Create a Hand-Lettering Social Media Poster

Step 1

It’s always good to have templates ready for your social media graphics because it cuts design time, makes your brand look consistent, united and this creates great brand awareness and recognition.

So first let’s start by setting up our artboards for each social media outlet.

Our first is an Instagram Post, dimensions 1080×1080 px.

Open Adobe Illustrator, Control + N to create a New Document:

Name: LGBT

Number of Artboards: 1

Width: 1080 px

Height: 1080 px

Units: Pixels

Step 2

Then let’s add two more artboards:

File → Document Setup → Edit Artboards.

Name first artboard ‘Instagram_Post‘.

Click & Drag the cursor, to create 2nd artboard, for Instagram Stories. Dimensions 1080 x 1920, Name artboard ‘Instagram_Stories_Cover‘.

Create 3rd artboard for a Facebook Event Cover Photo, with 1920×1080 px. Name the artboard ‘Facebook_Event_Cover_Photo‘.

And last artboard is the Facebook Profile Photo, with 320×320 px, Name the artboard ‘Facebook_Profile_Photo‘.

How to Set Up the Layers & Background Graphics

Step 1

Step 2

We begin by drawing rainbow striped background for our artboards. Rainbows are a common symbol for LGBT social movements.

Make sure you are on the ‘BACKGROUND’ layer.

Select the Rectangle Tool (M) and with black Stroke draw a 1123×188.3 px rectangle bar, over the top of artboard.

Alt + Shift + Drag as a shortcut to duplicate the form underneath.

Then Command + D to Transform Again, 5 times.

Then give the bars the following colors Fill respectively

• Red #FF0100
• Orange #FF9900
• Yellow #FFD700
• Green #9BCD00
• Light Blue #0095DB
• Purple #AF2B91

Step 3

Let’s create a swatch out of our rainbow creation.

Open Swatches panel (Window → Swatches). 

Select All (Command + A) to select all the rectangle bars and drag the selection onto the Swatches panel to create a New Pattern Swatch.

A ‘+’ sign will appear on the panel, and will automatically create the new swatch.

Once it’s created, Delete the rectangles, we no longer need them.

Step 4

With the Rainbow Fill selected, use the Rectangle Tool (M) to draw rectangles fitting the artboard edges. (Smart Guides will help snap to point)

For the small Facebook_Profile_Photo artboard, just Fill with a Dark Blue #26175c.

Next, remove the Fill. Apply a white 15 pt, Stroke and use the Rectangle Tool (M) to draw a white border box outlines inside each artboard:

Instagram_Post: 976×976 px

Instagram_Stories_Cover: 910×1764 px

Facebook_Event_Cover_Photo: 1770×928 px

Step 5

Now let’s manipulate our rainbow fills.

Select the first Instagram_Post rectangle.

Grab the Rotate Tool (R), click Enter key open the Rotate Option dialog box.
Select Transform Patterns, and set Angle -45°.

Object → Transform → Scale. Select Transform Patterns. Scale: Uniform: 140%

Select the 2nd artboard Instagram_Stories_Cover, Repeat (pt 2)  -45° rotation, and Transform Patterns (pt 3). Scale: Uniform: 161%

Select the 3rd artboard Facebook_Event_Cover_Photo, Repeat (pt 2) -45° rotation, and Transform Patterns (pt 3). Scale: Uniform: 171%

Some patterns might need a slight alignment.

Go ahead and select the ones you want to adjust, hold down the Grave Accent (´) key, and drag around to align neatly.

How to Create Simple & Fun Hand-lettering

Step 1

So now that we have our background ready, let’s add in the quote, “BE PROUD to Love”, to our posts.

Lock the ‘BACKGROUND’ layer, and move onto the ‘LETTERING’ layer, and onto the Instagram_Post artboard.

Let’s create some guidelines so we can lay out our text.

Step 3

Let’s add some additional graphics around our lettering.

Take the Pen Tool (P), with white Fill, and draw 3 upside down tear drops over the ‘BE‘.

Then around the ‘love‘ draw in some bubble bursts around, as shown below.

And for the last effects let’s select the Star Tool, tap once on the artboard to open the Star dialog box. Set Points: to 4, and draw a few stars around, using a white Fill or a Pale Yellow #ffe48d.

Step 4

Select All (Command-A) , then Group (Command-G). Scale down, holding the Shift+Alt keys to constrain proportions.

Alt + Shift + Drag the selection, to the ‘Instagram_Stories_Cover‘ artboard and scale up holding the Shift+Alt keys to constrain proportions.

Alt + Shift + Drag the selection, to ‘Facebook_Event _Cover_Photo‘ artboard.

Step 5

Now let’s add our ‘Hashtag‘ elements.

Select the Rectangle Tool (M), with Dark Blue Fill of #26175c.

On the ‘Instagram_Post‘: Draw a 462 x 88 px rectangle below the lettering, center aligned.

On the ‘Instagram_Stories_Cover’:  Draw a 498 x 169 px rectangle below the lettering, center aligned.

Step 6

Now let’s add in our hashtag #PROUDTOLOVE.

You can use any sans serif font, I chose Bebas Neue.

Open the Character panel (Window → Type → Character) and Paragraph panel (Window > Type > Paragraph).

Let’s start with the ‘Instagram_Post‘ artboard, and on top of the blue box.

Select the Type Tool, in White Fill, and type in #PROUDTOLOVE, using the following settings:

Font: Bebas Neue

Font Style: Regular

Font Size: 83.42 pt

Leading: 71.3 pt

Tracking: 250

Center Aligned from Paragraph panel

Step 7

Moving on to the ‘Instagram_Stories_Cover’ and on top of the blue box.

Select the Type Tool, in white Fill, and type in SWIPE UP, using the following settings:

• Font: Bebas Neue
• Font Style: Regular
•  Font Size: 53pt
• Leading: 129.76 pt
• Tracking: 250
• Center Aligned from Paragraph panel

Step 8

And last, we move onto the small artboard ‘Facebook_Profile_Photo‘.

Take the Type Tool, in white Fill, and type in #PROUDTOLOVE, using the following settings:

 Font: Bebas Neue

 Font Style: Regular

Font Size: 100.49  pt

Leading: 85.75 pt

 Tracking: 50

Center Aligned from Paragraph panel

Great Job!

Now you can export your artwork and upload your posts!

I hope this tutorial was helpful and fun to follow through.

Feel free to share your hand-lettered designs in the comments section below, and if you have any issues or questions, let me know.

See you next time!