They say that “Image Is Everything” and when it comes to branding, ad campaigns and website design, they’re right.
A gorgeous image on your website or social media posts can be used to explain, entertain, enhance and direct attention in an instant. Your brain can easily translate an image in far less time than it would take to read a page of text.
But when it comes to posting images online, you can’t just grab any old picture and here’s why:
1. Size Does Matter
Each social media platform uses different pixel measurements, sometimes even within the platform itself. Take Facebook for example. Their cover picture size, profile picture size and post sizes are all different. You can’t just use the same image on all three. Your image will need to be resized and maybe altered for optimal clarity and quality.
Likewise with your website, your images need to be balanced with the text so that the page not only reads well, it looks good too.
2. Copyright
This is a biggie. If you see a picture you like on a website, you can’t use it on yours without express permission from the copyright holder. Nor can you take a picture and sneakily alter it to suit. This is against the law and can result in hefty fines. You can always use images from stock image sites – some are free and some attract a fee – but the image is likely to have been used many times across the web.
3. Quality
Mobile phone use for internet is soaring. With such small screens to view your website it makes sense that the pictures should be of the best possible quality. For that reason too, your picture should be landscape orientated as opposed to portrait.
4. Emotion
The best images are shared and re-posted and if you’re lucky, go viral. Why? Because they evoke emotion. We go gaga over babies and baby animals. We’re awed by soaring mountains and incredible architecture, we’re attracted to big smiles and beautiful faces, we’re soothed by nature. Each of these images will get a response from the viewer. You need to make sure that the image you’re posting will get the desired reaction. What you may think is funny, your potential customers may simply find gross.
Design Garage has the expertise and experience to find and design the perfect images for your website and social media platforms. This is especially important if you’re planning an ad campaign or looking to redesign your branding. The images you choose will reflect your company ethos, so it’s important you make the right choice.
Design Garage can also set up and design Mailchimp email templates for fantastic looking emails.
After all, if a picture says a thousand words, it’s better that those words are WOW and not just blah, blah, blah.
www.designgarage.co.nz | 027 934 3509 | contact@designgarage.co.nz
