How to use vector illustrations to create eye catching Pinterest graphics
Are you active on Pinterest? Do you create Pinterest graphics to promote your blog? If you are a seasoned Pinterest user then you know that the best Pinterest format is vertical, long and preferably eye catching. Getting lots of repins depends greatly on the quality of your graphic and the information it provides. TIP: Infographics also make great Pins!
Stock Photography and personal photos are very common backgrounds for Pins, I mentioned in this article about how one photo can be edited many ways to make a great graphic. A less common approach to creating Pins, is to use Vector Illustrations. If used properly, vector illustrations can help create memorable Pins that will get you lots of repins.
Seamless Vector Illustration Pattern
Let’s use this Vector Illustration as an example. It’s a Baking inspired illustration set that can be used as a background or separating the to create different designs. This particular background is seamless, meaning that it can be tiled to make a wallpaper style background. Seamless vector patterns are really versatile because they give you more creative options.
First think you need to do is create the Pinterest sized canvas for designing your new vector illustration Pin. A great size to work with is 715 x 1500. You can create these PIns in your editing program of your choice, but you will need a vector editing program like Illustrator or Inkscape to separate the elements and to create the tiled effect. For finalizing the Pins it’s up to you where you build them, in your same vector program or in a raster program like Photoshop or even on Canva.
Branding Tip:
When finalizing your Pinterest graphics don’t forget to include these things
- The Title of the Blog Post or Promotion
- Your logo
- Your domain, or Business name
Using the background as is
The easiest and fastest way to make a Pin with your seamless vector background is to simply place into the 715 x 1500 canvas and move it around until you like the way it looks. Add an overlay or shape and then insert your title! You can play around with shapes, colors and transparencies of the shapes or overlays to get the mood you want.
Here are two ideas of how to use the vector background at its original size and made to fit in the canvas. I used a circle overlay in one and a double rectangle in the other.
Tiling The Background
Seamless patterns are designed in a way that it can be tiled to make a wallpaper background. This is especially handy if you design t-shirts, bags or notebooks. It also comes in handy when designing your Pinterest images! To be able to tile the vector background into a wallpaper style design you need to either do it by hand (and a very sharp eye) in your usual editor or use the clone tile function in your vector editing program.
After you have the tiled background to the proportions you like you can do just as you did before and use an overlay shape to place the title, or you can remove (or erase) some elements to create an empty area to add the text to.
Separating the vector elements to create other designs
Vector illustrations, be they seamless or just a collection of elements, can be separated easily in your vector editing program. This particular bakery background has so many interesting tidbits that you can make endless designs. Take one element and make it huge (it is vector after all!), create a collage of elements in any way you like, or even create a new pattern!
The Magic of Vectors
As you have seen, I have only shown you a couple different design ideas, but the possibilities are actually much broader. Vectors a like little pieces of magic, you can shrink them, blow them up, change it’s colors, change the shape to fit your space and brand, you can do anything with them!
The vector sets and seamless patterns that you can get on Freepik will give you endless amounts of creativity. How do you use vectors in your graphics, for Pinterest or otherwise?
