Everything you share online for your business—including your images—is representative of your brand, so why isn’t everyone using branded images?

Today, I hope to equip you to create awesome branded images using Photoshop.

Canva is a great alternative to Photoshop (there are free and paid options). You can have a lot of fun with it, and it makes it easy for you to create templates. Our web designer uses Photoshop. Here’s why we love photoshop:

• You can easily edit *any* element of your image (including image alignment and font spacing).
• A wide array of images, fonts, filters, and textures
• Great retouching options

Make Sure You Get the Most Out of Photoshop

First Things First: Images Sizes

Here’s what most folks recommend for optimal viewing across devices:

Twitter + Facebook: 1000 x 500

Instagram: 1080 square

Pinterest: 800 x 1200

PRO Tips: Making templates for each of these images sizes (whether you use Photoshop or Canva) will help make your design process easier. We also suggest setting post goals (x images per platform per week) and making/scheduling as many of them ahead of time as you can, so you stay on track.

Photoshop Design Elements:

• Balance: You want to make sure the elements of your image are in balance, and that nothing is taking away from what you’re promoting. Your copy and text should be the front-and-center, with everything else focused on making it look good.
• Color: Bright colors are key. Stay on-brand, of course. But whenever you use lighter backgrounds and red/orange accents, your branded images will be that much more likely to get noticed.

[NEED HELP WITH YOUR BRAND STYLE GUIDE?]

• Fonts: Photoshop should have the fonts you use in your Brand Style Book available to place on your Branded images. If not you can download them and add them to Photoshop for your use.
• Logo/Watermark/Submarks: These should be in every image you create and share. People need to immediately associate this unique, high-quality visual content with your brand. And the more your audience shares an image, the more attention your brand will get.

Tools and Palettes

There are a few tools and palettes in Photoshop you’ll need to familiarize yourself with to make creating branded images easier.

• Eraser Tool: Erases elements of your image
• Eyedropper Tool: Makes any color within an image active, so you can use it elsewhere.
• Layers Palette: The layers palette is home to all components of your image. Each component is layered on top of the others. Layer one appears behind layer two, which appears behind layer three, and so on.
• We recommend templates have at least 3 layer groups:

1. Background
2. Text/Copy
3. Branding/Watermark, etc.

• Lasso/Marquee: Both these tools allow you to change parts or pieces of your images— they just have different selection styles.
• Move Tool: Move elements around your canvas.
• Shape Tool: Add shapes to your canvas
• Text Tool: Add text to your canvas.

Now that you know what you’re working with, you can make your first template.

1. Create a new document (Settings: pixels, 72 pixels/inch, RGB color)
2. Create a background layer group.
3. Select the shape layer (Layers Palette) and add the shapes you want
4. Add text.
5. Add your logo and branding items

Make sure you save and label templates for the image sizes we covered at the beginning. Now that you’ve done the work on the front end, you can create lots of images to help people show your brand some love—without wasting your valuable time. Happy creating!

[Stuck in Photoshop Limbo? — We can help.]