How to Request Social Media Graphics

In today's world, we are surrounded by information. It comes from literally everywhere. Among all different kinds of perception (sound, touch, taste, smell, etc.), visual perception incorporates around 90% of the information that "hits" our brains, and it's processed 60,000x faster than text.

So, when it comes to social media, how can your brand still stand out?  

Well... no matter how smart your texts are, it's the visuals, the graphics that grab people’s attention while scrolling.

Here's our latest guide with tips & tricks for submitting an efficient social media brief to your ManyPixels designer. 🙌🏻

1. Describe how should the graphics look like. 

Whether it is the visual direction, feelings it should evoke, style, or brand guidelines, it's up to you to set up the parameters of the project for your designer to follow.
Below are a few questions that might help: 👇🏻

• What is your business about? 
• What is your target market? Who are your customers and what do they think about your brand?
• What feelings and associations do you want to evoke?
• What graphics and illustrations do you want to include to stand out? 

2. Where will you display the graphics?

All graphics for social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.), come in different shapes and sizes. The only limitations are the requirements of the platform you are using as a brand, so make sure you let your designer know where exactly are you planning to display the requested concepts, for a complete understanding of the task. 

3. Sizes and formats

We live in a digital age where the internet is an increasingly important part of our daily lives. Social media makes no exception and when it comes to business, image size requirements seem to be constantly changing. 

When creating the brief for your ManyPixels designer, you'll be asked to mention the exact dimensions and formats of the deliverables you are looking for. Here's some useful information that might help: 👇🏻

👉🏻 Facebook

• cover picture size - 828 x 465 px
• cover picture size - 720 x 315 pixels
• timeline photos size - 1200 x 630 px
• event cover size - 1920 x 1080 px
• ads size - at least 1200 x 628 px, aspect ratio 9:16 - 16:9

💡Tips & Tricks! Facebook recommends that you upload “the highest resolution image available” in either .JPG or .PNG format, cropped to a supported aspect ratio.

👉🏻 Instagram

• profile picture size - minimum 320 x 320 px 
• landscape feed image - 1080 x 566 px
• portrait feed image - 1080 x 1350 px
• square feed image - 1080 x 1080 px
• stories image size: 1080 x 1920 px
• landscape ads - 1080 x 566 px
• square ads - 1080 x 1080 px

💡Tips & Tricks! If you want your posts to look perfect on Instagram, aim to upload images that are 1080 pixels wide, to avoid eventual resizes. 🙌🏻‍

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👉🏻 Twitter

• profile picture size - 400 x 400 px
• header image size - 1500 x 500 px 
• in-stream image size - 1024 x 512 px
• summary card image size - 280 x 150 px
• ads sizes - 800 x 418 px / 800 x 800 px 

💡Tips & Tricks! Twitter will accept an image as small as 1024 x 280, but it’s best to use the maximum available size.‍

‍
👉🏻 LinkedIn (company page)

• cover photo size - 1536 x 768 px
• company logo size - 300 x 300 px
• overview tab image size - 360 x 120 px
• overview tab cover image size - 1192 x 220 px
• life tab hero image size - 1128 x 376 px
• life tab custom modules image size - 502 x 282 px
• life tab company photos image sizes - 900 x 600 px
• square logo - 60 x 60 px

💡Tips & Tricks! When posting updates to your company page, use .PNG or .JPG images and an aspect ratio of 1.91:1 (1200 x 627 px. is ideal).

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👉🏻 Youtube 

• profile picture size - 800 x 800 px
• cover picture size - 2560 x 1440 px
• video size - 1280 x 720 px

🚨 Make sure you always mention the exact sizes and formats you need, in the brief, before submitting the task to your ManyPixels designer, as a way to avoiding delays and misunderstandings.

4. Content 

There are three imperative brand assets (design elements) that you need finalized and shared with your designer before you submit the brief. You can upload them as attachments, share them as links, or even save and select them as your brand profile. 

✅ final logo (source file included)
✅ brand color palette
✅ brand fonts

Other content elements you might consider adding to your deliverables are the headline, body text, and call to action. 

💡Tips & Tricks! Keep your social media graphics simple yet memorable. Use clean concepts and concise text, always matching your brand identity (brand guidelines). Does your design project require custom illustrations/icons? If the answer is yes, don't forget to mention in the brief all details related, so that an illustrator along with a graphics designer can be assigned to your project right from the start, avoiding delays. 

5. Inspiration 

What are your aesthetic preferences or reference materials you are inspired by? Always provide a visual direction for your designer 👉🏻 What other similar concepts do you like and why? You can upload them as attachments, share them as links or even save them and select them as your brand profile.

• upload images of similar graphics that you like or assets you already have and want to use
• provide links to similar concepts that you like, on platforms such as Dribbble, Behance, Pinterest, ManyPixels Portfolio, etc. or any other inspirational source you might find convenient. 

☝🏻Where to find inspiration? Check our Ultimate Guide to creating efficient Mood Boards.

🙌🏻 After you've successfully completed all sections of the brief and submitted the project, your assigned designer will start working on it and will deliver the first draft on the next business day (sometimes 2 for complex requests). If revisions are needed, no worries, you can easily communicate with your designer using the chat in the ManyPixels app.

Ready to submit your first social media request? Pick the right plan for you here.

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