Visual appeal is key to creating engaging and highly-visited online blogs. Users are naturally drawn to websites that incorporate pleasant and contextually relevant images. Thus, eye-catching cover images are among the most effective ways to leave a solid first impression on your blog’s visitors. They provide primary information about your posted content.
Blog cover photos should be informative, visually appealing, and easy to perceive. This can be achieved through careful design. This article shares the best practices and fundamental aspects of creating blog cover images, including graphic selection principles, color blending, and rules of typography. Let’s get started!
How to Create Eye-Catching Cover Photos
Cover photo design typically involves five steps where you combine multiple visual materials to achieve harmonic composition and convey specific messages and ideas.
Step #1. Find relevant graphics
An image can speak more than a thousand words; it can convey essential information, set the right mood, and motivate users to explore and read your content further. That’s why high-quality graphics that align with your content are necessary for creating eye-catching blog covers.
The majority of pictures available online are protected by copyright. Therefore, using accessible images for commercial or editorial materials is not advisable. If you are looking for pictures you can use for promotional purposes without violating copyright law, consider stock content marketplaces.
These platforms offer licensed, high-quality graphic materials, including photos, illustrations, vectors, icons, patterns, and backgrounds.
When it comes to choosing pictures for a blog, there are no universal rules. It all comes down to your creativity and design vision. For example, you can create an abstract cover by combining gradient backgrounds and geometric patterns.
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Step #2. Stick to your blog’s color scheme
Pay special attention to the colors in your cover design to ensure that each of your blog’s elements looks cohesive. The chosen hues should harmonize with the general palette. For example, if blue is the dominant color on your website, consider creating a cover with its various shades.
If you require multiple hues to make a blog cover, refer to the color wheel, which illustrates the relationships between different shades. Try to find complementary colors using this technique. For example, if the primary color of your blog is green, its complementary shade would be red.
However, it’s essential to not create a visually-overwhelming cover with an abundance of colors. Choose a limited number of hues, e.g., two, and use their shades—light to dark—to achieve contrast within your composition.
Step #3. Choose the right cover size
Cover pictures are required by bloggers and creators on various sources like YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, personal websites, etc. Each platform imposes its own requirements for image size and resolution. If these recommendations are overlooked, your covers can be displayed improperly.
Before you start designing a final graphic for your post, explore the cover photo requirements for different platforms.
- Facebook—851×315 pixels for the desktop version and 640×360 pixels for mobile. Note that images are cropped when viewed on smartphones, so consider placing key cover elements in the safe zone—a central area in the composition.
- YouTube—2560×1440 pixels.
- LinkedIn—1584×396 pixels for personal pages, and 1128×191 pixels for corporate pages.
- X (Twitter)—1500×500 pixels.
- Personal website—there are no strict recommendations since cover photo size depends on your aesthetic goals. The commonly used width is 1440 pixels—a basic website screen size. The cover length can be adjusted based on your design preferences and style.
Sometimes, you may also need to adapt one cover to several platforms. In such cases, you should restructure your graphics for different sizes.
Step #4. Add pertinent text
A strong headline and a clear call to action (CTA) are the essential elements of an effective text-based cover.
A headline is the first thing that grabs user attention, so it needs to be engaging. To achieve this, you can employ different strategies. For example, use numbers, highlight benefits, or address your audience’s pain points.
A call to action (CTA) tells users what you want them to do, like reading an article. In your cover graphics, you can also ask visitors to subscribe, share their contact details, or claim a free, useful piece of content. Such covers can significantly improve the overall conversion rate of your website.
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Step #5. Opt for legible fonts
Well-chosen fonts are what make your cover easily readable. Thanks to different properties, they can also influence the perception of your overall composition.
One of the main typography terms is font family, which determines the unique characteristics of typefaces. Here are seven main font families you can choose from:
- Serif (e.g., Didot, Bodoni XT). They’re classic typefaces with clear and simple lines, used in traditional printed materials and books due to their high readability. You can use such fonts in your covers to highlight professionalism, reliability, and trustworthiness.
- Sans-serif (e.g., Code Next, Extatica). They can be described as modern and clean due to the lack of small, decorative serifs at the ends of characters. Sans-serif fonts are the perfect choice for digital media and contemporary designs.
- Script (e.g., Lobster, Quicksand). Mimicking cursive, these typefaces convey an elegant touch, evoking a sense of elegance and friendliness.
- Display (e.g., Raleway, Bebas Neue). This font family is characterized by bold lines and attention-grabbing elements. That’s why such typefaces are often used in headlines and titles. They’re associated with strength and playfulness.
- Monospaced (e.g., Inconsolata, Anonymous Pro). They maintain uniform spacing between characters, making them suitable for technical-related covers.
- Handwritten (e.g., Des Montilles, Amer). Such fonts imitate natural handwriting styles. They are often used to add a human touch to covers.
- Decorative (e.g., Cinzel Decorative, Geostar Fill). They ensure a high level of stylization in your covers. You can also use them to make unique typography art that resonates with discussed topics. Nonetheless, using decorative fonts for large-body texts is not recommended.
When pairing fonts for your covers, opt for only two options that harmonize with each other. You can do this through professional online sources like Fontjoy or Fontpair.
Cover Photo Secrets That Will Resonate With Your Blog
Have you ever thought about what makes each blog unique and compelling? The secret lies in consistency. In web design, this means using the same fonts, colors, repetitive pictures, and patterns.
For example, if you use the Montserrat font for your website headings, you should use it in cover titles as well. An integral style directly affects brand awareness and contributes to cohesive aesthetics, making your blog memorable for users.
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Conclusion
Graphics, colors, and fonts are three major components of blog cover photos. By carefully combining them, you can create striking compositions that resonate with your customers and entice them to browse your content.
Visual consistency in your blog builds a strong brand identity and reinforces your message and values. Refer to the tips in this article to boost your design process and ensure a cohesive and visually appealing blog presence.
