We all want Instagram feeds that are ✨aesthetic✨ AF. That's the goal, but achieving it can be so elusive. At Media A La Carte, we spend a lot of time creating cohesive feeds for our clients and we want to share the knowledge with you!
Pick Your Core Colors
Picking your core colors is of the utmost importance for bringing your Instagram feed together. Media A La Carte features beiges, blushes, and pinks. If you want to figure out what colors your Instagram feed already features, use a website like Colorkuler.com. It will create a color palette from your Instagram feed, and you can use those colors for Inspiration. An important place to look for inspiration for your core colors is your closet. What colors do you lean towards in your wardrobe? Because most of your photos will be of you, you want to make sure the clothing you're wearing supports your Instagram aesthetic. Instead of picking random colors and buying a wardrobe around them, make sure your core colors support what you already own.
When you have your core colors picked out, make sure every photo you post features one of those colors. This isn't a hard and fast rule, but try to make sure you only break away from your colors once in about 10 posts.
BONUS TIP 🔥: Add your core colors to your Instagram stories to make sure your cohesive look is present there too.
Use Presets
You've probably been told before to pick a filter, and then use it on every single photo to achieve a cohesive Instagram aesthetic. The Instagram app comes preloaded with so many filters, but if you really want to take your Instagram feed to the next level, it's time to start editing your photos in Adobe Lightroom with presets. Presets are essentially the same thing as filters, but they use more advanced editing and control the small details of your photo better than filters. There are free Instagram presets available, but if you want to get presets that are more unique, look at the large assortment available on Etsy. Check out this photo before and after using a preset available from Light & Airy Photography. This sort of difference simply can't be achieved with one of Instagram's available filters.
Balance Busy and Calm
Colors and presets aren't the only things that make an Instagram feed beautiful. Your feed's composition is just as important. Two important things to balance on your feed:
pictures of you vs. pictures of things
busy vs. calm
We all know that photos that have people in them get better engagement than pictures without people in them, but the truth is a feed full of pictures featuring you and nothing but you can come off as a little egocentric. Sometimes you need to sacrifice engagement for the sake of aesthetic. Pick something that you love and start adding it into your feed. Maybe you're an avid book reader - start posting a picture of your current read every 5 posts or so. If you're a coffee addict (like us ☕), sprinkle in shots of your morning cup of coffee. You might not rack up the likes, but your aesthetic will thank you for shaking things up.
Make sure your posts contain a nice balance of busy backgrounds and calm backgrounds. If you only post city scapes on your feed, viewers' eyes will become confused because there's nothing breaking up the monotony. If you love your city scapes, try to tamper the busyness with backgrounds that are more simplistic and contain only one color. Achieving this balance won't happen if you post on the fly though - you have to plan ahead.
Plan, Plan, Plan
If you want a cohesive Instagram aesthetic, you have to be willing to put in the work of planning far in advance. Luckily there are lots of apps that will allow you to drag photos around on a fake Instagram feed to preview what you have and what you're missing. You might notice that you have too much of one of your brand's colors, and you need to create a graphic or plan a photo shoot that will bring another color into play. Similarly, if you have too many busy photos next to each other, you'll notice that you need to add in some calm. Planoly is a great app for this. You can drag everything around without actually scheduling the posts. This may sound like a lot of prep, but it will immensely pay off when it comes to achieving your dream feed aesthetic.
Creating a cohesive Instagram aesthetic won't happen over night, so be patient with yourself. It takes trial and error, and like we said earlier, a lot of planning. Don't give up on your feed because we know you can create the look of your dreams. After you finish your first grid of 9 posts that feature your core colors, your presets, and a balanced composition - you'll be bursting with pride. Now get to it.
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