By adding custom graphics you'll make your blog stand out and carry your branding when it's shared.

1. Give Your Blog a Signature Look with Custom Branded
Graphics
hughbriss.com/give-your-blog-a-signature-look-with-custom-branded-graphics/
Hugh Briss
Do you create custom graphics for your blog posts or do you just throw in a stock photo that sort of has
something to do with what you wrote about? I’ll be honest, I’ve been doing the second one and the crazy
thing is, I’m a designer.
So, starting with this post, I’m going to create a custom title graphic for all of my blog posts from now on
and I think you should too. Here’s why.
If you come up with a style that you follow for all of your custom graphics you’ll give your blog a unique
look and where a typical blog doesn’t really have a brand identity, yours will. Many blogs have custom
headers and some use logos but consider the fact that when someone sees a link to your blog posts on
Facebook or Google+, in most cases there isn’t any visual brand recognition. If you develop a style for
your graphics, in time you will create that immediate visual recognition that any good brand should include
in their marketing.
When someone shares your post on their social network pages the preview will contain an image from
your post so it stands out nicely in the user’s feed but a cool graphic with the text of what the article is
about will stand out and get noticed more than a picture that sort of relates to your article. It’s also a good
idea to add you branding or blog name to each image so when the post is shared that branding goes with

2. every image.
Take a look at this blog from the design firm re:DESIGN. They create a unique image using the text for
the title of the post for every single post. They also include a properly formatted vertical version of the
same image for Pinterest users. Instead of using a large text headline they make it small (for SEO) and
rely on the graphic to be the headline. When someone shares their posts on their social pages you know
those images stand out among all the average pictures that fill our feeds.
Of course it’s also a good idea to include additional photos and images that help illustrate your points but if
the first image in every post is your custom headline graphic, that’s the image that will show when the post
is shared socially.