Designing a great story template

(in 20 easy steps)

Cover Design

The covers will be the first entry point into the site & product.

New site will look like this, more or less:

1. think film posters, album covers, book covers.

2. within the restrictions we have (3 text fields, 1 bg image or video)

3. pinterest is a good resource for eye candy

These covers I made are acceptable.

Start planning. Ready?

Pick your category:

+ Events

Education

Business

Finance

Movies

 

Start from a (good) photo

Start from a (good) headline

or

1. Make sure your headline is not too long
2. Give it a nice twist
3. Make sure it's not an obscure topic
4.  Add a date + author name
5. Try this name generator for authors
6. Go look for images now

 

1. Use a consistent colour palette within a kit
2. Try Adobe Kuler for that.
3. Export 720x1280px background
4. Plan blank space for headline
5. Use vibrant visuals, not dull, tired, stock-ish
6. Avoid super-generic portraits (ie. white male working on laptop)
7. Be careful with illustrations. They're very often overused / abused / fumate.
8. Google a nice headline that describes your photo (ie. italian gelato guide guardian). Pick reputable sources
9. Avoid alarmistic headlines

 

blank

Go for simple visuals, not disco balamuc.

Pick the vibrant character, not the generic man with generic laptop

Alternate text layout within a kit (up, middle, down)

Don't abuse overlay (but do use it every now and then)

Photo helps here - 0% overlay

Photo doesn't help so I used Overlay 20%

We don't want people to use our exact templates. We push them to think about what works and what doesn't and search for the right photo (even if it takes them hours...we're offering 3 billion photos from Getty.)

 

Overlay will always work but that's not how album covers are designed :)

Play with the 3 text fields. Middle can be headline. Or it could be the top one textfield.
Think coloured background.

Cover more angles of your theme (ie. travel) even if you're using similar looks:

Hotel review

World places

City review

Food

Activities

Pro tip: give your photos a 5% yellow colour effect in PS (or overlay in studio) and they'll look better together in a gallery.

So if you're covering sport, go:

 

2020 Olympics

Euro 2020

Tennis

Football

Cricket

Sport celebrities

...and their hot partners

Fans

Fitness

etc..

 

(don't get fixated on one thing only - galleries need to inspire)

We'll be offering search suggestions + sub-category suggestions.

Your sub-topics can become sub-category suggestions (ie. "travel activities")

Limit font usage to bold fonts. Let's leave skinny for later. Keep in mind template will show all on a page - so visual consistency is key.

 

Roboto

NWS F1

GT Walsheim

Curator

Futura

Hero

Rift

NWS Sans

...

 

Please use the same fonts and similar size combos / kit.

PS: Don't align right unless there's a very good reason.

Content Scenes

Create 12-18 content scenes / kit that cover all common content needs

 

Exemple:
clean text on white bg

same on coloured bg

img + small text

img + big text

video + text

quote

content recommendation

 

Use real text from various articles (don't lorem ipsum). Try fun, easy stuff - don't go academic.

Overlay is ok to use & abuse. But try to look for nice bright photos, still.

Please don't add any photoshopped call to actions in any designs.

UGH, how black :( Overlay abuse...

Much better :)

Save 3-4 scenes for quiz + poll + shoppable. De preferat care sa arate mai clever ca asta de jos.

How do save:

Name: just use the kit name - I don't think it's relevant.

Using the PS Clone tool

Need more clouds up here to make a nice 720x1280?

Use the clone stamp tool

Making more clouds...

Add some brightness in the end to hide imperfections

Thank you!

mihai