What are the essential branding and design tools for creating eye-catching social media graphics?

For those who don't have a graphic design background, I always recommend using Canva or Adobe Express. Both platforms are user-friendly with an abundance of ready-made templates, fonts, images and graphics.

When it comes to making eye-catching social media graphics, there are a few go-to tools that make the job easier. Canva is super user-friendly and has lots of templates to choose from, so you can create graphics quickly. If you need more advanced options, Midjourney is great for customizing designs for professional branding. For some cool AI features, try Firefly by Adobe—it helps with things like adding text and filling images creatively. Adobe Express is another good option for scaling your designs across different social media platforms with AI tools. And if you want a bunch of AI-powered tools in one place, Designs.ai has everything from Fotor AI design to Adobe generative AI, making graphic design a breeze.

For folks that don't have a graphic design background and don't have time to learn software such as Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop, I will always recommend Adobe Express. With highly customizable templates, assets, and photo editing, as well as Adobe's Creative Suite Fonts and Firefly AI, this is the perfect one stop shop for business owners looking to create graphics, social media content, infographics, brochures, and more that are more true to their brand than something made in an alternative graphics editor such as Canva.

One super underrating thing that you can do is following Virgil Abloh's 3% rule. Just take a already existing established design and change small things so that this is not a copy and it's your distinct design. Virgil used this rules in many Off-White products.

Save time and stay consistent with template libraries. Customize pre-designed layouts to fit your needs. Formats for different platforms ensure graphics look great everywhere. Produce professional visuals that align with your brand's style guide without starting from scratch. Effortlessly elevate your social media presence.

There are many free and low cost places to find visual elements that small business owners and marketing professionals can take advantage of. Free options include Pixabay, Unsplash, and StockVault. Low priced options include Shutterstock, iStock, and Midjourney AI. Death to Stock is an amazing resource but their Agency license is more expensive than their single-brand membership. Adobe Stock is also on the pricier side but their library is so exhaustive it's worth it if you have the resources.

If you intend to create graphic content that attracts attention, to be "eye-catching", I believe your desire is also to distinguish and differentiate yourself from the red sea of information that social networks are today. To do this, you will necessarily need to compose elements in your library and visual identity that differentiate you, therefore, unique icons, unique graphic patterns, color combinations, typography, shapes, illustrations that as a whole (or in isolation) are uniquely identifiable as "your brand". Thus, and consistently, you will be creating your own “visual universe”.

Essential branding and design tools for creating eye-catching social media graphics include Canva ?? for its user-friendly templates and editing features, Adobe Spark for professional-looking designs, and Over for its extensive library of graphics and fonts. Tools like Unsplash and Pexels provide high-quality stock images, while Color Hunt helps choose captivating color palettes. For advanced editing, Adobe Creative Suite offers Photoshop and Illustrator. Consistency, creativity, and brand alignment are key!