What is up everybody? We're back with part two of the Instagram carousel critiques. In case you missed it, there's a link to part one in the description.
In this video, I'm going to review the work from the students of my carousel clinic to share the nuances of making better content so that you can grow your audience. The work I'll be reviewing today aren't chosen because they're the best or the worst, but because they present the most opportunities to learn from. With that, let's get into it.
All right, everybody. What is up? We're at the Instagram Carousel Clinic part two.
Part two. So, if you haven't done so already, go back and watch part one. This time we're going to look at the submissions that were in this square format versus the rectangular format.
As a quick reminder, there's a couple things we need to look at. And I've made some adjustments to the list of what I'm looking at when I'm looking at your submissions. So, here they are.
First, is there a hook? Is there a headline that's compelling me to dig deeper? And just as a quick reminder, your headline should use the RO formula, which is based on results.
That's the R or objections. What the audience is objecting to. It's too expensive.
It takes too much time. It's too difficult. But uh I I can't do it.
Those are objections. And lastly, time. How quick is it that I can learn something or do something or achieve something?
So remember, if you follow this formula, which is from advertising, using the RO acronym results, objections, and time, or any combination of these three things, you're bound to have a better headline or hook to drive people in. Next is this concept called flow or the slippery slide concept, which is from slide 1 through 10, am I just flowing through them? And it should feel fun and effortless, just like a slippery slide.
Next up is is it light but satisfying? This is the delicate balance between is there too much information. Is it too dense and I don't want to read anymore cuz my head hurts or is it too light and frothy and not really getting anything of value.
So the sweet spot is it needs to be light but satisfying or light yet satisfying. I'm also going to be looking at contrast and contrast in every way that you can imagine that in terms of negative space or colors. Can I read everything?
Is there too much going on? It's too busy, too many textures. It's trying to do too much.
So, I want to make sure I can see things and I can read the images and I'm not working too hard. And last but not least, when everything's in place, I'm going to be looking at your type setting. And also, I don't want to me I don't want I don't want to be a grammar cop or anything, but uh grammar matters and typos do matter.
So, you want to make sure you proofread everything. So, these are the five criteria in which I'm going to be looking at the carousels. So, use this same list and follow along and see how you do.
Okay. Okay, the gold standard whenever you make a piece of content, whether it's for Instagram or LinkedIn or Twitter or anywhere else, is you you want to tell a story. So, I've kind of written up a little something here that you can use as a general guide.
This is the gold standard is a standard I don't always hit myself on my post. So, if you're watching this video and you go check out my account at the Chris Doe and you see my post, you're like, "Wait a minute, he's not even hitting his own gold standard. That's why it's the gold standard.
Maybe I hit the silver or the bronze standard." But you want to be able to tell a personal story that evokes an emotional response from your audience. So, do they stir up emotions? So, are they getting angry, sad, anxious?
What are they feeling? If you can do that, you're doing a really good job. And you want to do this with a clear takeaway, like one key thing they can walk away with.
Okay, let's get into it. Today's episode, I'm going to be reviewing 13. That's right, 13 carousels.
So, fasten your seat belts, get a cup of coffee. This one's going to be a long one. Let's get into it.
First up, we have Anton Rays and he's at the meta shift. The meta shift. And let's just go through and I'm going to read them.
Seven ways identity is not a brand. So, right there, there's something intriguing. He's talking about identity and it's different than a brand.
And he's telling me that there's seven ways so I know how many to look forward to and I know when I'm going to get through with this. There's also this kind of shocking image of a woman in curls or curlers and just like okay one logos colors tight faces visuals create an identity values vision and voice create a brand. I'm noticing something right away which is the identity part is set in a smaller point size and it's less prominent.
So there's a strong emphasis here on brand and drawing the distinction between these two things. So so far so good. Two, identity is a look that identifies you.
Brand is an idea you identify with. Some clever writing here in terms of using similar words and rephrasing it so slightly. And I think that's a really clever copywriting skill or trick.
So by manipulating the words, we show something in a new light. Three, identity consists of a logo mark or slogan. Whereas brand expresses what you believe, how you behave, and what you build.
Identity is a symbol that sets you apart. Brand is an action you are known for. Hm.
identity is a phrase that embodies you. Brand is a culture you embody. There you go again.
See, see how he's like moving the words around here? I really, just for me personally, I'm attracted to this kind of writing style. It's reframing, if you will.
Identity is how people pick you out from the crowd. Brand is why they pick you. Love it.
Identity is part of your brand, and brand is a part of you. Okay, there's something funny going on here, but I'll point that out in a second. The home stretch.
Identity is the look, symbol, phrase you're known for. Brand is the idea, action, culture you embody. So, he's kind of wrapping up all the seven points.
I like that. And there's a reason why I suggest that you do this in the home stretch, which is there's a lot for us to remember. And by the time you get to the end of the carousel on slide nine, you're going to want to make sure to remind the audience what the heck they just read.
It's a lot to process. There's only one funny little part here, and I want to point this out, which is the home stretch is part of the template, which I gave everybody. You're not supposed to include that in the actual writing itself.
And I know a lot of people did. So just remove that part, you'll be fine. And then lastly, this is the summary call to action.
What other ways an identity is different from a brand. I think the writing on this is a little funny. Uh and I think that's it's great idea to end with a question so that you prompt people to comment below and the arrows pointing to the comments.
So that makes a lot of sense. Okay. Now, I'm gonna take a look at the slides from one to nine, and then we're going to take a look at it here just to kind of see how it works together as a group.
I really like the the smart choice of using what looks to me like Helvetica using a very limited color palette, black, white, and red. These these are very strong, bold, kind of in-your-face, hard to ignore colors. And you can't go wrong with black, white, and red.
High contrast, reads really well. It's really focusing on the message on the copy. And you can see you don't have to do too much to get you interested.
Um, there's a couple little things in here, especially on the hero slide. Slide one, uh, the hook, which is the two point sizes. I I don't think you need that.
Seven ways identity is not a brand. And then she's screaming on top of that. I don't think that's necessary.
This one was submitted from Ashley Naui Ismmail. I'm sorry if I butchered your name. I'm sure I have, but let's get into it.
You can easily put away that donut. All you need to know is how habits are formed. Okay.
When there is a cue like I'm stressed at work, it leads to an automatic routine. I need to have that donut to de-stress. That creates a satisfying reward.
This is so good. Now, let's tackle work. To change to change to your habit.
To change to your habit. That reads a little funny to me. Maybe you should read to change your habit.
I don't know. I'm not an English major. That's why I study design.
Disrupt your automatic routine. Okay, that's interesting. I think that's where the idea here.
I think that's where the idea is. Look for something that can give you the same feeling of satisfaction and rewards with a different routine. New routines or new routine.
Smash a donut. Smash a workout. So the Q change the routine change the reward.
New routine new reward. Okay. What is a habit that you wish to change?
Leave a comment. All right. So let's look at it in the grid form.
I really like this color combination that using this yellow, this muted blue, and this salmon or pinkish color. I think there's a smart color combination. Your use of the donuts and cutting the sprinkles out and laying them over.
I can see that there's some edging issues here. And you may want to do this as as two or like a wider format thing so that the gradient and the shadows uh can seamlessly tile together from slides one and two. you might have to make a like an extra wide background in Photoshop before bringing this into Keynote.
Okay, I think this flows really well and I think um some of the imagery here unfortunately kind of stand out for me in not a good way. like the the two stock images I'm you're using in slide eight where there's a woman kind of saying no to the donut and somebody working out. They feel a little bit on the generic stock side.
Whereas the donut, I'm sure that's stock too. It feels a lot more integrated the way you cut it out and it has a nice pop of color. Those are some things I would work on.
Um, generally speaking, if you're not sure, I don't recommend using more than a couple of point sizes, like two. Here we have in let's go back to that slide here. There's there's like three point sizes with three lines.
It's a lot for us to process. Maybe this is something uh that you can just reduce this down and it just simplify. But uh I'm not this is not totally throwing me off or anything.
I'm just saying sometimes just for people who are just getting started in design, I would just recommend changing fewer things, fewer variables. Okay. All right.
The thing that really stands out for me, not in a good way again, is this last one is your call to action slide. I'm feeling the design aesthetic. I'm feeling the vibes.
And then this photo, I would suggest that you get a professional head shot made. The reason why I say that is this seems like it's making your forehead a lot bigger and your chin a lot narrower and this comes from having a wide angle lens. So you want to make sure that if people are feeling the aesthetic vibe that you want to make sure that at the end it you don't throw people for a loop.
I also don't recommend having more than one call to action. So you're saying leave a comment, but you're also saying like, comment, share, and save. Just focus on one.
People will barely do one. So don't confuse them. Don't make them think too hard.
Okay. Next up is Mate or I think it's Mate Urban. He's a member of the pro community as well.
So let's look at his carousel. The power of habit. So here's the second one on habit.
You might have heard this before from other creators. You should be posting every day on Instagram. But why does it really matter?
There are two reasons. content momentum and building a new habit. Okay, one, content momentum.
I like how he's digging diving deeper into this content momentum. To blow up your page, you need to be consistent with posting. It's a little graph underneath here.
The more often you post, the bigger the chance that the algorithm displays your content on top of your audience's feed. People resonate with your content, they will engage, which automatically boosts your organic reach. Two, building a new habit.
little calendar with checks there. Okay. By posting daily on Instagram, you are slowly building a new habit, more importantly, a new identity.
You're continuously casting votes for being a content creator and therefore embody the identity of a creative person. The last slide, the call to action is how often do you post on Instagram? Make sure to drop a comment below or hit me up in the DMs and say hi.
Okay, so let's take a look at this as a layout here. I I think mate, I would say a couple little things for you. I like how you have the boxing glove, how it's layered underneath the headline type in slide one, how it crosses over so it bleeds.
I think those are all very smart decisions when it gets into slides three and on. When you're using the deeper orangey red color, I think scale matters here. And I think in terms of negative space, you're filling up the entire frame, the phone, the textures, there's a lot going on.
So, in terms of contrast, I would definitely suggest reducing things down in size to give yourself a little breathing space. I get it. We want to make sure people can read the copy, the headline because it's mostly being viewed on a mobile phone, but there you don't have to go this big.
Couple other things. You can tell like as I was reading this, I was getting fatigued just reading it and some of your slides where you have the content momentum and there's extra copy or there's two paragraphs, it's too much information. This is where point number two, the slippery slide.
You can see I get stuck here. And it's good that you're putting the heavier content slides past slides five. Uh, and that's kind of important because you you got momentum working for you, but I would encourage you to edit the copy down to try not to communicate too much information in a carousel.
That was a mistake that I made in the beginning. And uh I saw a vast improvement in terms of my engagement when I just reduced it down to like one idea per slide. If you're going to air, say less on a carousel versus saying too much.
If you have to air, air on the side of simplicity. Okay. Carousel number four is from Nicholas.
I don't know how to say his last name. Himoix at Nick Himmo. Okay.
Why you find writing painful? Okay, so earlier I was talking about the rot formula for writing headlines, results, objections or time. So why you find writing painful isn't a result that I want.
It's not an objection that I have potentially, but you need to turn that around. And the way that I would suggest changing this headline is to say writing doesn't have to be painful. So it's like it's promising me a result that I want even if you don't know how to write.
That would be an objection. All right. So, if you guys are working on your carousel, what I would suggest that you do is sit down and write 10 headlines just and bang out 10 headlines and get through the bad ones, the obvious ones, and maybe you'll find one that's really good.
And then use that one instead. Moving on. It's painful to write because it's you thinking out loud.
Oh, I recognize that it feels like your thoughts are naked on the page, but you need to undress your thoughts. I like to play words here. naked on the page and to undress your thoughts.
The process of writing influences your thinking. The process of thinking influences your writing. I also like the the arrows that are circular because it leads you forward and you might want to swipe back and swipe forward to kind of see how they're connected.
I like that. I don't know what I'm thinking until I write it down. So, start writing and the ideas will come.
How to make writing less painful. So this is the key takeaway here which is really important for the light but satisfying part. Schedule time in your calendar every day for writing.
Got it? Write down anything that comes to your mind. Don't censor your thoughts.
Sometimes the rubbish ideas can lead to brilliant ideas. It's never the perfect time to start writing. So start now.
Okay. This is pretty good. Very clear.
Uh very actionable. Succinct. Good job there.
And the call to action is, "What are you thinking right now?" Share your negative thoughts in the comment below. And it's a fun picture of Nicholas eating what looks to be like an Eskimo pie or something like that. All right, so let's take a look at it in its totality here.
Slides one through nine without the call to action. I think this is a very easy to look at carousel because there's not too much going on that it's got these very muted colors, the the blue and the pink if you will and lots of negative space and there's not too much there. So, I like it.
It's easy to consume. Good job. Carousel number five, Ashley Mchatton at elementimage.co.
Okay. Failed to win. Failed to win.
Okay, this is an intriguing headline because this is kind of an incomplete thought. I'm not sure what to think, but I see this really ripped dude with a beard kind of lifting a weight. Is pushing yourself to fail your bad?
Oh, now I get it. I understand that headline now. So, sometimes these intriguing headlines can work for you or can work against you.
Uh, but let's see where this goes. In weightlifting, I don't think sudden uncontrolled urination should disqualify you. So, is failure bad?
Well, it depends. Get it? It depends.
Like in diapers, it's funny, huh? Okay. So, this is one of those ones where the writer, the author of this content, it's breaking that wall where they're speaking out loud and they're kind of pulling you aside and saying, "Get it.
It's funny, huh?" So, they're kind of being self-aware. This is a useful technique like weightlifting. Failure leads to growth, but don't wet yourself.
Push yourself hard enough where success is not guaranteed but is still possible. So guaranteed is misspelled there. I believe the key is to take time to learn, adapt, and recover so that you can be smarter and stronger.
Failure isn't a hindrance to success. It is the path to success. Okay.
Call to action. Do you agree? Stay tuned for more business and marketing tips, inspiration and mindset.
awkward humor. Okay, I think Ashley really knows who she is and putting in an awkward humor I I think it's kind of nice so that you're she's it's part of her voice. It's part of her brand.
So, let's take a look at the grid here. Okay. So, in in its presentation, I kind of like this uh I don't know if you would describe as a mint green or blue or maybe Tiffany blue, but just a little key down.
I kind of like that was a little unexpected. Given the starkness of this where it's black and you have the super muscular guy kind of on a black stark background, I think it's kind of a nice relief for all that stuff. Okay, as I'm looking at this, I'm seeing some point size changes here.
Again, I would encourage you to minimize how many different point sizes you use from slide to slide. It just simplifies things. Okay, it could be my mistake.
Um, but it feels like there are more point sizes in there than need be. So the the the trick here is to find the longest thing that you're going to write on a slide and design around that and then work backwards from there. That will usually ensure your success.
I also don't love the idea that sometimes it's it's uh flush left and then sometimes it's flush right. I don't know why you made that change. So maybe just keeping it flush left would be good.
I can see in slides nine where you're working with the image of the guy kind of feeling depressed. Uh but other than that, I just don't know why you would flip it. Remember, we read from top to bottom, left to right, at least uh in Western countries or Western cultures.
Okay. Message is clean. Slippery slide is working.
Key takeaway. Failure isn't a hindrance to success. It's the path to success.
Uh, I think the path to success probably should have kept with the same type face and point size and weight because they're kind of connected ideas. That's my critique there. Okay, next up, this is carousel number six.
This is from Garrett Curry at Smarter Freelancers. Let's see what he's got. An easy way to negotiate your price without lowering it.
Okay. Uh, the value proposition is clear here. Okay, I want to negotiate price but without lowering it and I want an easy thing.
Okay, so he's promising lots of things here. Let's see if he delivers. What goes through your head when the client pushes back on your price?
Am I getting lowalled by a competitor? Am I really worth my asking price? Am I being entitled?
Am I an impostor? Breathe. Do not lower your price.
Offer to spread out their payment terms over several months. This will help to accommodate your client's cash flow without compromising your value or making you look desperate for work or short on cash. All clients have limited resources.
Find the workarounds. Okay, so here it is laid out in a grid format. And you can see here once it's laid out this way that there are some really smart design choices.
First of all, I really like this kind of more subdued turquoise to yellow gradient that you've got going on. It's very easy to read the text. I also think that not going with a pure black and a very dark gray is actually a nice design decision there and there's not too much to read and the dialogue bubbles that you've included actually add a little visual interest in it.
Okay. One thing throws me off a little bit in that sometimes the dialogue bubble feels like it's coming from two different voices versus one internal voice since they're indicating direction. Uh I think a simple solution to that is would be to always put the source on either the left or the right side because I believe it's coming from the same person.
I also like the additional lines that you've included at the bottom. And see how they all kind of tie together to make this sound wave that travels from left to right, from slide to slide seamlessly. I think that's a really nice, smart look.
Okay, so the key takeaway here is without lowering your price, offer your clients some payment option plans to be able to pay it out over several months. And I think that's a good way to communicate that. Okay, so this is carousel number seven.
We're past the halfway point here. This is from Lennon Bone. It's at stop the starving artist.
Publish great work faster. Did you know there is someone who can help you publish more amazing work than you ever imagined? Really, all you have to do is impress them first.
It's not a peer or potential client. It's not even your friends. It's you.
Me? As creatives, we waste our time trying to impress ourselves and rob the world from experiencing what we have to offer. People connect with our imperfections because they're relatable.
So, don't be afraid to put more imperfect work out there. You'll impress yourself and the world more when you judge yourself less. Oh, nice clever copywriting there.
I kind of like that. So, some twists and turns on this copy here. If you know other creatives who might find this inspiring, please use the airplane below and share it with them.
Okay, one clear call to action. All right, let's look at this in the grid. Publish great work.
Couple things here. Like the colors. I like the illustration style.
I like this type face, which I haven't seen a lot of people use. It's a chunky serif type face here. One thing I would say in terms of just my own personal design preferences here is to increase the leting just a hair.
It feels a little crowded and tight. I'm feeling a little claustrophobic in here. And I think you can just let it breathe just a little bit.
I also like the thick chunky weight that you're using here. It's very bold. It's very graphic.
And it feels like if you continue to use this, people will recognize this style immediately. Uh some little nitpicky things here. I think the arrow starts to lose some of its definition.
It almost seems like it's not perfectly symmetrical either. So maybe we can kind of thin out, put the arrow on a little bit of a diet. doesn't need to be that chunky because it's losing those little edges where we can tell it's an arrow.
Okay. I think the biggest problem for me is this very first slide. Publish.
Publish. I I can't even say that right. Publish great work faster.
I think you need to just frame this so that there's a little bit of negative space. I would reduce down your headline, your hook here by maybe 80ish%, 80% or so, just so that there's some room to process what's going on so that so that the image, the guy holding the flag isn't kind of just jammed in there. Okay, carousel number eight from Gerardo Herrera at G Herrera Studio.
What is intelligent packaging? I don't know. I've never even heard of that term before.
Packaging that utilizes smart technology to track and trace products, monitor goods, inform in real time, help with efficiencies, add an extra level of safety and security, interact with contents, environment, and user. The advantage of intelligent packaging is critical for manufacturers, retailers, and consumers. Don't fall behind in not knowing the future of intelligent packaging.
Okay. To learn more, download my PDF overview about intelligent packaging. his website.
Okay, couple things I noticed here. Okay, so first of all, I really like the design. Uh it's very simple.
He's keeping it to one main idea, one story beat, if you will, per slide. I also like the simple use of icons that are consistently placed in the same spot. These line icons work really well, and he's doing a very good job of communicating the benefits of intelligent packaging.
I get that. So, here he's using a little thumb print for security. Smart.
Okay. So, here is one thing I noticed. The weight of this font is probably medium and regular because they're so so similar.
If you're going to switch the weight between the first paragraph and the second paragraph, I would make them more distinctive. So, he's it looks like it's a slightly smaller point size, but I can't really tell. Small changes aren't great use of contrast.
Notice how he used the word the advantage. And advantage is much bolder. It's in orange.
It's clear. It's deliberate that that's a choice. Whereas here, I'm not sure if there was a mistake made.
So, look out for that. Okay. The last thing here I want to say this is that I'm enjoying this piece of content and then as I get towards the end, I feel like, wait a minute, this was an ad for something that you do.
And so we're very sensitive to being sold something. I would suggest and I understand your business needs people to kind of download PDFs and and hire you, but if you really want to build an audience, focus on creating value for others first and do this consistently without any expectations for some period of time. If you keep educating them, you can then start to from time to time ask them to do something for you like join a group, buy a product, recommend something, but give value in abundance before you ask for something.
Okay, carousel number nine. This is from Luigi at Sublime or Sublime Studios. Okay.
Do you miss going to the movies? the connection, the queen of all snacks, the tension, the collective catharsis. What if you could experience it all again in a safe way after the pandemic?
Which protocol could convince you to go back to movie theater? The future of the big screen is in your hands. Comment and share.
Very interesting. Okay. So looking at this as a larger kind of stepping back as the grid.
I love the use of images and I think they're very cinematic. He's posing an interesting question about the movies. I'm not quite sure what the purpose of this is except for to get your feedback on something.
So maybe there's a bigger play here that I don't understand. But I really like the imagery, the design. It works really well.
In slide nine, it feels a little bit off for me. because they're mostly photographs or paintings that are very lush and vivid and then we get to a muted washed out image with some kind of maybe sacred geometry or something's going on here or some kind of graphic. It feels a little bit off.
I like keeping it like inconsistent with one visual language here. So rich s so using rich saturated cinematic imagery really feels appropriate. Okay.
Here's number 10, Gerard Adams at Gerard Adams. How entrepreneurs optimize their energy. Say no more often.
Focus on what you put into your body. Rest, recover, and optimize stress. Not quite sure what optimized stress means, but so far I get it.
Spend time with people who uplift, empower, and support you. Have non-negotiable boundaries. Commit to mastering your routine and rituals.
So here we see the home stretch again. You see now you see the template being used here. You could just say summary or in summary.
Say no more often. Be mindful of what you eat. Rest, recover, and optimize stress.
Spend more time with people who empower you. Master your daily routine and rituals. Follow at Gerard Adams for more tips on entrepreneurship.
This is a really slick corporate photo. It's you and I think that's J. Shetty there.
So, you next to a celebrity. Just I don't know how you capture this, but really great lighting, good contrast. So far, this is the gold standard for head shots, everybody.
Now, I'm not sure you always want to use a celebrity next to you because you'll pale or kind of be in this person's shadow. So, I would have preferred it just to be you hanging out there with a beautiful smile. I like that.
The other thing I noticed is you only use nine slides. This is just for me. You have 10 slides.
Why not use all 10? Use them all. Figure out a creative way to add one more slide in there.
I don't think it's going to hurt you. But I want to point out something to everybody that's watching this. You notice how there are no kind of design flourishes here.
It's really super simple and minimal. Not a lot of point size changes. See how this is super super consistent up until the end.
There's a bulletointed list. And if you look at it from um stepping back, it's just a big bold onepoint size. How entrepreneurs optimize their energy.
You can see less is more. These things are much easier to consume. And once you get the hang of this, you can go in and add in some of your design flourishes when you're on your 20th carousel.
And then you start to own the look. But right now, it's more important to focus on the writing and the presentation of the information than pouring design sauce all over it. Ludvic Delmas, this is carousel number 11 at kickass_ux.
Five traits to become a successful UX designer. Five. Worried that you don't have what it takes.
If you identify with the following five traits, worry no longer. Okay, one quick note here. I think these are pretty much saying the same thing.
I'm not sure if you need to say this twice. So maybe you just find a way to say this once. Number one, empathy.
You put yourself in others shoes and care deeply about their experiences. Curiosity. You're a lifelong learner and can't stop asking why.
I want to take a moment right now to point out you're using prime marks and not apostrophes because they shouldn't be these like vertical lines. It's a little pet peeve of mine. Make sure you use proper apostrophes and quote marks.
Okay. Number three, communication. You talk clearly about your work and listen actively to feedback.
Okay. Collaboration. You're a team player who's open to hearing different perspectives.
So here you see they're using the proper apostrophe versus the primarks. See how they're kind of they look like a little bulge at the top and it's slanted downwards like that. Adaptability.
You roll with the punches and keep cool when things don't go according to plan. Back to the prime marks here. Okay.
Sounds like you. You're already on your way. Next up, grow your technical skills.
Give UX a try. Get started by checking link in the bio. Okay, little bit.
Good job. All right, a couple different things here. I noticed there's some very subtle things going on.
Let me go back here to the white slides here. I don't know if you can see this, but there's a slight rounded corner set inside the frame with a little cast shadow and a little highlighted edge. I think if you want to do something like this, this is cool.
I would just make sure it's a little bit more noticeable. So maybe bring this effect up like 10 15%. You don't have to hit people over the head over it, but you also don't want it to feel like it's a mistake or something that got cropped off.
Okay. Now, when I look at the grid and the breakdown here, I'm not quite sure why you did this, but in slides eight and nine, it has this yellow stuckco texture thing, and it's just throwing the vibe off because it was so clean. It was so nice and modern and simple.
Uh, this is where I think we can always kind of like get carried away with wanting to flex our muscles as designers, and I don't think it needs it. I think you're better off just staying with this really clean, minimal white palette and making your topography the hero. Uh, using this textured background also created other kinds of problems like introducing this muted bronzy color and it's just it doesn't have the same pop.
I'd work on that. Lastly, I'd work on your call to action slide here, which feels the most out of place. It doesn't have any of the decorative effects that you've added in terms of the border, the rounded corners, uh the image, your photograph yourself uh needs some work there.
Let's let's kind of up our headshot game. Okay? You can afford to hire a photographer to shoot one or two really good head shot, which you can use on all your social platforms.
So, I recommend doing that. Upgrade this ASAP. Okay.
Next up is James Saunders uh at jsdstudio.art. Carousel number 12. Why type matters?
Well, I'm very interested in this myself. Type is functional. Have you ever needed a sign to give you directions?
Yes. Type helps you to choose where to eat, what to drink, who to trust, and so on. Who would you trust to represent you?
A lawyer? Because it's A, B, or C? Well, obviously not A.
Most likely C. Fonts turn words into stories. Good use of the proper quote marks here and also using hanging punctuation.
I would expect nothing less from a post about typography. Type is evocative. Type triggers our imaginations, evokes our emotions, and prompts our memories.
Type speaks to you. What am I saying? What am I saying?
What am I saying? I don't know. I just made those voices up.
All right. So, why not listen? Thank you.
Please like if you found this useful. Okay, so this is kind of interesting. It kind of ends on a downer like so why not listen?
Type speaks to you. Type is evocative. Okay, so the problem with this one is the so so why not listen is a response to the to the line right before which is type speaks to you.
So why not listen? So it's not answering the first or the bigger kind of why type matters. It's nice to bookend your carousels by answering this question at the beginning.
So you want to be able to mirror why type matters at the end. So why you type matters? You should answer that in slide nine instead of saying so why not listen.
So there's a call and a response and the response should be in slide nine. Thank you. Please like if you found this useful.
I like this. Um I think this is one of those ones that's kind of weird. If you step back and you look at this, there's a lot of design stuff going on in this.
And for a post about typography and why type matters, I think you have to kind of put a little bit more refinement or finesse into the design of this. So, it feels like you're an authority on design yourself. It does feel a little nutso with all the different type faces and or or fonts here and using different point sizes.
I also think your last slide call to action. This should be beautiful. This layout should just sing and right now it needs some love, some design love here.
Okay. Okay. Last but not least, this one is Christine Leon.
This one's coming from Christine Leon at Christine Leon Design. Communicating with clients like a pro, even as a new designer. Okay, we need some some help on the hook here.
Love for use fewer words and make the results much clearer. So, you want to teach me to communicate like a pro. Even if you're just starting out, something, you know, we need to tighten this up.
So, this Let's see here. Christine, you definitely benefit from writing 10 headlines of the same idea and trying to get the words out to see what else you come up with. Okay.
Oh, interesting. Different point uh different type face here. So, communicating this is uh I think Futura condensed.
Switching over to something else. Um maybe this is Aanir. I'm not sure.
Uh, working with my first design client started off easy and pleasant until it wasn't. So, somebody's jumping through hoops. I think I found myself relying on skills and experience I gained from my former teaching days, which sometimes involved tough conversations to resolve issues.
When communicating with clients, think like a teacher. Be firm, fair, and friendly. Be clear with expectations.
Address issues promptly and with tact. Clear is kind. Unclear is unkind.
From Bnee Brown. How have you handled tough conversations? Share in the comments.
Okay, this one has a lot going on here. So, I want to address that in a second. Okay, let's take a look at the grid.
You can see that there's some color gradients here and it's not quite nailed here. So, you can see from slides two to three, you can see that edge, that line right there. And you want to make sure you pick the exact same color from the previous slide so it smoothly transitions from one slide to the next.
That's just a technical issue. Let's get through that. I personally prefer the type face that you're using in the body of your carousel.
Less so the headline. I don't think you need to switch the type faces because I think this looks really good. This looks a little clumsy and crazy.
Right. So, we're using three different point sizes. We're using two colors and it's it's a lot that's going on here.
And here's the thing. I think the big idea isn't really communing uh communicating with clients like a pro. It's what teaching taught you about communication or how you can learn from talking to clients like like a teacher or something like that.
I think you need to work on that because the summary, the big idea needs to be set up by your hook. So when communicating with clients, think like a teacher. And I like this bullet bulleted point list, which is be firm, fair.
So we got some problems here in terms of like legibility and contrast. Having a white type face against a very light background makes it really, really hard to read. I'm a little thrown off by the sailboat.
I'm not quite sure why it's inserted in here. It's not set up anywhere else. I don't think it thematically ties anything and it just thrown in there.
Uh, so this is where we want to make sure the marriage or union of image and words really work well together. Okay, I love this quote. Clear is kind, unclear is unkind.
And then having uh an additional call to action with the quote here is probably a lot for us to process. So maybe drop one of these ideas. Too too much going on in my opinion.
Okay. All right. You can see the edges, like I said, and how they're they're not really blending together with the colors.
Thanks for watching. I hope this gave you some ideas on what you could do better on your own content. If you'd like to learn more, check out my Instagram, Carousel Clinic, which I'll leave a link in the description below.
That's it for me. I'll see you in the future.
