The Ultimate Guide to Designing Pinterest Graphics
If you’ve never designed Pinterest graphics before it can be a bit of a learning curve. Since Pinterest is a visual search engine, you have to grab the attention of your audience quickly in order to drive traffic to your website.
With this guide you can learn the basics of pin design and even create templates of your own using Canva or Adobe Illustrator!
Not feeling up for the challenge? I have created 5 Pin Templates that you can download for free and start using today! Simply enter your email here and the templates will arrive in your email.
Let’s start with the basics.
Pinterest Graphics Sizing and Imagery
Pinterest prefers images to be at a 2:3 ratio. If you’re creating pins using Canva, you can simply type “Pinterest” in the search bar and you’ll be taken to a list of already existing templates with the correct sizing of 1000x1500. You can also choose to start from scratch.
So the question many clients have asked me: “Can I repurpose my content from Facebook or Instagram to post on Pinterest.”
The short answer is yes, absolutely! I’ve tried this out myself and here’s what I have found works best.
Pinterest prefers vertical pins. This is because many of its users (over 80%!) use the mobile version of the app to scroll.
You don’t want a horizontal or square graphic because your pin will take up less space on the page and is easier to scroll past. The type, especially on infographics, may also be hard to read in a smaller pin.
You’ve got 2 options:
If your original post was created in Canva, hit the resize button found on the top left-hand corner of your design, as shown below. In the dropdown menu you can start typing “Pinterest” to get the correct sizing ratio, or manually enter the sizing of 1000px X 1500px.
If your original post was simply a photo you uploaded you can choose to resize the image using Canva or your computer’s photo editor. I definitely recommend adding text to any image you pin so that users know what your pin will be about and they are more likely to click to learn more.
You can add text to your image using Canva or the Tailwind App. Tailwind makes it easy to create multiple pins from a single image with the “Create” feature.
Simply upload an image of your own or choose from one of their stock images, add your title and branding, and ta-da! Hundreds of pins ready for you to use!
When logged in to Tailwind, hit the “Create” button on the left hand column. Upload a photo or choose a stock photo. Then enter your title to see the many design options.
And if you’re not using Tailwind for your Pinterest and social media planning, you’re missing out! You can sign up with my referral link for $15 off! I’ll have a blog soon about how to use Tailwind for Pinterest. It’ll be a good one!
Last but certainly not least, Pinterest prefers unique photos. Consider this. If you are making your pins in Canva and using the stock images available there, you have to imagine many others in your industry are doing the same.
To avoid having the same images as everyone else you can do one of two things.
Option 1: Using your own photos- This may be harder if you are not a product based business but you can make your own stock photos!
If you’re writing about business, take a nice picture of your desk or office space. If you are writing about home decor or gardening, take pictures of your own home or outdoor space.
Maybe you’re a coach so you are the brand. Great! Use pictures of yourself working, coaching, exercising, you name it! You can even take it a step further and get brand photos done so you can have a variety to choose from.
Option 2: Purchase or download stock photos from other sites. You may still run into other pinners having the same photos as you but the likelihood is much lower since you are not using photos directly from Canva.
Another note about selecting images and stock photos: Make sure if there are people in your image, that it makes sense for your audience.
My business is largely geared towards women who work from home so using stock images with a bunch of men in business suits wouldn’t really make sense.
Otherwise, think outside of the box when it comes to photos and make your pins stand out!
Pinterest Colors and Fonts
So you’ve got the sizing of your image figured out. Now for some more aesthetic tweaks. To reiterate, you want people to easily know what your pin is about when scrolling through their feed so selecting easy to read fonts and colors is essential.
Choose colors that go well together and appeal to your ideal audience. This may be different from the colors of your brand, and that’s okay!
The brand colors for my business, Hilltop Help, for example are earthy blues and greens. My intended audience are women and moms who tend to be more attracted to warm tones. I haven’t done the research on this myself, but from my experience as a Pinterest user, I find that I am more likely to click on pins with reds, pinks, and oranges as opposed to blues and greens.
Whatever you decide about your coloring, make sure that the colors go well together. For example, I probably would select orange, green, and brown unless my post had something to do with Halloween. That can get a bit confusing.
This pin uses 2 different fonts but the arrow pointing to the tilted text box highlights a key point found in the post with a different color and style of the same font.
As for fonts, Tailwind has a great list of font pairings you can use for your posts found here. My advice- use all caps or a different font for the keyword of your post to make them stand out. You can even underline, italicize, highlight, or bold the keyword.
Having two different fonts on a pin graphic is totally fine but any more than that can get visually overwhelming so I would stay clear.
Cursive fonts can also be difficult to read at a quick glance so less is more here and make sure the ones you include have enough space and thickness to see the letters clearly. My favorites on Canva are Brightwall and Moontime.
If you’ve got a great brand design already in place, creating your pins with attractive fonts and colors should be a breeze!
Consistent Branding
Hopefully, if you have a business you already have a clear brand and logo design created. You can incorporate these into your design for some cohesiveness on your boards.
The best part? Once you build an audience people will automatically know when they stumble upon one of your pins because they will associate your colors, fonts, and graphics with your business. How lovely!
Including your website or logo on your pins is optional but again makes it easy for people to recognize your pins from others in your niche. Since my brand is not associated with my name, I like to add the website to the bottom of my pin as a sort of call to action.
I’ve seen others use the “@” sign to display their handle name or add what looks like a button to “download guide'“ or “learn more”. These calls to action are great but I would refrain from using them on all your pins. See what works!
The key is to make sure your logo, website, or handle are not taking away from the content of the pin. Keep it small and preferably towards the bottom or top of the pin.
A Gift for You
As you can see, there is more to making a good pin that converts than it’s appearance. A good pin is well thought out, easy to read, contains a call to action, and has eye-catching colors and fonts.
If the templates on Canva are not quite your vibe, click here to join my email list and you’ll get 5 Free Pinterest Templates to get you started on the right path.
Follow along for more Pinterest tips and tricks. My next post will be all about how to write attention-grabbing titles and captions that pique the interest of your audience using SEO.
