022, access to Instagram. If you are in Russia, most likely, both social networks are currently unavailable to you.

But we have some useful material for you.

(For those who have social networks working - the text of the article is below, under the list of links) own stickers for Telegram: step-by-step instructions0003

VK promotion: 54 tips and a sea of ​​useful services

A complete guide to setting up VKontakte targeting

Odnoklassniki:

Odnoklassniki for business: to use or not?

"Yandex. Zen":

Channel on "Yandex.Zen" to help small businesses

How to write a good selling article in "Zen" in just 1 hour

8 myths about "Yandex.Zen" for business : debunking the main misconceptions

When promoting a business on Instagram, you need to hook the user at first sight. If a person is not attracted by the picture, he is unlikely to read about the wonderful properties of your products and follow the links. And when you post useful content, it is also important to structure it for users: the arrangement of pictures in the profile in a grid gives a lot of opportunities for this.

Let's look at account design options for a variety of businesses.

mesh design

Checkerboard

Arrange photos in a checkerboard pattern, alternating similar images through one. For example, photos - with quotes. Or contrast photos with pastels.

Don't limit yourself - come up with a unique sequence. If you have an online store, alternate product photos with text content (reviews, useful information). Choose what suits the content of your page.

Line

Another simple and effective way to personalize your account. Each row can be devoted to one topic or section. You can group by color, style, or type of content.

Line placement can be not only horizontal but also vertical.

Diagonal

Use the same approach and place visually similar photos diagonally.

When using Line and Diagonal layouts, post three photos at a time. Otherwise, the rows will be mixed up, and the design logic will go astray. If you still want to publish one picture at a time, choose a structure with three vertical lines - provided that the location of these very lines does not matter to you. Then, when adding a new photo, the lines will change places, but this will not interfere with the design.

This format is popular with shops, fashion designers, beauty and tattoo parlors. Alternate close-ups showing details with general ones. This will give a complete picture of your product or service.

Promotion on Instagram* in 2021: the most detailed guide

Free order

The above methods require self-discipline: you must definitely upload photos according to the schedule - today one color, tomorrow - another, today a photo of a product, tomorrow - an inscription ... If impulses of the soul or business needs require you to publish some content urgently without regard to order, you will like this option:0003

The Instagram grid is very flexible: you can simply choose a few formats for yourself (for example, panoramic photos, portraits and captions) and post them in a free sequence. If different types of images are clearly distinguished from each other, they will still give the profile the necessary structure: we clearly see different content groups in the example even with a free order.

By the way, we have examples of designing not only the Instagram feed, but also profile headers, avatar, stories and highlights. A huge number of beautiful accounts and examples were dismantled in the video below.

Free social media audit

Drawing of 3 places until 24.08. The rest of the participants of the drawing - 50% discount

More

Frames

Geometric Frames

You don't have to limit yourself to square frames. Rectangular, round - experiment with different geometric shapes.

It looks good to use frames of different sizes...

...and frames of different shapes.

Colored frames

Not only white, but also black, frames in all colors of the rainbow.

The use of these frames is ideal for the portfolio of a photographer, artist or designer. The frame highlights each photo individually and draws attention to the image itself.

Instagram Stories*: 100+ post ideas

Sometimes frames can not only emphasize a particular photo, but also link the images together to make the profile look whole.

The white-framed branch image is broken into four parts: it creates a sequence between photos and encourages scrolling through the profile further and further. This is a flexible design option, you can only upload one photo at a time. Technically, this is a design along vertical lines, where each line corresponds to the desired part of the frame.

Here is another interesting and plastic design with frames:

Semi-circular frame pieces form waves: they can be of any color, with or without any inscriptions. Sometimes, as in the example, it can be seen that the frames do skip at all - the composition of portrait photos is built in such a way that the image itself fits into the “wave”. Thanks to the variability, the account looks lively and modern, and when publishing a new picture, there are no strict restrictions on colors and content.

Tiles

Collage

A profile with this design is hard to leave. Scrolling through it, you do not notice how time flies. Photos and elements flow harmoniously into each other.

Do you have a marketing blog about your industry? Then this is the perfect submission format. It is easy to lead and guide the reader through the highlighted headings. And additional design elements immediately tell about the theme of the page.

Puzzle

And you can make it easier - cut one photo into 9or 12 parts. Insta-landings are created according to this principle. If you need an Instagram landing page, there is no better option.

Collage and Puzzle designs require third-party applications or skills in Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom.

How to work in Photoshop: a complete guide for beginners

Color in design

Choosing primary colors

An account made up of black and white photos will always look stylish and harmonious. But a little monotonous for a commercial profile. Therefore, you can choose one or more primary colors and use them in your content.

The main color of the page can be changed by planning transitions and choosing photos.

Do you have company colors? Design your page with them. If not, choose those that suit the image you are creating and are better perceived by the audience.

Mood and tone

Use the same settings when editing photos. This will give integrity to the page. Bright and contrasting or airy and weightless?

Apply one filter to all photos to get this effect. No matter what your Instagram is dedicated to, this technique will add attractiveness and harmoniously combine all the elements.

Sometimes using a single color scheme for an account is very restrictive. You can make smooth transitions between colors like gradients.

With transitions between colors, you can publish not only similar photos in the same range, but any pictures. The color will serve as a structure - this is how you can make impromptu sections with photographs: first a series of one color, then a transition, a series of another color.

Interested in promoting on Instagram? We recommend watching a video from our marketer. It contains 15 important tips and a huge number of practical examples:

Shooting and photo style

Angle

Choose the angle from which photos are taken. Shots with a repeating element or the same feed make the profile recognizable.

Successfully used by cafes, food delivery services, manicure and tattoo artists.

Style

Black and white photography, minimalism, pop art, comics, dudling. A design in which the components are designed in the same style. Good for illustrators, artists and designers who have found their own style.

Covers for Stories in the Trending section

Recently, the appearance of the profile is influenced not only by photos: many save their stories in the profile, and you can make covers for them that fit into the style of the account. The covers are quite small, so the images there should be concise and understandable.

Very often illustrations are taken as covers. Simple icons can be downloaded on the Internet or made independently. Perhaps your company already has a set of frequently used illustrations, website icons, or interesting pieces of a corporate pattern that can be transferred to story covers.

70+ resources with free icons, logos, and fonts

Photos might work too. But there are two criteria here. Firstly, they must necessarily depict one object, large and clear. Secondly, they must match the color scheme of the profile.

Suitable covers should be chosen based on the direction of the company. Sometimes even abstract patterns from stocks or fragments of famous paintings work well. If there are no corporate illustrations, and it doesn’t work out on your own, you can adapt any graphics on the Internet to fit the covers.

A beautiful design doesn't have to be published on a tight schedule, and you can do without artistic skills.

Learn more