When you’re just starting a blog, you might not have the money to invest in branding services or web design just yet. But that doesn’t mean you can’t hit the ground running with a cohesive, consistent vibe. Today we wanted to share some ways we’ve created consistency across our blogs + social media accounts before we ever did a branding overhaul.
Decide on a few key design elements
Awhile back, Jenn posted about how to create consistency in your blog design. If you’re designing or re-designing your blog, it’s a must read! One of her main themes was limiting the use of various design elements. From sticking to two fonts to sizing all your photos to the same width, the key to consistent design is usually a less is more approach! You don’t have to be a minimalist to make sure you only incorporate design elements that are intentional and well thought out; it can still feel complete and intentional without having too much going on.
Create templates
Although we talk about a lot of different subjects on our blog, we have a few general guidelines that each post follows. This helps us create consistency no matter what we’re talking about. For example, even though we upload a new and original photo to each of our posts, our text and graphic overlays follow the same 3 or 4 templates that we created in Photoshop. For the structure of the post, we start with an intro paragraph above the image, and use subheaders to divide out our points below. Our inspirational roundup posts follow certain templates too. Instead of limiting us, this structure actually allows us to do more within the space!
Establish a voice
Lots of bloggers will go through the whole web design process in the beginning, which leaves them with a beautiful blog. But if they haven’t thought about the voice they want to portray, their content will come off as incomplete rather than refined. Voice may not be something you actively think of when reading a post, but it’s something all established brands have. For us, having the same overall voice makes it so that having two perspectives on our blog and lots of different subjects doesn’t feel too all over the place. You can establish your voice by considering your purpose in writing your blog, as well as your audience and how you want them to see you as.
Where do you lack consistency in your blog or brand? Have you struggled with any of the above before?
Juliette | Namastay Traveling says
This is great advice. I’ve been wondering how to make the main image more cohesive for m blog since I seem to change it often (the fonts, colors, pictures, etc.) It seems I need to find a general theme to stick to, and then kind of go from there! Great read!
Angela says
Thanks Juliette! It’s definitely hard! I always like exploring new fonts and color palettes which can cause problems, ha :)
Filipa says
I don’t count as a blogger yet, I do it more for myself, and I have only just started realising how much I enjoy it and how much more seriously I should take it. Because I have a design background, I have the templates part down, but it’s the voice I keep struggling with. It’s one of the things that keeps me from using it as a professional tool in the future.
Anyways, thanks for the advice, it was very helpful.
Nice read!