Having an aesthetically-pleasing Instagram theme is a must nowadays. Both you and we know it. Unless you're one of the early birds that grew their following back in the day, with nothing much than lots of content.
If you ever thought of becoming an influencer (or if you're trying to break into that world), you know how big of emphasis is put on curating your Instagram feed up to the point of perfection.
Knowing how troublesome this can be for beginner influencers that are still searching for their voice, we have decided to create a quick "choose a perfect Instagram theme" manual for you. Following these steps will help you construct an amazingly appealing Instagram theme.
Generate your colour palette
Let's assume you've been posting on Instagram for a while now. Even if you have (not) started taking influencer biz seriously, there must have been certain colours that were dominant on your account.
To help you easily discover what those colours are, we found this amazing website called ColorKuler. It is a colour palette generator.
All you have to do is insert your Instagram handle (no passwords needed), and the app will generate nine of your most-used account colours. This will give you the basics of understanding what your apparent colour style is, and will also give you directions towards your future posts' colour coordination.
Define your brand's niche
Are you interested in beauty, makeup, fashion, or lifestyle? Being specific about what you post means your posts will be aligned with each other.
Deciding your brand's niche plays a vast role in how your feed looks, and therefore, how pleasing the aesthetics is.
Good two examples are Lydia Rose aka @fashioninflux and Alina aka @makeupbyalinna. Just by glancing at their Instagrams, you can instantly tell what is their niche, and what you can expect from their profiles.
Choose your photography style
When speaking about choosing your photography style, we're focusing on two things:
who is the subject;
what is your editing style?
Let's paint the subject point through an example. If you're a fashion influencer, you might have yourself photographed all the time. On the other hand, there are fashion influencers who mostly shoot just their outfits, not focusing on themselves as a personality. They emphasize the clothes (e.g. Lydia from @fahsioninflux that we mentioned above).
The next thing to think about is what is your editing style. Do you prefer HDR photographs? Or maybe you love it when your images are bright, with high exposure. Or maybe you are a fan of flat lay photography, where elements are randomly distributed on a specific board.
There are so many styles you can follow, such as vintage, moody, foggy, pastel... Which leads us to the next step.
Pick your go-to apps for editing
After you've decided what is your main subject and what is your editing style, now is the time for you to pick an editing app or two and stick with it.
Why should you have your own, go-to app? It's because you'll know all of its features, and their systems will allow you to create similar-looking content that is the goal of Instagram aesthetics.
For example, influencers nowadays LOVE Adobe Lightroom. There is a free mobile version that has an amazing number of features, which can turn your raw photo into pure gold. With Lightroom, you can create presets - sort of your own filters - that you can apply to every photo you upload there. In that way, you are maintaining the "feel" your Instagram has, and your followers are going to notice that too.
Besides Lightroom, some other popular apps you can check out are Snapseed, VSCO, and Polarr. Even Instagram has a good set of filters and other photo editing features that can come in handy. Besides, each of these apps has something that the other doesn't. So for the best effect, you leverage their features together.
Choose your go-to filter or preset
This one is obviously a given, considering the previous step. But to understand why this is so important, check out an example of a travel influencer Courtney Leopard aka @shetravelledtheworld.
This same influencer has figured out how much has her following grown when she started applying specific filters/presets to her images. Plus, notice how easier on the eye it is when the feed looks this pleasing?
Numerous influencers also offer their own presets to the public, especially for all of those who struggle with design or do not want to spend their time creating the presets themselves.
Coordinate your photographs in feed-preview apps
Even though you will be using the same filters and styles on your photographs, some of them just won't look as good when placed together. That's why it is important to be able to see how your feed will look before you even publish a post.
There are numerous apps and websites out there that are allowing you to upload your photographs to them, and move them along to arrange the most perfect feed.
As just one suggestion, you can check out this free app, both for Android and iPhone users. It is called Garny - Preview Instagram feed. You can upload photos to that app with or without logging in to Instagram. It allows you to play around with your photos so that you can see which arrangement looks the best. Comes in very handy!
Here are some Instagram theme inspirations for you:
We've prepared for you a list of beautiful and diverse Instagram themes and feeds that you can look upon and use as your source of inspiration. Check them out below!
Seaside @saltyluxe Minimalistic @jacqueline.isabelle Boho @dilworthtribe
Pastel @cestmaria Fashion @miamiamine Food @saltandlavender Flat lay @flatlay_galery
What do you think - which style suits you the most? Let us know in the comments!