How to Make an Aesthetic Instagram Story

Creating an Instagram Story that stops people in their tracks is about more than just snapping a picture and hitting “share.” It’s about building a visual vibe that feels intentional, cohesive, and unique to you. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know to make your Instagram Stories truly aesthetic, from picking your core design elements to using apps and hidden tricks to make them stand out.

First, Define Your Brand Aesthetic

Before you even open the Story camera, the first step is to get clear on your unique visual identity. An "aesthetic" isn't about chasing trends, it's about consistency. A cohesive look makes your content instantly recognizable and helps build a stronger brand, whether you're a person, a creator, or a business. Think of it as your digital body language - it communicates a feeling before your audience reads a single word.

Choose Your Color Palette

Color is the foundation of your aesthetic. A consistent color palette builds visual recognition and sets the mood. You don't need a degree in color theory to get this right. Start by picking three to five core colors that reflect your brand’s personality.

• For a warm, earthy brand (e.g., wellness, coffee, nature): Think terracotta, olive green, cream, and beige.
• For a sleek, modern brand (e.g., tech, fashion, design): Work with black, white, and a single bold accent color like electric blue or cherry red.
• For a playful, creative brand (e.g., art, kids' products, events): You can lean into brighter pastels like soft pink, lavender, and mint green.

Once you have your colors, here’s how to apply them directly in your Stories:

• The Eyedropper Tool is your best friend. When you have a photo in your Story, open the draw tool and use the eyedropper icon (on the far left of the color options) to pull a color directly from your image. This ensures your text or doodles perfectly match your photo, creating a super polished look.
• Create "Brand Kit" slides. In a design app like Canva or even just a simple note, create an image with swatches of your brand's hex codes. Save this to your phone. When creating a Story, you can open this image, take a screenshot, and use the eyedropper tool on the screenshot to grab your exact colors every time.
• Save your go-to colors. When you select a color in the draw tool, just tap and hold it to add it to your saved swatches. This makes it incredibly easy to access your main palette without fussing with the color slider.

Select Your Go-To Fonts

Just like with colors, a little bit of consistency with fonts goes a long way. Having too many fonts in one Story (or across different Stories) can look messy and amateurish. A good rule of thumb is to stick with just two or three fonts and assign them specific roles.

A simple font system might look like this:

• Headline Font: This is for your big, attention-grabbing text. Instagram’s strong, bold fonts work great for this. You want something that's easy to read at a glance.
• Body Font: This is for longer sentences or additional context. Choose something clean and simple. The classic-style font is usually a great, readable option for more detailed text.
• Accent Font (Optional): If you want a third, use a scripted or more stylistic font very sparingly for emphasis - maybe for a signature, a small callout, or a single powerful word.

You can make Instagram's native fonts feel more custom and professional by using little tricks. For a more designed look, try adding extra spaces between letters in your headline words. Instead of "HELLO," type "H [space] [space] E [space] [space] L [space] [space] L [space] [space] O." It’s a small detail that elevates the entire design.

Level Up Your Story Design: The How-To

With your brand colors and fonts decided, it’s time to start putting your Stories together. These techniques will help you arrange your content in ways that look professional and thoughtfully designed.

The Building Blocks: Layout & Composition

Think of each Story frame as a miniature page in a magazine. Where you place things matters. A crowded Story is easily skipped, while a well-organized one feels more premium and holds attention longer.

• Embrace Whitespace. You don’t need to fill every single pixel of your screen. Leaving empty space (known as whitespace or negative space) around your photos and text makes them easier to digest and gives your design a clean, modern feel. Resist the urge to add one more GIF!
• Use the Grid. Instagram Stories have a built-in guiding grid. When you move an element like a sticker or text box, blue lines will appear to help you center it horizontally or vertically. Pay attention to these lines. A perfectly centered heading feels way more intentional than one that's slightly off-kilter.
• Create Your Own Templates. You can save a blank Story slide with just a few elements (like your logo in a corner or a colored border) to your camera roll. Use this image as the background for future Stories to maintain a consistent starting point.

Creative Text & Sticker Tricks

Instagram's native tools have some cool hidden features that can make your text and graphics pop.

• Text Shadow Effect: This simple trick adds depth to your text. Type out your word or phrase. Then, copy and paste it to create a second identical text box. Change the color of this duplicate text to a darker shade (usually black or a darker brand color) and place it slightly behind and to the side of your original text. Instant shadow!
• Gradient Text Effect: This one is a bit more advanced but looks amazing. Type your text. Then, tap to highlight the entire word or phrase. Now for the two-handed part: with one finger, press and hold the color purple on the far right of the color slider. With your other finger, press and hold the end-of-text cursor. Drag both fingers simultaneously from right to left across the color slider and the text. The letters will each change color, creating a beautiful gradient.
• Use the "Add from Camera Roll" Sticker: This sticker is a powerful layering tool. You can use it to add other photos on top of your Story background. For example, you can create a mood board by layering several images, add your logo as a watermark, or feature product cutouts on a branded background colored slide. Tap the sticker once it's placed to change its shape from a square to a circle, star, or heart.
• Find Aesthetic GIFs: The default GIPHY search results can feel a bit cheesy. The secret to finding good GIFs is using the right keywords. Instead of searching for "arrow" or "love," try these terms to find minimalist, artistic options:
  • "line art"
  • "boho"
  • "minimal"
  • "scribble" or "lines"
  • "tapeline" (for thin lines and photo frames)
  You can also search for specific artists known for their aesthetic GIFs, like "lidiaontheroad," "gladdest," "emmabylarson," and "hanmadeglory."

Using Design Apps to Go Beyond Instagram

When you want to take your aesthetic to the next level, third-party apps provide more control, prettier templates, and better video editing capabilities. Preparing your Story in an app before uploading usually results in a much more polished final product.

For Templates and Layouts

• Canva: The undisputed king of accessible design. Canva has thousands of beautiful, fully customizable Instagram Story templates. You can set up a "Brand Kit" with your specific logo, colors, and fonts, making it incredibly fast to create on-brand content. It's the perfect tool for creating promo graphics, announcements, and quote slides.
• Unfold: Famous for its clean, filmstrip-inspired minimalist designs. Unfold's templates are perfect for creating story sequences that look like a page from a high-end photography magazine. It's great for fashion, travel, and lifestyle content creators who love a clean and elegant vibe.
• Mojo: If you want to make your Stories move, Mojo is for you. It specializes in animated templates that bring your photos and text to life. You can add slick transitions, kinetic typography, and other dynamic effects that really capture attention - perfect for product reveals or event announcements.

For Advanced Photo and Video Editing

• InShot: This mobile video editor is a powerhouse. You can easily trim clips together, add background music and voiceovers, apply video filters, create text overlays, and format your video for the 9:16 Story dimension without a watermark. It’s perfect for making mini-vlogs or stylish Reels-style Story videos.
• Tezza: If you love the trendy, film-like influencer aesthetic, the Tezza app is your shortcut. It's packed with stunning photo and video filters that apply a cohesive vintage atmosphere to your content with a single tap. It's a great tool for achieving a very specific and popular style.
• Lightroom Mobile: For those who want complete creative control, Adobe Lightroom Mobile is the professional's choice. You can fine-tune every aspect of your photos - lighting, color, and texture. The best part is "presets." You can create your own unique preset (or buy one from a favorite creator) and apply it to all your photos, giving your entire Story feed an incredibly consistent and professional look.

Storytelling: The Heart of an Aesthetic Story

Ultimately, an aesthetic is just a wrapper. What truly makes a Story compelling is the narrative inside. Your beautifully designed slide needs to have a point. A strong aesthetic enhances your story, it doesn't replace it.

Create Story Sequences

Don't think in terms of one-off slides. Think in terms of short, compelling sequences of 3-5 slides. Each sequence should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. For instance, a "how-to" sequence could be:

1. Slide 1 (The Hook): A question posed in your headline font. Example: "Want my secret for the perfect morning coffee?"
2. Slides 2-4 (The Middle): Short video clips or photos showing each step of the process, using your body text font for brief instructions. Your brand colors are used for backgrounds or text overlays.
3. Slide 5 (The CTA): Ask a question with a poll or quiz sticker to drive engagement. Example: "Do you prefer your coffee hot or iced? Poll: HOT / COLD."

Structuring your Stories this way keeps people tapping through to see what happens next.

Plan and Batch Your Content

The key to maintaining a beautiful aesthetic without burning out is to plan ahead. Creating stunning, multi-slide Stories on the fly every single day is exhausting. Instead, set aside an hour or two once a week to batch-create them.

Sit down and brainstorm your Story topics for the week. Then, design all the graphics and templates in Canva, edit all your photos in Lightroom, and trim your video clips in InShot. Save everything to a folder on your phone. This way, each day you just need to grab your pre-made assets, upload them, add any timely interactive stickers, and hit post. This process makes consistency achievable and stress-free.

Final Thoughts

Creating an aesthetic Instagram Story is all about combining intentional design choices with compelling narratives. By defining your color palette and fonts, using layout principles, and mastering a few design tricks, you can create a consistent and recognizable brand presence. Remember, the goal is for your aesthetic to support your story, making your content not just beautiful, but also impactful.

Once you've batch-created your gorgeous Stories, the next step is making sure they go live on time, without you having to be on your phone constantly. At Postbase, we designed our platform with today's visual-first content in mind. Our visual calendar lets you drag and drop your content - whether it's Stories, Reels, or TikToks - to see your schedule at a glance, helping you maintain that hard-earned aesthetic without the posting-day scramble.