Maybe you’re an Instagram fanatic and are very familiar with the platform, or maybe you’re just looking to get started building your social media brand. Instagram stories are super fun ways to share moments of your everyday life with a pizzazz.
1) Letter Ombre-ing
I find this technique to be especially useful if you have one word that you really want to highlight. It does take a bit of practice. This website gives a pretty thorough tutorial on how to do it, but tldr: Select your font (this technique usually works best with “Strong” or “Classic” fonts) and type your text. Then, select all and place the cursor to the furthest right, then select a color with your other hand and slide the cursor through each letter, choosing the colors as you go.
2) Font Combining
I love using this to add a “caption” to a picture. You are essentially spelling out a word using a different font for every letter. This tool works best if you use letters from the same color family. Feel free to mix lowercase and capital letters as you go, and repeat fonts as you find necessary! I find that if you include a squiggle, it helps to draw the word together more if you find it looking a little disheveled.
3) Color Blocking
I love color blocking if the image that I’m posting has a lot of of color that I want to bring out. For this technique, I will highlight each letter in a certain color (often pulled from the image) and stagger it just a little to spell out a word. I find that staggering actually helps to bring the word together rather than just leaving them straight. This technique works best with “Strong”, “Classic”, and “Typewriter” fonts.
4) Pinpointing
I recently learned this technique through one of my favorite influencers. I find that pinpointing is helpful for if there is a lot going on in a photo that you want to explain. I use the white pen at a medium thickness and make a singular dot, but if your photo has more light colors, a black pen would work efficiently as well. This pairs well with the “Typewriter” font justified to the left and highlighted to bring out the text.
P.S. Highlighting works well to bring out dark or light text from the background. I like to use the transparent pen but the regular pen works also. You can do squiggles or just two lines like I did here. Don’t forget you have an eraser tool if you want to clean up the edges, if that’s your taste!
5) Handwriting
A lot of people will ask if I use a stylus to do handwriting on my stories, and I always tell them that practice makes perfect! I find that making the pen thinner will also help make it easier to control. Handwriting looks best when combined with some typed font. I try to avoid the “Neon” font, because it is so similar to cursive handwriting.
Hopefully with these tips, you are able to take your Instagram story game up a notch! If you need any advice, please feel free to dm me on Instagram @genevelau!
