When I first thought about it, my personal experience with content was hard to define. After all, what is it? Content is more than just the posts that show up on your feed. Content is everywhere.
A definition I like comes from creator Content King: “Content is anything you create and share to inform, entertain, and engage your audience.” So, it’s basically anything you put out there for an audience. It’s pretty much everything you read online, every post you scroll through, the podcasts you listen to, or videos you watch. It’s all content.
The Content I Produce
I would consider myself a creator. I love to make things, whether it’s fun little crafts or carefully thought-out designs. Those are my favorite kinds of content to produce, but there’s really so much more.
The four main types of content are:
- Text
- Video
- Audio
- Images/Graphics
Personally, I dabble in three of those four areas: Text, Video, and Images/Graphics. As a graphic designer, the “Images/Graphics” category immediately stood out. But here, right now, I’m writing the blog post you’re reading. Earlier today I edited short-form content for social media. The only thing I really don’t do is create audio content. I’ve tried, though; it’s just not my favorite.
Images/Graphics
As a graphic designer, a hobby photographer, and someone who’s managed multiple social media accounts, I’ve created my fair share of image and graphic content. It’s kind of my thing, I dare say.
Most of my graphics content is displayed in my online portfolio. That’s where you’ll find most of my brand, print, and web design work. Apart from that, I’ve made a lot of graphics content on social media from the accounts I’ve worked on. There are Meet the Team posts, event information posts, and posts promoting my own work. Speaking of which, another piece of content I just launched is an icon set that’s available for sale on Gumroad (a little plug).
Text
As I mentioned, this blog post you’re reading, plus all the other ones on my page, is content. I’ve written my fair share of LinkedIn posts and social media captions; that’s content too. On my portfolio site, I have written case studies for each of my projects. That content describes the process behind my design work. It adds a whole new layer that the project on its own won’t provide you.
Video
My video content meshes pretty well with my graphic and social media work. As a social media manager, I’ve created many a reel for the accounts I manage. I do tend to stay away from short-form videos on my personal social accounts, though. I’ve made before-and-after content for hair salons, funny TikToks for my college’s comedy show, and event recap videos for my school’s student-run agency.
One type of video content I love the most is motion graphics. I love to animate in After Effects. I recently created an animated infographic. I’ve made logo animations, title graphics, and rotoscoped myself by hand. It’s one of the most time-consuming pieces of content I make, but I think that makes me love it even more.
My Relationship with All This Content
Some of the content I make is for work; some of it is for school. Other content I create is made from love. Some of it is a bit of a mix.
Each piece of content I put out there, I want to feel proud of, since it’s a reflection of myself and who I am as a designer. Sometimes though, a post needs to go up, and it’s not always my best work, but the job demands it goes up.
I like to hold onto everything I create, at least for a little while. In case I need it, in case I want to go back and look at it with fresh eyes, maybe just for sentimental value. Then every once in a while I’ll clean it out. Organize all the files I threw into a random folder. Purge things that are just taking up storage and nothing more.
My relationship with content is ingrained into who I am and almost everything I do. I create it so much more than I realize, and I haven’t even touched on my consumption of it. So, I challenge you to reflect on your content and how you experience it.
Leave a Reply