How to Choose Designs for Blog Posts
Writers block — it doesn’t just happen to writers. At some point in our careers as designers, we have that pesky problem called “designers block.” But sometimes there’s a chance that you will have more than one path you can go down for design and can’t choose between the two. Whether the differentiating factor is photography versus vector, bold versus muted colors, typography versus image based, the options can be endless and sometimes overwhelming.
Here are four steps to help you choose between two, or more, designs for a blog post.
1. Go back and review your content
This seems like a no-brainer, but it’s really important to read all of the content of the blog post that you’re designing. When you’re stuck choosing images for a blog post, see what words or phrases inspire a design idea. Overall, it will make the post and image more cohesive. Ask yourself, “which image best relates to the idea, theme or specific section from this blog post?”
2. Think about which one is more eye-catching, while still being on brand
About a year ago, my blog post images were very “branded.” While that can be a good thing, it left some of my images looking stale. We had a presentation about making blog images more eye catching through unusual imagery, bold typography and playing with shapes and images. I get inspiration from current design trends by checking out work on Behance and my guilty pleasure of Pinterest (it actually does have a great repository of design inspiration).
Keep in mind our blog has a different audience than our websites do, and creating images for blog posts gives us a chance to try new things. It’s about finding that balance and uniting the two — fun and edgy but also down-to-earth and branded. I find that in my work, this can be achieved through an exploration of typography and imagery. When you’re stuck between two really great but really different images, ask yourself, “which image would interest me to read this blog post?” and “which one looks or feels more like X brand.”
3. Keep in mind successful designs from the past
Our company has been around for almost 15 years, so we’ve tried many different things with our brands including design content on the blogs. We do a great job of keeping track of successful pieces by using analytics to track views, social shares and backlinks. A lot of times when a project is created, we will reference a successful post from another brand and try to re-create it. This is a great opportunity to collaborate with the writer of the post and have a discussion about what elements were successful from the previous post and why. For example, was it the content that was successful or the design? Can the design be improved in any way?
4. Get feedback from others
This step is the one I like to use the most. If I’m stuck between two designs, I will stop by the Social Studio and ask them which one they prefer. Sometimes they will have some insight I don’t have about why a design might be more successful. But you don’t always have to get feedback from the person who requested the project. I like to have a quick mini-review with our design pod to get a gut check on what I’m doing, and the other designers do the same. It’s not uncommon to hear questions like, “Does this look cool or creepy?” or “Do you think this image makes a blog post about credit scores look cool?”
Here is an example of a blog post where a mini-infographic was requested. One design was bold and colorful, while the other was more subtle and detailed. In this case, I consulted with the Social Studios team. Typically, the brand aesthetic aligned closer with the bold colors. However, this mini-infographic was intended to be shared on our social channels as well as on our blog. Ultimately we chose the second design because it was more click-worthy while still aligning with the brand’s aesthetic.
