11 Instagram Story Design Tips and Tools (2024)

Beautiful Instagram Story design is the key to creating more engagement and delighting your followers. If you want to take your Instagram Story design to the next level, increase your reach, and drive traffic to your social media presence you’re in the right place.

Fortunately, with a little time anyone can create professional quality Instagram content, both for your stories and your feed. All you need is the right design tips and proper tools.

In today’s article we’ll review six of the best design tips as well as five apps you can use for Instagram Story design.

Top 6 Instagram Story Design Tips [Infographic]

Get a quick dive into our top six Instagram story design tips in this infographic below, or scroll down to read even more about how to create stunning Instagram stories.

1 Use an Instagram Stories Template

One of the best things you can do to improve your Instagram story design is to use pre-designed templates.

Using templates makes Instagram story design simple because it helps with some of the more challenging design tasks. With a pre-designed layout you can focus on your content and not where to place it from a formatting perspective.

Because layouts give you a visual reference using stock text and images they help you see exactly how your unique content can look without having to design something from scratch.

The great news is that professional designers at Visme love creating awesome Instagram story designs. We have an entire library to empower you to create incredible content. Start browsing our template options below.

And because Visme has a team of designers consistently updating our template library with new and trending designs, you can be certain that however you customize your Instagram story design it will look professional, sharp and intriguing.

This takes much of the leg work out of the design process and allows you to pour your energy into messages your audience will love!

2 Embrace Consistency In Your Design

Because Visme has an abundance of Instagram story templates to choose from it may seem like a good idea to mix and match numerous templates with each post.

However, for optimal branding the research shows that this is not a good idea.

A common mistake marketers make with Instagram Stories is that the goal is to get in front of as many people as possible with each post. The logic is that a small percentage of them will respond to the post with some kind of action.

While it would be great if our ideal audience was ready to take action the moment they see our messaging the research in social media marketing shows that this is not how it works.

No matter how great an Instagram story is our audience needs to feel safe and comfortable with our brand.

One of the best ways to do that is to be memorable with reliable design.

According to the marketing rule of 7 we need to have at least 7 interactions with our audience before they will feel comfortable with taking action on our offering.

By staying consistent with our Instagram Story design we can make sure each time Instagram followers see our story they recognize it and become one interaction closer to taking action.

Additionally, from a marketing perspective we want to make it an effortless process for our audience to recognize and categorize our posts. This is a great way to grow Instagram followers that want to interact with your content.

We want to make sure this process of using templates is easy so we recommend saving the templates you love to a folder in the Visme app for consistent use.

You can also take advantage of our multi-slide Instagram stories templates to help you create the perfect branded presence.

Customize this Instagram story template and make it your own!Edit and Download

3 Use Consistent Brand Colors

Another crucial element when it comes to Instagram Story design is the color palette you choose to use on your posts.

It's essential for branding purposes that your Instagram Stories are consistent with your overall brand colors. If you don’t have consistent brand colors, here are a few great reasons to select some.

First off, there's scientific research on how the use of color in marketing can impact the behavior of our audience.This becomes crucial to consider when creating marketing assets like Instagram Stories.

In one study titled Impact of Color on Marketing, the researchers found that up to 90% of decisions people made about products can be based on color alone.

And when you add your brand colors to Visme, you can easily customize templates like the one below to match your online presence and wow your audience.

Customize this Instagram story template and make it your own!Edit and Download

4 Create A Library Of Brand Images

When it comes to Instagram Story design having great images is a crucial aspect to consider. Using Visme, you can always upload your own brand images to use in our templates.

However, whether you have some images to use or are just getting started with Instagram, it’s a good idea to create a library.

This way, you can see what’s working and recreate. One way to do this is to take a quick look at your competitors on Instagram to see what’s working and not working for them.

This information will help you brainstorm and fine tune an Instagram marketing strategy that will stand out to your audience.

Additionally, by reviewing your competitors' Instagram profiles, you’ll be able to set benchmarks and expectations for your own social media goals.

Another great approach to finding quality content ideas is to make a list of 5 inspiring Instagram profiles and pay attention to their stories. See what kinds of images these profiles are using and if any of their tactics are applicable to your strategy.

Then, you can easily create and store templates to reuse within your Visme dashboard. Simply open up the editor and customize your templates to fit what you’re promoting.

Here’s a great template to get you started.

Customize this Instagram story template and make it your own!Edit and Download

5 Pay Attention To Font Design

Visme makes it easy to implement font pairing for your Instagram Story design. Font pairing is an important design consideration that will make your stories stand out from the rest of your audience's feed.

Since you’re ready to take your Instagram Story design to the next level it’s a good time to check in with the fonts you’re using for your brand. Visme has an enormous selection of fonts that you can explore and match to your unique aesthetic.

There are a few tried and true rules you can use to help you pair two fonts that you like.

1. Pair handwritten fonts with bold angular fonts.
2. Pair sans-serif fonts with serif fonts.
3. Pair chunky sans-serif fonts with light serif fonts.
4. Pair a bold and light version of the same font.

6 Animate Your Instagram Story Design

Animation both in the form of video and gifs are an important design trend in 2020.

This is because in our fast paced world the preferences of people are always changing.

When it comes to getting noticed with your Instagram Stories there is immense competition for the attention of your ideal audience member.

To make sure you come out on top you have to be innovative and strategic with the use of new design trends.

You cannot expect to get exceptional results by publishing the same style of photos that everyone is doing in your feed.

This is where animation comes in. Animation and motion graphics in general are becoming powerful ways to creatively communicate our most important messages.

Incorporating them in your Instagram story mix is a great way to make a splash with your audience and help your content stand out.

The best thing is that you no longer need a professional in-house designer to post stories that utilize animation. Visme has a library full of different templates you can customize using animation like animated illustrations, entry effects, exit effects and more.

Customize this Instagram story template and make it your own!Edit and Download

Top 5 Tools For Instagram Story Design

Now that we’ve explored some of the top Instagram Story design tips, we’ll explore some of the best tools you can use to enhance your workflow and create memorable stories.

Let’s dive in!

Visme

While there may be many great tools out there for Instagram Story design, we’ve worked hard to make Visme one of the go-to tools you can use to reach your social media goals.

When you use Visme, you’re getting a marriage of intuitive and easy-to-use design tools with the power of a professional presentation software.

This means you’ll have all the features you need with an interface that helps you create stunning Instagram Stories quickly with no professional designers necessary.

Adobe Spark Post

Adobe is well known in the design community for their excellent software suite.Adobe Spark Post is a great addition to that suite that can help you enhance your design on Instagram.

In particular, Spark Post can help with text animations that make your videos and images more engaging and noticeable.

There are numerous templates designed by professionals that help you customize your content easily.

Filmm

Filmm is a tool used by some of the most beautiful Instagram profiles.

It uses effects and filters popular in the film industry and has plenty of templates to make your Instagram Story design easier.

Additionally, it has a great feature that includes royalty free audio that you can add to any video.

StoriesEdit

StoriesEdit is a design tool that makes it simple to customize and share your Instagram Story from one dashboard. It has a robust suite of tools that allow you to edit, add text, shapes, and custom backgrounds all from your phone.

Once you're ready you can post directly to Instagram. It’s a great option to tell your brand's story and make a splash with great design.

Unfold

Earlier, we covered how Instagram Story templates can help you improve the design quality of your posts. Unfold is an excellent tool that will help you customize templates and save Instagram stories for easy use.

Remember how we talked about consistency when it comes to using templates? Unfold makes it easy to customize their modern pre-designed templates right from your smartphone.

It’s one of the most popular Instagram Story apps for a reason and a great tool to help you reach your goals.

If you aren’t comfortable creating or using templates in Adobe Photoshop, you can create templates on your phone using the Unfold app for Instagram Stories.

Master Instagram Story Design With Visme

It’s your turn! Now that we’ve explored these exciting tips and tools, it's time to sign up for your own Visme account, head over to our templates and start designing your next Instagram Story to wow your followers.