Behind the Feed: Kendall's 5 Tips for Content That's Actually Beautiful and On-Brand
As part of our ongoing series spotlighting the people behind Bellwether Concepts, we sat down with Kendall, whose eye for branding and intentional content shapes the visual identity of every account she touches. From building brand kits to writing captions people actually stop to read, Kendall walks us through the process behind the polish — and shares her five essential tips for content that feels both beautiful and true to a brand.
Thank you for joining us. Before we get into your process, our readers would love to get to know you. Can you share the backstory of how you developed your eye for branding and beautiful, intentional content?
I’ve always been creative. Writing, photography, sewing, painting, collaging, design—these are a handful of the hobbies I’ve enjoyed since childhood. I joined Instagram when it was in its infancy, and used it to share my artistic photography, gaining thousands of followers in the process. Though I deleted that account (and subsequently many others), I’ve been on the app in some shape or form ever since. And as someone who’s always had an eye for aesthetics and stayed informed about social trends, I’ve developed my own taste and honed my skills to create content that I love.
What did you study in school, and what first inspired you to get into branding and content creation?
In college, I majored in English and minored in History. While I’d fallen in love with writing in elementary school, it’s in my upper-level literature and creative writing classes that I developed my passion for storytelling. Post-grad, marketing felt like a natural progression of my interests, especially since I spent so much time following brands and their growth on Instagram. Every successful brand has a compelling story behind it; content creation is a vehicle through which we tell that story.
Is there an account, brand, or piece of content you've created that you're personally most proud of, and why?
I’m proud of all my accounts, and every week I create new content that I’m proud of. I hold myself to a high standard, and I’m (un)fortunately a perfectionist, so I’m not comfortable with putting out work that isn’t beautiful and scroll-stopping. The posts that I’m proudest of tend to be those that are most labor-intensive, which usually means I was intimately involved in every step of the process, from capturing the footage with my lens to triple-checking my work. Watching hours of hard work culminate into a notable piece of content—one that people stop to comment on and share—is incredibly gratifying.
Based on your experience, can you share "5 Tips You Need To Know To Create Content That's Actually Beautiful and On-Brand"? If you can, please share a story or example for each one.
Know your audience. Your audience informs everything about your online presence: how you write your posts, what sorts of topics you cover in your posts, which kinds of posts you prioritize; knowing who you’re marketing to and ensuring you appeal to them will keep your brand thematically consistent.
Maintain a distinct voice. Every time someone reads one of your posts, they should know it’s your brand based on the way it’s written. What’s your brand’s perspective? What would your brand sound like if it could talk? From social media posts to the website to newsletters, your brand should sound like an individual—not an amalgamation of random voices.
Make a brand kit. One of the most vital keys to maintaining beautiful content is a brand kit. This includes logo variations, colors, fonts, patterns, and graphics that can be used to create social posts. Not every aspect of the brand kit needs to be in every post, but at least one or two should be incorporated. Fonts and colors are the most important, because those are visual cues; followers will be able to see that it’s your content before seeing your account name on the post.
Strive for cohesion, not perfection. With the rise of AI-generated content, people crave authenticity. Maybe a picture or video you took doesn’t look perfect, or even as good as it could be if you used AI to improve it. But posting something made by you, a real human, is far more beautiful and more compelling than anything a robot could create. Your social media should feel curated and human, not perfect.
Be open to evolving. Trends are ever-evolving, and in order to stay relevant as a brand, you have to be able to evolve as well. Whether it’s overhauling your brand kit because the aesthetics are dated or creating reels even though static posts are your comfort zone, these changes are important because they show you’re aware of the online landscape. You don’t have to jump on every TikTok trend to be relevant, but it helps to know what’s going on so you can find a way to keep your content feeling fresh and timely.
Walk us through your full process, from sourcing an idea all the way to a finished piece of content live on socials. How do you know a good idea when you find one, and what does it take to actually execute it well?
A lot of my ideas simply stem from knowing a client well: knowing what topics their audience wants covered and what information needs to be conveyed. If I feel like I’m out of ideas, though, scrolling the Instagram explore page always inspires me. Tapping into creativity requires surrounding yourself with art, be it music, literature, photography, etc. If you’re always creating but never immersing yourself in others’ works, you’re limiting your brand’s perspective.
Once I have an idea, I usually make the post before writing the caption. Depending on the brand and the type of post, I’ll either use content I’ve gathered myself, or I’ll search for stock images and videos. My favorite platforms for royalty-free stock videos are Pexels, Canva, and My Vanilla Gallery; for royalty-free stock photos, I love Unsplash, Pexels, and Kaboompics. From there, I create the post. Canva and CapCut are my go-to editing softwares. I primarily edit videos and make reels in CapCut, and create carousels and graphics in Canva. If I have a photo I’ve taken that needs a good amount of editing, I use Adobe Lightroom. Then, once I have the post created, I write the caption, add some hashtags, and load into HeyOrca.
In my experience, a good idea is one that seamlessly blends your brand with a trend, whether that’s popular music, a topic, or a general format. What it takes to execute the concept well, however, isn’t copying others, but instead spinning the idea to make it entirely your own. The post has to stand up within your brand and feel like it belongs; if it feels like someone else’s content with your logo slapped on it, it’s not right. This is where important elements like colors, copy, fonts, music, etc. come into play.
What's your approach to writing captions that people actually stop and read, instead of scrolling past?
Captions need to be skimmable and easy to absorb. While you may want to convey an entire novel of information in a post, you need to boil it down to the CliffsNotes; most people don’t have the time or attention span to read an entire wall of text on every social post they see. In fact, a lot of people don’t even read captions, but instead focus on the graphics.
My first instinct is to always make a beautiful, intriguing visual, be it a reel, carousel, or photo. Because if I can’t get someone to stop and look at my post, they certainly won’t read the caption. From there, I convey new information in the caption. Regurgitating what the post itself says is a waste of space, so I take the post a step further, and convey why this is relevant to them and why they should care. Including an emoji or two never hurts, and adding a brief engagement prompt at the end of the caption also encourages people to interact.
What's one piece of advice you'd give someone who wants their account to look more professional and intentional, but doesn't know where to start?
Something is better than nothing. It takes time to develop your brand’s voice; it takes time to decide what you want your aesthetic to be; it takes time to create the feed you’ve always dreamed of. But perfection is impossible and you have to start somewhere. You can always rebrand in the future or delete old posts or shift your voice, but you can’t get back lost time. Put your brand out there and stick with it.