ou want your social media wall or hub to look amazing.
We want to make creating beautiful walls easy, so we’ve prepared a handy little guide for you.
This article aims to teach you how you can make the best of our Wallery app. If you find yourself wanting something different – something special – remember you can always contact us via this form, or by reaching out to us by email at [email protected]. Share your crazy ideas with us and together we will make them happen!
Preparing your logo
Wallery enables you to display your logo in the header of your walls or hubs. Your social media walls will be seen by hundreds and thousands of eyes, which makes this a valuable marketing opportunity, so it is important that you make the most of it.
Optimum logo size
The default size for Wallery header images is 96 pixels in height.
Whether your logo is bigger or smaller, when you choose to upload it into the header it will be scaled to this height, so prepare your file at 96 px in height.
Better yet, upload your logo in double this height (192px), and Wallery will scale it down by 50%. This logo will now appear more crisp and better-looking on most screens, especially retina or other high fidelity desktop screens or mobile devices!
Logo background
Pay special attention to the background of your logo. If you’ve made the header of your hub transparent, it will look strange if your logo is sitting on a white background. Uploading a .PNG file with a transparent background will solve this problem.
However, if you’re using a photo or tiled background, a logo with transparent background might lose its legibility and panache.
Pro tip: Wallery supports .GIFs!
The UX Passion team has uploaded their heart-shaped logo to their wall in a .GIF format in order to give it that little extra something. We think their wall looks wonderful!
displaying mission statements
If you have a special sentence or a claim (maybe it’s part of your branding) that you wish to display in the header of your hub, remember that not all fonts are available, so it would be best to upload it as an image (for instance .PNG with transparent background).
If you decide to do this, remember what we’ve mentioned above and double the size of your image in order to get a crisp, sharp image in the header.
Check your brand book
When choosing background colors or images for your header, or body, remember to check your brand book and see if there is anything already set by your design team.
Also, keep in mind that backgrounds should be in contrast with the content on the wall (our content cards) to achieve the best readability.
Pro tip: When scaling down images in the header, it’s important that you remember not only filled (visible) pixels will be scaled down, but also their transparent surroundings.
So, if you want your logo at 96px height, please crop your logo without borders/margins in the logo file.
Wallery and typography
Currently supported fonts
All paid Wallery users can choose between a couple of fonts when designing their walls*. These are:
- Open Sans
- Roboto Slab
- Merriweather
*More fonts will be implemented soon, so keep an eye out!
Using your own font in the header
If you would like to use any unsupported typography, you’ll have to upload it as an image. Mind the image width and height and remember that all images will be scaled to fit the height of the header.
Typeface color
For best effect, set your type in clear and contrasting color over the background.
Typeface size
Size is important for readability, but be careful your typeface doesn’t overshadow your brand or social media content displayed on the wall.
Choosing the best image or pattern for your hub background
Choosing the right background
Your social media content will be displayed on top of this background, so choose an image or pattern that won’t badly affect the readability of this content.
Plan ahead
Keep in mind that social content is displayed in white rectangles which float over the background, but also that images that are part of these boxes could extend to the very edge of the containers, so it could clash with a badly chosen background.
Patterns are fun, but…
Very busy patterns may distract your users from reading the content of social media posts displayed on the wall.
Can you really use that image?
Be very careful with downloading images from the internet. Not all images are allowed to be used without explicit permission from their owners, or for free.
Pro tip: You can’t prepare perfectly for every occasion; meaning not ALL images published by Twitterers and Instagramers will fit your color scheme as you had planned or envisioned it.
That’s okay, though! The beauty of social media lays in its genuine and flexible nature.
Colors
Of course, the colors you will use for your wall or hub will depend on your brand, your message, your audience, the venue design, etc. It may be serious, cheerful, colorful or in fifty shades of grey.
In any way, the colors you use should always augment your content and never obstruct it.
Keep them in good contrast, but not too much (for instance bright red/green). If you’re not sure about color combinations, don’t hesitate to ask your designer or favorite search engine.
Hashtags!
It is essential that you display your hashtag or hashtags on your social media wall. They are a doorway to your wall, after all.
If social media users aren’t sure how to contribute, they’ll get annoyed, and your wall, brand, or event will end up being ignored.
Show us your masterpiece!
Now that you know all there is to know about creating a social media wall in our Wallery Designer, it’s time you put the knowledge we shared with you to the test.
Have fun designing your walls and feel free to tweet us photos or screenshots of your walls at @WalleryAppHQ. We’d love to see your creations!
