Studygram: Brand & Aesthetic (i)

Anindya Widita, B.A., M.A.

In the previous article, we have glossed a bit about the existence of a community that is Studygram and Studyblr. The community mainly is consistent of students whose content centered around studying style and/or productivity. This time we will take a look a bit more into Studygram.

If you happen to have come across one of their accounts or posts, maybe you can already pick out a common concept, visually or by content, identifying and characterizing their account compared to other lifestyle bloggers. Despite the variety of personal themes and preferences, one thing to highlight is that they are centered around sharing content related to their productivity, one of it being studying activity. Obviously, no one studies all the time. It is just not realistic. Therefore, usually the content is complimented with other daily activities such as visiting café, cooking, or taking a walk outside.

Again, the visual theme used is generally consistent. If one is a fan of saturated look in their feed, then usually all photos would have similar filter. From casual observation, the trend seems to be more in the soft, pastel colored base. Obviously, the owners have made effort to ensure that their feed would look neat with similar color tone.

Realizing it or not, those users have created their own brand for their Instagram, or Studygram account. Not only by their content, circling around their studying activity or student life, but also through their art take of making the whole thing looks exactly like how they want, thus creating such image to the audience, or followers.

There really is no rule or exact pattern to follow. It is more of personal preference more than anything, how these users laying out their content and keeping up with the online persona and maintaining the aesthetics they like. There is a sense of freedom and creativity in creating their own brand of Studygram. Nonetheless, there could also be an expectation to make it non monotonous and as real, or relatable as possible, because let’s be real, there is no such thing as having a perfect, have-it-all -together, student (or even work) life, while at the same time churning out high quality content with picture perfect image and saying that everything is well everytime. Therefore, it is probably one thing to consider while building that image and brand.

References:

Seo [@tbhstudying]. (2019). Instagram posts. https://www.instagram.com/tbhstudying/