视频是德ing Over Social Media—Here’s How Designers Are Adapting

When Instagram launched Reels, its TikTok competitor, in August 2020, the reaction was, well, mixed. (“What a dud,”saidThe New York Times,chiding the social media platform’s attempt, and failure, to replicate the addictive thrill of its rival.) Since then, the video sharing service has struggled. In September of this year, an internal document of its parent company Meta found its waytoTheWall Street Journal,and the news was grim:Instagramusers are spending about a tenth of the amount of time on the feature than TikTok users are, and engagement is only falling.

Reels might not (yet) be great for Meta’s business, but, nevertheless, video is quickly becoming a necessary part of a designer’s portfolio. Instagram’s parent company is nudging users towards it, touting slowly rising engagement numbers, and a philosophy founded uponAI curation of content feedswhich privilege video. And as of this writing, TikTok is raking in more than a billion monthly users. For designers accustomed to working with still images, adding another social media platform (and another associated workload) might feel daunting, especially when that requires a shift from capturing the perfect, manicured photograph to embodying the seeming spontaneity of video.

Reels offers a way to share all that work with Instagram audiences who haven’t yet jumped thumbsfirst into TikTok, and it offers a little brand reinforcement through exposure on multiple platforms. But even on its own, Reels can grow an audience at a time when designers need every eye available. And since Instagram is already in most designers’ social media portfolio, they can be a great place to get started with video.

“I started using Reels when Instagram first introduced the feature,” says AD100 Hall of Fame designerKelly Wearstler, who knows a thing or two about viral appeal. “It offers a way to share moments of inspiration with a full spectrum of information—music, light, and depth—as opposed to a still image.”

Victoria Sass ofProspect Refuge Studiois also an IG OG. The designer says she and her team have been on the platform “since the dawn of time,” but spent the last year creating dedicated content just for Reels. “Our grid has evolved from being a sharing moment into a portfolio extension,” she says. “And to be honest, it’s a couple years old, because by the time we finish a project, photograph it, pitch it, publish it, and post it, it could be years.” Video content, including Reels, is more in the moment, she says. “It’s more of what we’re working on today, what we’re interested in right now. A person might like what they see on the grid, then want to see what we’re playing with in the studio, and [video] allows us to present that more complex voice.”

LES Collection’s Lauren Sands has similarly harnessed complexity to build an account from zero followers to some 40,000 in two years. A trained painter and design maven, Sands began making Instagram video content as an educational resource for her followers. “I was eight months pregnant when the pandemic hit, and I just needed some relief,” she says. “I was passionate about talking about the artists I collect, and I started doing these art history stories. They were this combination of content and text about art, design, and architecture.” Mood boards became a regular feature: “I would tag any account I’d pulled inspiration from, and talk about why I liked it. I think that had a lot to do with the success, because those accounts liked the way I shared their content, and then they reshared it, too.”

Sands’s posts emphasize accessibility over expertise. “We try to talk to our audience in a really respectful way and break information down into digestible bits: These are the designers you should know, these are the terms you should know,” she says. “Even designers who follow us have great eyes and taste but might not know every single艺术装饰风格designer from the 1920s.” And those that do might be looking to source their work. Luckily for them, Sands also postsvintage treasuresavailable through her LES Collection website, along with work by contemporary artists and designers.

That kind of synergy only works when it feels natural and unforced, designers caution. “If I’m genuinely not excited to talk about something, like mainstream trends,” Sass says, “we don’t really do it. Just because I find it exhausting.” Fittingly for a social media platform, she finds the most exciting posts are also the most social. “Reaching out to the community, going to visit someone we genuinely admire, or a place we like to go—those do double duty, because it brings me a lot of creative energy,” she says, in addition to making content. “Authenticity” is an icky word, she adds. “We just try to do the things we genuinely like and hope it’ll resonate.”

Reels may not be a blockbuster yet, but “they’re useful,” Wearstler says, “because it’s a different way to communicate through a platform that is so ingrained in our daily lives. I post things to Reels that I want to live permanently on my feed. That way people can go back and reference them.” Use them as a way to capture those fleeting moments of inspiration that create connections—as proof those moments exist.