Generally it’s good to take a break from endlessly scrolling by means of your feed — and endlessly scroll by means of somebody’s particular person Instagram web page as a substitute.
Welcome to The Grid.
Lined up in neat rows of three, every Instagram put up all of a sudden is a part of an even bigger image. A peek right into a consumer’s soul… or a minimum of their content strategy.
And Instagram energy customers know simply how you can work this viewpoint to their benefit with artfully deliberate posts that, collectively, create a beautiful Instagram grid format.
For those who haven’t considered what your individual rows of squares add as much as, it’s about time. Right here’s all you should learn about constructing an attention-grabbing Instagram grid to develop your following and engagement.
Bonus: Claim your free pack of 15 creative Instagram post templates made by Hootsuite’s professional graphic designers. Easily customize them in Canva, and start getting more engagement today.
Why your Instagram grid layout matters
When someone follows you for the first time or navigates to your profile to check out your content, your Instagram photo grid is an opportunity to showcase your vibe or brand at a glance.
The grid gives you a birds-eye view of a user’s posting history. This is your first impression of their body of work: a visual, big-picture introduction to their personal or professional brand.
For individual users, creating a beautiful grid may not matter — sure, color coding your posts could be a fun personal challenge, but if you’re just on the ‘gram to connect with friends, not amass an audience, branding likely isn’t too important.
But for brands, creatives, or influencers, consistency and style are critical, particularly if your account is focused on aesthetics or lifestyle.
After all, your grid is a quick and easy way to get your message across. Plus, anyone viewing your profile is thinking about following you. This is your chance to show exactly what you offer.
Are you avant-garde or on-trend? Will your content soothe or bring the drama? Is your brand consistent or chaotic? One look at a grid, and they’ll get the (sorry, not sorry) picture.
10 creative ways to design an Instagram grid layout
Great grids for Instagram start with a vision. So we’ve scoured the platform to dig up some of the best grids on Instagram to inspire your own look. Think of these as your Instagram grid templates.
Commit to a color combo
This is probably the most common grid style going — not that I’m calling anyone lazy (don’t @ me!), but it really doesn’t get much easier than this.
Pick a color palette (pinks and greys?) or a certain tone (high contrast neons?) to feature in every photo. Viewed together, your gallery will look like a matching set, even if the content of your pics varies. Home and lifestyle influencer
Travel Instagrammer @rachelontheroad_ completely options pictures from a desaturated palette of cool blues, pinks, and greys. A neon inexperienced pic, for example, would appear jarring and misplaced right here.
In case your journey vacation spot (or residence or workplace) isn’t embellished like an Insta-ready backdrop, one straightforward means to verify your pictures all communicate the identical visible language is solely to make use of the identical filter for each photograph to assist create a constant tone.
A variation on this theme? Utilizing an ordinary filter or shade palette, but additionally working in an “accent” shade or filter each few posts, too. Perhaps your Instagram feed is generally dreamy, sepia-toned boho fantasy, however each few rows, we see a vibrant pop of forest inexperienced. Woo! You’re taking part in with fireplace!
We couldn’t let you know precisely what Lightroom preset @lemons.for.days is utilizing however… most likely one thing known as, like, “Peach Dew Goals.”
Repeat your self
There’s one thing soothing about scrolling a feed that provides you a similar factor time and again. There’s little doubt what you’re going to get when each photograph follows the identical template.
Within the case of ornamental cakemaker @takemehome_cake, every creation is photographed from the very same angle on the identical backdrop. The colour could differ on account of seasonal lighting, however the result’s a pleasingly predictable feed the place the person product will get to pop towards an countless grid of gray.
Create a checkerboard impact
By alternating the type of pictures you put up, you’ll simply create a checkerboard look in your grid. Strive alternating textual content quotes with pictures or mixing close-up pictures with panorama pictures. Going forwards and backwards with two distinct colours can work, too.
Influencer @jillian.harris alternates full-frame pictures with pink-border pics to create a singular grid look.
Meals blogger @feedthepudge alternates meals posts with ones of his personal face to supply selection for anybody scrolling by means of.
Vancouver health studio @cmmngrndyvr mixes brilliant graphics with darkish and moody pictures.
Sizzling tip: in the event you’re utilizing text-based posts, maintain the background shade or fonts constant to essentially make the sample clear. Test and mate.
(Want a bit assistance on the graphic design entrance? There are tons of nice tools and templates on the market to create visuals that pop.)
Design row by row
Assume outdoors the field… and contained in the, um, row. Uniting the pictures on every row by theme or shade can create a robust affect
Sorry in the event you’re squeamish about freshly tattooed pores and skin, however this instance from @spooky_skeleton_wizard needed to be shared. This tattoo studio alternates rows of sketches with rows of recent ink.
The trick for this one, in fact, is that it’s important to put up three pictures at a time, or the alignment can be off.
For those who’re daring sufficient to experiment with panoramic pictures for considered one of your rows — a trio of pictures that add as much as one lengthy, horizontal picture — many customers put up the identical caption for each to make it clear they’re three components of an entire, like photographer @gregorygiepel did along with his architectural pictures.
Break outdoors of the field
Although the grid by nature crops your whole Instagram pictures to a sq., enhancing your pictures to a distinct form inside that sq. can create a definite search for your Instagram photograph grid.
Circles? Rectangles? The selection is yours! Most Instagram editing tools may help create these distinctive borders.
Pet meals model @iams did circle frames for its pictures for some time.
…whereas charity @writers_ex makes use of a choice of off-kilter shapes in its signature colours to model every put up.
Get contemporary with fonts
Frequently together with textual content in your posts can contribute to a putting, font-forward total look. There are many accounts on the market specializing in info-images, however even sprinkling in a text-heavy picture among the many pictures could make for a classy show.
Strive eager about your Instagram grid just like the web page of {a magazine} — by strategically scheduling pictures with phrases and visuals, you may create a selection with steadiness that’s filled with fascinating moments to attract the “reader” in.
@nikerunning has a mixture of daring text-forward posts, illustrations, and pictures, however as a result of they put up every of those parts commonly, it feels intentional and cohesive. The lesson? You possibly can have completely disparate substances in your design palette, however in the event you use them commonly and with steadiness, your grid will look pulled collectively.
Making a grid that’s all-text-all-the-time works, too. The trick is to stay with a constant shade palette and font choice to verify every put up appears to be like nice subsequent to the final, like @mr.pugo right here.
Flip your grid into the rainbow
You want each persistence and an awesome shade sense to tug this look off. The objective is to put up commonly in a single saturated shade and slowly transition to the following shade within the rainbow along with your subsequent rows of posts.
To actually get the total impact of waterbottle firm @mybkr’s shifting palette, you’ll must scroll, however they undergo durations of being impressed by the colour of 1 bottle after which transfer on to a different… from sage to child blue, for instance.
Embrace the border
Making a constant look may be so simple as making use of a border to all of your pictures.
Influencer @kwn.li makes use of a white border on all their pictures, however you might create a signature look with any shade scheme. The free Whitagram app is one choice to shortly apply this edit, with borders and backdrops in all types of various shades.
Flip your posts right into a puzzle
This format is a difficult one to tug off on a day-to-day foundation, however for a giant announcement or marketing campaign or to launch a brand new account, a puzzle grid definitely packs a punch.
A puzzle grid creates one massive, interconnected picture out of all of the squares. Individually, these posts most likely appear like nonsense. However considered collectively, it’s a murals.
Give Montessori account @hetmamapunt a spherical of applause for this visible feat, will ya?
Take into account a bit chaos
On this fast-and-furious social media world, there’s a sure allure to the no-polish-no-worries look.
Undertake the chaotic vitality of the “extraordinarily on-line” set by mashing up memes, screenshots, TikTok reshares, unexpectedly snapped meals pics, poorly lit impromptu photograph shoots, and no matter else you would possibly discover in your digital camera roll.
Journalist Taylor Lorenz’s meme account is an ideal instance of this ethos. Assume “Discover Web page” gone haywire.
Considered as a complete, your grid takes on a stylish cluttercore vibe. In case your model is at one with Gen Z, this unplanned, untamed, wild, and artistic Instagram grid type may very well be for you.
6 ideas for planning an Instagram grid
In fact, none of those modern grids for Instagram occur by chance. You gotta grind for that grid! Listed here are some issues to bear in mind as you’re planning out the massive image.
1. Preview first
Earlier than you put up it: map it.
You possibly can mock it up in photo-editing software program, or use Hootsuite’s app integration that permits you to preview your format earlier than it goes stay… consider it as your Instagram grid template.
Proper now, it’s for private accounts solely, however enterprise account performance is coming quickly.
Create an Instagram grid format of as much as 9 pictures, after which schedule them to go up within the precise proper order via the Hootsuite dashboard.
2. Hold it constant
Creating an awesome Instagram photograph grid means sticking to a plan. One off-beat photograph within the flawed shade, the flawed filter, or within the flawed order can throw your complete look out of whack.
Simply think about if make-up firm @bareminerals tossed in an image of an evening at a neon-tinged rave to their earthy skin-toned, fastidiously curated grid. Chaos!
3. Be certain that it matches your model
In the end, the objective of a grid isn’t simply to impress your folks along with your dedication to utilizing a particular Lightroom preset filter. It’s to construct a unified search for your model.
So, in the event you’re a recruiting agency for high-level executives, having a playful rainbow grid won’t fairly match the skilled and critical tone you’re going for. A monochromatic, text-based collection of posts, however…
4. Benefit from picture enhancing instruments
In case you haven’t figured it out but: Instagram is a visible medium… and it’s onerous to place collectively an awesome grid until the person photos additionally are nice.
Fortunately, there are tons of nice photo editing tools on the market, in addition to knowledgeable recommendation round each nook… for instance, our guides to taking great Instagram photos and staying on top of the hottest Instagram trends.
5. Don’t overlook: Reels are a part of your grid, too
Your Instagram Reels can stay in your grid alongside your most important posts, so don’t overlook to pick an acceptable Reels cover photo. Or use considered one of our professionally-designed Reels Cover Templates to create a constant search for your Reels.
Every of @airbnb’s Reels have a fastidiously chosen cowl photograph of a rental residence, considered from a street-level exterior. It creates a way of consistency along with your different Instagram grid posts.
6. Schedule your posts upfront
Hold your beautiful IG grid lively and up to date with the assistance of a scheduling instrument that means that you can drop simply the precise filtered pic (or three) at simply the precise time. Hootsuite’s dashboard, for instance, makes it straightforward to prep your greatest pictures at your comfort. Get that grid going!
In fact, creating an awesome grid is only one option to seize consideration on the ‘gram. For extra advertising ideas and tips to take your account to the following degree, check out our ultimate guide to Instagram marketing here.
Instagram grid FAQs
How do you put up a 3×3 grid on Instagram?
If you wish to do a grid format on Instagram, you’re going to wish to do some pre-planning.
Mock it up in photo-editing software program, or use Hootsuite’s Instagram Grid planner integration to preview your format earlier than it goes stay.
(Observe: proper now, it’s for private accounts solely, however enterprise account performance is coming quickly.)
Create an Instagram grid format of as much as 9 pictures, after which schedule them to go up within the precise proper order via the Hootsuite dashboard.
How do I alter my grid on Instagram?
Altering your grid on Instagram begins with deciding in your new look. Would you like the posts to all be in a particular, constant shade palette? Ought to every picture on the grid contribute to at least one massive image? What’s your visible objective and the way does it tie in to your Instagram model?
Peep a few of our inventive inspiration sources above to determine what you need your Instagram account to appear like, or discover 2023’s biggest Instagram photo-editing trends to spark some concepts in your massive grid makeover.
Earlier than you begin including your new pictures, delete or archive something that you just’ve beforehand posted that doesn’t match your required look.
Now it’s time to start out plotting out your contemporary content material.
Both mock it up in photo-editing software program or use Hootsuite’s Instagram Grid planner integration to preview your format earlier than it goes stay. (Use these Instagram editing tips to present your pictures a constant aesthetic.)
Create an Instagram grid format of as much as 9 pictures, after which schedule them to go up within the precise proper order via the Hootsuite dashboard.
Begin constructing your Instagram presence utilizing Hootsuite. Schedule and publish posts on to Instagram, interact your viewers, measure efficiency, and run all of your different social media profiles — all from one easy dashboard. Strive it free at the moment.
Develop on Instagram
Simply create, analyze, and schedule Instagram posts, Tales, and Reels with Hootsuite. Save time and get outcomes.