One question that pops up in my Instagram DMs quite often is How do you create Instagram story Highlight covers. In this blog post I’ll explain everything about designing Instagram templates and specifically how to make beautiful Instagram story Highlight covers.
The first thing you want to think about is how you want your Highlight covers to look like.
Do you want a simple design or something more colourful or perhaps something made in different colours? The question you want to ask yourself is what are the colours that dominate your Instagram feed? If your Instagram feed is simple and minimal that’s how your Instagram story Highlight covers should look like. I changed my Instagram story Highlight covers two times so far. It all depends on your mood and your preferences. You can see on my Instagram profile that I opted for simple design and colour. The font I used is Playlist Script.
The second thing you’re probably asking yourself is where to design beautiful Instagram story Highlight covers?
For all the templates and designs I’m making, I’m using Canva. Canva is a free tool where you can design anything that comes to your mind. It has so many options that it’s amazing. I’m using Canva free version but you can also use the paid version and get more beautiful designs, stock photos and fonts. With Canva you can design your Instagram stories, Pinterest pins, CVs, Logos, Facebook Ads, Calendars and Planners, Media kits, To do lists, whatever comes to your mind!
So, how to use Canva to make beautiful Instagram story Highlight covers?
The first thing you’ll need to do is create an account. Once you’ve done that it’s time to start designing. Let’s get one thing straight first – there is Canva app which is very nice, but I’m using Canva on my computer because I like to see how everything looks like properly and it’s easier for me to do it on a computer. It’s up to you whether you’ll download Canva app or if you’ll do it like me, on a bigger screen. So, now that you created your Canva account you’ll land on the home page. Here you can choose whatever you want to design and in this case you’ll choose “Instagram story”. Custom dimensions of an Instagram story are 1080×1920 px.
Now you’re in the page where you’ll create your Instagram story Highlight covers.
If you click on that blank page you’ll see a small square with colours in it. Click on that square and choose the colour you want to use. You can use variations of all the colours you can imagine. Let’s say you want your Highlight covers to be light blue. You can choose the blue colour and then move the cursor to see which shade of blue suits your Instagram feed best. For example, one of the very light shades of blue that I used in the example (see the photos below) has a code #c2c7dd. You can copy that code and use it later for another Instagram story Highlight cover.
Now that you’ve chosen your colour you’ll see the Text icon on the left. Click on it and choose Add a Heading. Now you can type your text. For example if you have a travel related Instagram account you can type in let’s say Spain, Asia, Travel inspiration, Travel tips or whatever you like. Now choose a font and the letter size and you’re done. You have a a simple and beautiful Instagram story Highlight cover and all that’s left to do is to download it and send it to your mobile. Upload it to your Instagram account and you’re all set.
If you want something different than just letters let’s take a look at how you can design that.
The same as in the first example open “Instagram story” design and choose a colour. Canva also has some beautiful backgrounds that you can use for free. Check out Backgrounds icon on your left.
Ok, for this second example I chose a colour whose code is #cfc4c4. Now let’s say you want an icon in your Instagram story Highlight cover. You can find them in “Elements”. Just type in whatever you need in a search box.
If we type “Instagram” here is what we can see (see the photo below). There are some free icons you can use and for the rest of them you need to use a paid version of Canva. I think this first element will do just fine. Now we will add the Instagram icon and what’s cool about Canva is that you can change its colour, as well as the colour of almost any element. Also, you can resize it to make it look bigger or smaller. Again, click on the colour square and choose the colour you want. I changed it to dark blue and you can see here how it looks like.
Now you’ve got the basics of Canva design for Instagram Highlight covers and all you need to do now is to have fun making beautiful Instagram stories, adding text, frames, all kinds of elements and design Instagram story Highlight covers for you or your friends. Surprise your friend with your custom made Instagram story templates or Highlight covers.
I’m going to add some Free Instagram Story Highlight covers so feel free to use them.
All you need to do is to download them to your phone and your computer and then to upload them to your Instagram. You’ll do that by right clicking on the image you like and pressing “Save to photos”. Enjoy! I hope this post was helpful. If you have any questions contact me through this form or send me a DM on Instagram.
