In an ever changing world that is becoming faster and faster, a business owner cannot afford to skip on the background designs of his/her online promotional designs. Whether it be your social media header, your brand logo, or your profile photo… everything needs to be spic & span and super professional.
You've only got one shot at making your first impression. And your first impression is a lasting one. Don't let it go to waste, for this will surely cost you revenue.
1. Image Background Guidelines
1.1. Professional Look
Images that are clear, clean and precise create a professional impression that your audience will appreciate. When creating your brand content, the vital thing is to create the best first impression. This is whether you are a well-established brand or a small scale upcoming entrepreneur building an audience.
However, if you opt to over-decorate, you'll create a background that is overcrowded and cluttered. Instead of looking attractive, it will appear disorganized and your fans will probably hate it. And once a person is put off by your business, it's hard to win them back over.
Visuals play a crucial role in your marketing and your users’ perceptions of your brand. The last thing you need is driving potential clients away, simply because you come off as an amateur, even though you might not be.
1.2. Simple Background
Have you ever encountered an image so awfully crowded, that it gives you a headache when you keep staring at it? Odds are, you probably clicked it away. And that's exactly what your users will do, should you try to display such images to them.
When you are displaying a product photo, keep the background simple. You don't want your viewers' attention to be attracted to anything in the background, when you clearly want them looking at the product itself. Images with a simple background make the product come into focus and are, generally, much easier on the eyes.
1.3. Desktop/Mobile Display
With more than 50% (and climbing) of online traffic coming from mobile users, it’s critical to ensure your images will display correctly on mobile devices. It's not just your website that needs to be mobile friendly, but also the images that you display on your website. And also those on your social media accounts.
This ties in with the previous point about simple backgrounds. Images with simple backgrounds more often tend to display nicely on mobile as well as on desktop.
1.4. Avoid Distractions
It might be tempting to use an intricate background with lots of graphics, which are nice to look at when looking at them on their own. But when you're making a background, it can sometimes help to slow down your creative juices a little bit. Go too wild with the background, and it will become a distraction.
2. Image Background Design Tips
It’s quite unfortunate that backgrounds are often a forgotten part of images. Many people always focus on what’s on the foreground and forget about the background which also has an influential effect on the image's general allure.
When designing a background image yourself, take heed of the following tips. You'll create a better background, because of them!
2.1. Blur The Background
By blurring the background, you will be creating a point of focus that points the user to the actual content you want them to focus on. Also, a blurred background cuts all forms of distraction, that can draw the user’s attention away from the one thing you want them to focus on.
2.2. Fill The Subject In The Frame
Rather than spending hours figuring out the best design for a simple background, you can instead fill the whole space with the subject matter at hand. This will cut down the background space left, thereby pretty much guaranteeing that the audience stays focused on what you're selling. It’s a very simple and effective strategy, that doesn't require great graphic design skills.
2.3. Contrasting Colors
This is a great strategy for creating a simple, yet effective background. You don’t need fancy graphics to create an enticing and influential image. Contrasting colors usually do a good job of strengthening your brand. But for this to work, you need to choose good color combinations. Muck this up and you'll have colors clashing, which is a sure sign of poor taste in the eyes of your would-be customers. If you're no expert on color combo's, it's best to go with time tested ones.
2.4. Opt For A Either A Light Or Dark Background
If you're having a hard time coming up with a good background, then a either a light or a dark one might be your best choice. These colors will usually do a great job of making your subject matter pop out at the viewer. It's a simple, yet effective solution to background design.
3. Conclusion
Whether the background images, that you want to create, are for video thumbnails, social media, brand logos, product photos, or simply for your blog… you will need to make sure that your image has a well designed background every single time. These images influence the growth of your business. And for your business, only the best is good enough.
Designing your own backgrounds can really take up a lot of time. For that reason, you could also have a look at some of ContentBASE's ready made background designs. We are always expanding our store with more fully customizable designs for more and more social media platforms and business niches. Can't find what you're looking for? Ask us about it!