Art Direction & Design: Capital One’s Social Media Ad Specs Guide

The Problem

Each social platform—Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube—maintains its own advertising specifications, requiring Capital One’s Brand Social designers and copywriters to regularly reference multiple external guideline pages before launching campaigns. The team also lacked a centralized resource to streamline onboarding and ensure consistency across campaigns.

The Solution

Rather than creating another text-heavy document, I approached the guide as a blueprint-style tactical reference that visually broke down the anatomy of each social ad. I incorporated Capital One’s signature hexagon motif to reinforce the brand while using clean line illustrations, dotted annotations, and a restrained color palette to make specifications, safe zones, dimensions, copy limits, and platform requirements easy to understand at a glance.

I partnered closely with a Senior Copywriter to create Quick Tips callouts and dedicated Best Practices pages that accompanied each platform’s specification guide. These companion pages captured creative recommendations and writing guidance in Capital One’s brand voice, while also linking to each platform’s official documentation for deeper reference.

The guide was presented to the Brand Social Creative Director, refined through feedback, and distributed as an ongoing reference for the team.

Impact

• Centralized social advertising specifications across multiple platforms
• Reduced time spent searching external guideline websites
• Improved onboarding for new designers and copywriters
• Increased consistency and accuracy across social campaign production

View the full guide in the slideshow below.

Tools

Illustrator • InDesign