To succeed on Instagram—a visual-first platform—the look and feel of your content has to resonate with your audience’s taste. Otherwise, eyeballs will gloss right over each of your Instagram posts.
In the past, a polished aesthetic was the winning look, but today’s users are forcing a change. Now audiences expect variety and authenticity.
Read on to learn how to cultivate a cohesive Instagram aesthetic that will capture your audience’s attention in 2026.
What is an Instagram aesthetic?
An Instagram aesthetic is the overall mood and visual style an Instagram profile evokes. Developing a clear aesthetic for your account calls for cohesion and the use of visual themes and accents that consistently showcase your brand’s personality and point of view.
Your aesthetic goes beyond your grid. It also includes the look of your Reels, Stories, and Instagram ads, which users should connect back to your brand immediately.
Examples of Instagram aesthetics
Two brands that do great jobs of conveying their aesthetics through Instagram are Liquid Death and Heyday Canning Co. Here’s how they do it:
Liquid Death
Through bright colors and candid reels, canned water and nonalcoholic beverage company Liquid Death embraced the bold and unserious aesthetic that was recently popular on Instagram.
“The most fun brands in the world also happen to be the ones that are maybe the worst for you, right? Beer and energy drinks and candies and chips,” says Andy Pearson, VP of creative at Liquid Death, on an episode of Shopify Masters.
“These are always the brands that, when you look at the Super Bowl, have the most fun, crazy ads, right? And so we just sort of said, ’Hey, what if we took that energy but just pointed it toward something that was better for you?’ And that’s really what Liquid Death is all about.”
On Liquid Death’s Instagram feed, this exciting, edgy aesthetic—an extension of its packaging design—manifests through punk rock-inspired imagery, comedic content that doesn’t take itself seriously, and visual assets that don’t feel overly curated.
Heyday Canning Co.
You might not expect a canned food company to even have an Instagram presence—and if it did, that it would be straightforward and practical. However, canned bean brand Heyday Canning Co. is leading a shift away from the impersonal feeling of industrial canned foods.
“We wanted the brand to feel very personable and relaxed and not like this cold corporate vibe that you might get from some other canned foods,” Heyday Canning Co. co-founder Kat Kavner says on an episode of Shopify Masters. “We really wanted Heyday to feel warm and personable and just like a friend that knows a lot about food.”
To communicate that approach through its Instagram profile, Heyday incorporates colorful behind-the-scenes shots and clips of its products in use. This informal and authentic media contributes to an Instagram aesthetic that feels comforting, like home.
How to create a cohesive Instagram aesthetic
- Revisit your brand guidelines
- Define your target audiences
- Define your Instagram brand personality
- Choose colors for your Instagram posts
- Choose photo styles
- Create a mood board for your Instagram content
- Create an Instagram style guide
- Plan your grid
- Apply your aesthetic broadly
Whether you want to refresh your existing Instagram presence or start fresh with your Instagram marketing strategy for a brand-new venture, here’s how to build an Instagram aesthetic:
1. Revisit your brand guidelines
Your Instagram aesthetic is an extension of your brand identity. Successful Instagram aesthetics foster cohesion between Instagram content and the rest of their marketing materials.
Start by revisiting your brand guidelines, including your visual style guide, brand voice and tone documents, core values, and mission statements. Identify keywords, images, and values. You’ll use this information later to set parameters for your Instagram aesthetic.
2. Define your target audiences
Next, identify your target audiences. Instagram’s in-platform analytics tools can provide insights into your current follower demographics.
Understanding your followers can help you tailor your content and aesthetic to their desires. For example, if your audience is primarily Gen Z consumers, consider using the bright, vivid colors that typify Instagram posts for this age group. Aligning your Instagram aesthetic with your audience will help Instagram users relate to your brand.
Starface is a great example of a brand that uses bright colors in its Instagram feed to appeal to Gen Z. “We pride ourselves on really being part of that cultural conversation, especially for our core demographic: the Gen Z audience,” Starface president Kara Brothers says on an episode of Shopify Masters. “We have this marquee character, Big Yellow, who is just the cutest thing in the world,” Kara says. Big Yellow appears frequently in Starface’s Instagram feed.
3. Define your Instagram brand personality
Use your target audience insights to define your Instagram brand personality. Your brand personality is the shorthand for how you market your company’s human characteristics.
While your core brand personality doesn’t change, you can tailor how you communicate it to different marketing channels. Identify what your followers want on Instagram—like informal content, comedic videos, and trending sounds—and consider how that looks for your brand.
As Set Active founder Lindsey Carter explains on an episode of Shopify Masters, “You have to understand your brand identity first and foremost, and make sure that comes through in all of the different social media channels. But each one can almost have a different personality. I think of it as like a family, like you have your sister, which could be your email marketing, and then you have maybe your cool younger cousin, which is like Instagram.”
4. Choose colors for your Instagram posts
You don’t have to display your whole color palette in every post, but incorporating brand colors will connect your company and your Instagram feed. Consider focusing on a single color for a series of Instagram posts, or introducing new content by transitioning from one color to another.
When Kylie Cosmetics rolled out its new Mango Lip Butter, it gradually changed the colors of its Instagram feed from pink to orange to reflect the product’s warm, peachy hues. This shift built suspense, introducing followers to the lip butter through a shift in post colors, while still aligning with the brand’s core Instagram personality.
5. Choose photo styles
Your photography style can go a long way toward establishing an aesthetic Instagram. For Set Active’s collegiate-themed collection, The Playbook, the activewear brand flooded its Instagram grid with images taken indoors using flash. The use of camera flash evokes the feeling of being at a party, which matches the mood of the collection.
Clothing company Sea, New York designs lacy, vintage-inspired clothing. To communicate the brand’s inherent sense of romanticism, it sticks to dark, moody tones and wistful scenes throughout its Instagram photography. You’ll notice common themes like muted lighting, models with emotional facial expressions, and blue-gray backdrops.
6. Create a mood board for your Instagram content
A mood board is a visual brainstorming tool that can help you define your “vibe” or aesthetic. Creating one involves a few steps:
- Select example images. Pick images that complement your brand colors, inspire you, and reflect your brand. Use images from your asset library, a search engine, a stock image library, or even magazine spreads, inspiring trees, or your morning toast and jam. This phase is all about finding visuals that speak to you (even if you don’t yet know why they feel right).
- Compile them alongside your color swatches. Use a digital mood board tool to take a step back and assess the board’s overall aesthetic. You might find that many of your inspirational images have a similar feel. Remove outliers and confirm that the overall feel aligns with your company’s personality.
- Identify the aesthetic group that feels right. If your mood board doesn’t feel cohesive, don’t panic. Just group your images by overall feeling and select the aesthetic grouping that best reflects your brand.
Once you’ve compiled a mood board, use it to inspire your Instagram posts. Look for common features between the images in your mood board, then try to replicate them.
7. Create an Instagram style guide
Write a style guide outlining the do’s and don’ts for your Instagram posts. Note your colors, fonts, photo styles, filter choices, and voice and tone parameters. Use your finalized mood board as a visual complement to the written guide.
Your style guide can also identify the Instagram post types you plan to use, specify posting frequency, offer post ideas, and link to pre-built templates. For example, if you incorporate text Instagram posts (i.e., graphics containing text), you might specify that one-third of your content will use this post type and include two text-post templates.
8. Plan your grid
Aesthetic Instagram accounts use post-sequencing to create a pleasing profile layout. When a user visits a personal or business Instagram profile, the platform displays a scrollable gallery of recent cover photos known as “the grid.” Grids are three photos wide and don’t include text.
To create an aesthetic grid, you might alternate between a graphic and a photo for every other post or choose graphics with minimalist backgrounds to reduce visual noise. You can also use a social media management tool with a grid-planning feature to test layouts before publishing.
9. Apply your aesthetic broadly
An aesthetic Instagram doesn’t stop with your feed. Update your profile picture and Instagram bio to reflect your new brand. If you post Instagram Stories, make sure these are also consistent with your overall aesthetic.
Instagram aesthetic FAQ
How do you curate content for your aesthetic Instagram feed?
These tips can help you curate your brand’s content:
- Create a mood board.
- Create a three- to five-color Instagram palette.
- Use your color palette to select photos.
- Design custom post templates.
How does lighting affect the aesthetic of Instagram photos?
Lighting can affect the mood, saturation, and color temperature of an Instagram photo. Dim lighting or shadows can create drama, while warm lighting cultivates an energetic, uplifting feel. Cool lighting can be either calming or gloomy, depending on the photo subject and editing style.
Can you create an aesthetic Instagram without a specific color palette?
Yes. Some brands use limited color palettes to establish a consistent theme, but there are other ways to convey an aesthetic, such as your photography style.
Should you use the same filter for every photo to maintain an aesthetic Instagram?
Yes. Using the same filter on all of your Instagram photos is a great way to create a cohesive look without spending a lot of time editing photos.
