How to Create Reels (Interior Designer Edition) | Lauren Ashley Design | Graphic Design for Interior Designers
July 13, 2021
Hello All! Exciting developments are happening in the world of social media. If you have been following me in my personal life on Instagram or Facebook you know that I have always been a huge advocate that if you are an interior designer you need to be on social media. Making social media a priority in your business can help you reach clients that you alone cannot reach.
Check out our blog on how to start your own online business!
Instagram has recently made the announcement that they will primarily be focusing on video instead of photos or still imagery (like previously). See below video from Adam Mosseri, director of Instagram, for more information.
“People go to Instagram to entertain themselves, there is tough competition and there are things to do,” .. “We have to accept that, and that means change .”
— Adam Mosseri
What do these changes mean for interior designers?
As an interior designer most, if not all of our content is a photo. If you have been using Instagram for many years you probably have been posting gorgeous imagery of your finished work and giving your client a hint of what they can accomplish with your help. I took a poll on my Instagram stories and many of you were concerned about how you can share your photography on a reel. We will go into the how in a little bit first let’s talk about the concerns.
I don’t want to show my face –
Fun fact most of my reels DON’T show my face!! Yes, it is true. You don’t have to show your face to get huge results from your reels. My most popular reel is one of me introducing myself via voice and slides about what I do. I didn’t have to do any dancing or pointing to bubbles just me talking to a Canva Template.
It takes too much time –
I hear this a lot. In this reel I had my followers guess how long this reel took me to create excluding rendering time. Many of them said 4hrs+!! The reel took me less than an hour! Reels can be as simple or easy as you want them to be.
To be honest, usually, the simpler ones do the best!
Sometimes you’ll put so much time into one and it doesn’t get any views. There are two keys to saving you time when making reels :
- Use the tools available to you as a designer
- Batch Create!
Let’s go over each!
Use the tools available to you as a designer
Look out for another blog post going into all the apps I use but the two you need to become really familiar with is :
Instagram – Yes Instagram has tons of editing capabilities free at your disposal! Play around with them and see which filters, effects, type you like best!
Canva – Canva is the app I use all the time to create my videos. You can customize the templates they already have or make templates of your own (I do both and I have a graphic design degree, I’m not ashamed!) Many of you are familiar with this platform but if you do not, reach out to me! I offer 1:1 Training on Canva I’ll be happy to show you how to create reels from scratch.
For those of you that want a quick drag and drop solution, I created this simple tutorial on how you can use Canvas templates or the templates I sell at my store to create reels! To use the ones from my store, select the Pinterest templates and then animate them! Easy Peasy!
What do I show? All my designs are photographed or rendered?
As an interior designer, most likely you have tons of projects that are photographed….but no videos of the project. This is where the question lies what do I do with my photos??? There are two apps I use to make my photos or renderings animated into a video. Canva and Inshot
Canva
As many of you can tell Canva is my favorite one-step tool for just about everything! What is amazing about Canva is they have these Reel templates that allow you to drag and drop your images into the page. Add multiple frames to create a gif like Reel, like the one I created :
or you can even create one using their templates and place your photos! See the video above on how I did that. I’m going to be coming out with my own reel templates soon for those of you that follow my interior design template shop 🙂
Inshot
Inshot is a video editor from your phone. Previously to create a video using photos you would have to use a professional editor which as interior designers many of us do not have access to, inshot fixes that! Use inshot to create fun transitions, fast pace photo slides, and more! See the reel below I created from inshot :
Where do I even start?
That is a great question!! You’ve probably read all this great information and wondered where do I start??!! Here is how provided by Instagram
Select Reels at the bottom of the Instagram camera. You’ll see a variety of creative editing tools on the left side of your screen to help create your reel, including:
- Audio: Search for a song from the Instagram music library. You can also use your own original audio by simply recording a reel with it. When you share a reel with original audio, your audio will be attributed to you, and if you have a public account, people can create reels with your audio by selecting “Use Audio” from your reel.
- AR Effects: Select one of the many effects in our effect gallery, created both by Instagram and creators all over the world, to record multiple clips with different effects.
- Timer and Countdown: Set the timer to record any of your clips hands-free. Once you press record, you’ll see a 3-2-1 countdown, before recording begins for the amount of time you selected.
- Align: Line up objects from your previous clip before recording your next to help create seamless transitions for moments like outfit changes or adding new friends into your reel.
- Speed: Choose to speed up or slow down part of the video or audio you selected. This can help you stay on a beat or make slow motion videos.
We covered a lot in this post! We haven’t even touched the surface of what all you can do with reels! Be on the lookout for more posts to come! I’ll be updating this blog post as well with linkbacks to the new post!
Let me know in the comments if you have any specific questions about reels, canva, or Instagram in general!
About Me
Lauren started her career as an e-designer in college. She transitioned her company into a DVA services business, assisting other designers, architects, and contractors quickly growing a strong clientele. Her heart’s passion is rendering but what makes her DVA business different is marketing strategies. Lauren truly believes in the power of marketing your business as a DVA or interior designer is the way to success.
Over recent years, Lauren has become proficient in graphic design tools like Canva and Photoshop and she is ready to share what she has learned with you! She uses these tools daily in her life as a DVA, with her design clients and her personal projects. Helping you build a professional visual presentation to stand apart from the rest is what she lives for.
Lauren holds a Bachelors’s Degree in Interior Design, a Master’s Degree in Visual Communication Design, and beginning her Ph.D. in Strategic Media this summer. With over 5 years under her belt in the E-design industry, she knows what it takes for your graphics and designs to catch the eye of your ideal client. Contact her today for questions or 1:1 training
Add a comment
Comments Off on How to Create Reels (Interior Designer Edition) | Lauren Ashley Design | Graphic Design for Interior Designers