Monday 28 April 2014

Designing a New Cover Photo for my Facebook Page


As part of a sub-brief along side my self-initiated brief, we were asked to focus on self promotion, and create a piece or pieces of work promoting who we are as illustrators.

I am not entirely sure what this task could mean for me, as being a student I am still finding my feet as an illustrator, learning new styles and ways of working. I would say my work is quite versatile which could be an advantage, though clients seem to want a consistent style and focus. 

Even so, I created a Facebook page called 'Carla Taylor Illustration' back in Summer 2013 and think it would be ideal to use this as part of my promotional brief. 

Right, you can see that I have actually linked my Facebook page to this blog so that the audience can see both what I post onto Facebook, but also Blogger.


Therefore, I decided to created a new cover photo for my page using a website called https://www.canva.com/, a free online platform where you can design for several purposes such as posters, soical media sites and business cards. 

Canva home page

When designing my cover photo, I felt it was important to consider how this would reflect my own personal style as it would be the first impression to whoever viewed my page. Therefore, I decided to include a range of my work which most suited my current style. 





Below, these are the initial designs I came up with for my Facebook cover photo design. Noticeably, I have gone for a theme of purple. This is due to the simple fact that it is my favourite colour, and although I wouldn't say it defines my illustration style, it credits my personal interest which is an important step to defining me as an illustator. 

The circular frames in the top design demonstrate a bubble-like effect. This enables the illustrations to be more refined, limiting the amount of unused space around each one. The logo is prominent, being the largest image so the public can easily identify my brand. However, I think this design is too simple, and with limited illustrations, it fails to portray my work as an illustrator so far.

The design below is another simple layout with a banner style heading including the brand name. Although the images are clear, I feel this design is also too simple.



Once I had experimented with various layouts and images, I designed the final one (below). The varied images demonstrate my abilities and more recent style I have been undertaking. This is important to portray my current style and let potential clients know that I can be consistent yet versatile. Images with purple tones break up the illustrations on plain white backgrounds in a symmetrical fashion. I believe this is effective, showing that not only I can use traditional methods to create my work, but also manipulate them in Photoshop to make them digital. There are enough images to demonstrate my work as an illustrator to hopefully capture the attention of potential clients and the general public who enjoy the work I create. Adding the brand name 'Carla Taylor Illustration' in the cover photo helps the viewer to understand who created the images, the most important aspect of my page.


Final cover photo design



After putting the cover photo onto my Facebook page, I realised that my logo design had been included twice at the top and was therefore unnecessary in the cover. So, I decided to change the logo image to one of my watercolour illustrations which fit into the design well, and think it works better.


New final cover photo design

Overall, I think this was a success. It is better for promoting my work as I understand it is unrealistic for everyone who views my page to scroll down and see every post, and therefore every piece of work I have created. This can be updated as I create more artwork so I can hopefully keep my 'likers' and new visitors up to date with my latest work.

You can view my Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/CarlaTaylorIllustration

To access Canva you can register for free and start creating your own designs here: https://www.canva.com/






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