Occasionally, it’s refreshing to break away from ceaselessly scrolling through your feed and endlessly scroll through someone’s personal Instagram page. Say hi to The Instagram Grid layout.
Arranged in tidy sets of three, each Instagram post is transformed into a fragment of a larger whole. It’s a glimpse into a user’s inner self or content planning.
Experienced Instagram users recognize how to leverage this perspective to their benefit with skillfully planned posts that, when combined, produce a stunning Instagram grid design.
If you haven’t considered the overall effect of your own sequence of squares, now is the time. Here is everything you need to learn about creating a captivating Instagram grid to increase your followers and engagement.
Why your Instagram grid layout is important?
Whenever someone follows you for the first time or visits your profile to explore your content, your Instagram photo grid presents an opportunity to convey your vibe or brand with a single glance.
The grid provides a top-down view of a user’s posting history, serving as their first impression of their portfolio: a visual, comprehensive introduction to their personal or professional brand.
For individuals, creating a visually appealing grid may not be essential – sure, color-coordinating your posts might be an enjoyable personal challenge, but if you’re solely on the platform to connect with friends, branding is likely not a top priority.
However, for brands, creatives, or influencers, consistency and style are crucial, particularly if your account is centered around aesthetics or lifestyle.
After all, your grid is an efficient way to get your message across. Furthermore, anyone who visits your profile is considering following you, providing you with an opportunity to demonstrate exactly what you have to offer.
Do you have a cutting-edge or trendy style? Will your content bring relaxation or drama? Is your brand organized or disorganized? A single glimpse at your grid, and they’ll obtain the (apologies, not apologies) image.
10 innovative Instagram grid layout ideas
To develop fantastic grids for Instagram, you must begin with a vision. Hence, we have combed through the platform to discover some of the greatest grids on Instagram that will inspire your own aesthetic. Consider these as your templates for Instagram grids.
Decide on a color scheme
This is likely the most prevalent grid design available — not that I’m insinuating anyone is indolent (don’t @ me!), but it genuinely can’t get any simpler than this.
Select a color scheme (pink and gray, perhaps?) or a specific vibe (bright, contrasting neons?) to showcase in each image. As a collection, your gallery will appear coordinated, even if the content of your photos varies.
Home and lifestyle influencer accounts, for instance, frequently employ this grid style. Meanwhile, travel Instagrammers like @rachelontheroad_ feature exclusively desaturated cool blues, pinks, and grays in their photos. Thus, a neon green photo would appear uncoordinated and out of place in this type of grid.
If your travel destination (or your home or office) is not decorated to serve as a perfect backdrop for Instagram, one simple way to ensure that your photos align with the same visual language is to apply the same filter for every photo, which helps maintain a consistent tone.
An alternative approach is to utilize a standard filter or color scheme but also incorporate an “accent” color or filter after every few posts. Perhaps your Instagram feed is primarily characterized by dreamy, sepia-toned bohemian vibes, but every few rows feature a vibrant pop of forest green. Exciting stuff!
Although we are unsure of the exact Lightroom preset utilized by @lemons.for.days, it’s probably something like “Peach Dew Dreams.”
Reiterate yourself
Scrolling through a feed that presents the same thing repeatedly has a calming effect. When every photo follows the same pattern, there’s no question about what you’ll see next.
Take the example of decorative cake maker @takemehome_cake, where each creation is captured from the same angle on the same background. Although the color may differ due to seasonal lighting, the outcome is a satisfyingly predictable feed where each product stands out against an infinite grid of grey.
Make a checkerboard effect
You can easily create a checkerboard look on your grid by alternating the style of photos you post. The alternate
text quotes with photography, or mix close-up and landscape shots. Going back and forth between two distinct colors can also work.
Influencer @jillian.harris creates a unique grid look by alternating full-frame photos with pink-border photos.
To provide variety for those scrolling through, food blogger @feedthepudge alternates food posts with ones of his own face.
@cmmngrndyvr, a Vancouver fitness studio, combines bright graphics with dark and moody photographs.
Note: Keep the background color or fonts consistent if you’re using text-based posts to really highlight the pattern. Check and play.
Row-by-row design
Consider thinking outside the box, or rather, inside the row. Combining images on each row based on theme or color can have a significant impact.
Although some may find it unsettling, this example from @spooky_skeleton_wizard must be shared. This tattoo studio arranges rows of sketches with rows of fresh ink, creating a distinctive pattern.
The trick with this one, of course, is that you must post three images at once or the alignment will be messed up.
If you’re brave enough to use panoramic images in one of your rows — three photos that add up to one long, horizontal image — many users use the same caption for each one to emphasize that they’re three parts of a whole, as photographer @gregorygiepel did with his architectural shots.
Step outside the box
Though the grid by default crops all of your Instagram photos to a square, editing your photos to a different shape within that square can give your Instagram photo grid a unique look.
What about circles and rectangles? You have a choice! Most Instagram editing tools can assist you in creating these one-of-a-kind borders.
For a while, the pet food brand @iams used circle frames for its images.
…while the charity @writers_ex brands each post with a variety of off-kilter shapes in its signature colors.
