Do's & Don'ts Of Pin Design That Are Often Ignored.

Basic graphic design goes into making a quality pin design that will attract the attention of your audience. If you miss the boat they are not going to look at it twice. The moment will have passed without anyone re-pinning your content.

When we think of pin creation we think oh something bright, with a quality image, and gripping text overlay. What if though things that should be, aren't.

Take a look at the pin below.

You will notice the lighter green text complements the lavender of the photograph. The photograph is centered and the subject matter balanced.

Now take a look at the same pin with a slight difference.

What you will notice no doubt is that the green text and text box are so light you can barely see them. Well who is going to be dumb enough to do that mistake. You would be surprised. Below you will see another similar issue that is all too common on pins.

You may say aside from the lavender and yellow not complementing each other what's so wrong here? The yellow text on white text is a big no-no. I mean really NO! It makes little contrast from the stark white of the background and quite frankly hurts the eyes to strain in reading it. So many pinners do this mistake.

The reverse of which can only be assumed that darker is better right? Wrong! The large white space when given pure black lettering can also strain the eyes. We aren't going for eye strain when creating an effective pin design. So color of text is a key point to consider.

If you're a Canva user that is one reason they have blended color palettes already made. If you use them when designing you will not complementary color patterns and it can aid you when you aren't quite sure if the design is right. Change the colors around but always remember yellow text on white is never a good idea.

Note the next pin.

There are two major issues with the design now. One as you likely have guesses is the alignment of the image itself. The women are so far from center and size has increased so much we don't really know what it is being shown. The image therefore no longer has relevance to the message.

Further the image is now lower right and there is so much white or grey space it's just boring. You want to make sure your images are relevant to the message and that they are centered properly.

The second problem with this pin is the text has shifted further up under the image and no longer is balanced. This leaves too great a white area between the overlay and the subtext. It's just wonky to the viewer. People find beauty in symmetry and this asymmetry of text design doesn't work well.

Lastly let's take a look at the pin below.

If you noticed the color scheme changed your right. Is it bad? Nope! The color palette is complementing the lavender of the yoga mats again so the color scheme is ok.

Well if you notice there are three fonts being used for the text. Now some say have no more than three fonts. However when was the last time you read material in any form that had three fonts jammed altogether? Not likely that it happens often if ever expect in a design someone has made. Why because it takes time for our mind to judge what we are reading and the changes in text can be so great that it makes it difficult.

The other aspect to consider is just because you think you have the most perfect pin design and you love the pretty font does that make it loveable to everyone else? Not everyone can read the more fancy fonts. Also small type is harder for people with poorer eyesight to really be able to read.

So keeping all those points in mind when designing a pin can lead to higher traffic. Of course there is all the other SEO that goes along with a pins success and how many people see it blah blah. But the key here is that Pinterest is first and foremost a visual search engine and if you mess up your visuals you might as well call it a day.

Stay tuned for more about Pinterest and other social media marketing as I revive Blogatcha from a spring time slumber.