How to create graphics for a Product Hunt launch

Monday 2nd of September, we did our first ever product hunt launch for Choppity. We got to #3 product of the day, even though we only had 10 days to launch. I feel that the graphics of the launch massively contributed to our launch’s success (the community were massively supportive, and it's a lot easier to root for something that you like the look of!) So here are some tips and things we learned when creating our graphics for the launch 1. Size matters How do you use Product Hunt? Do you open up every graphic of every launch page and spend the time to read all the text? Or do you glance over each launch page and delve a little deeper when one has caught your eye? I definitely do the latter. I spent some time just glancing at other launch page graphics and making a note of the ones that a) stood out to me and b) I could actually read and understand at a glance. The two most important components were color and size. Here are some graphics stood out to me: https://imgur.com/gZqrQJd https://i.imgur.com/uXaHIpV.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/3Yna0sK.jpeg (Links and images don’t seem to work on the Android app so please open in desktop or browser to view these. And product hunt doesn't like my links so copy and paste in browser to open!) Note that for the last one, while the purple color stood out to me, I couldn’t read what it said until I clicked on the image, so it was also a good reference for how small too small is. 2. Aspect ratio Product Hunt lets you upload any aspect ratio, but most upload 16x9 aspect ratio graphics. Since these take up more width, we decided to make the first 2 graphics smaller (closer to 5x4 aspect ratio) so that users could see more on screen. We tested this out on an Android app and were happy with it, but, after we launched, this is how they came out on the iPhone app (turns out there’s a reason everyone sticks with 16:9!): https://i.imgur.com/LY79AQ5.jpeg They were cut off at the top and bottom, so we won’t be doing that next time. 3. The video thumbnail is first in browser, but last on mobile phone app. This means that the video thumbnail should look good and be eye-catching enough that if someone is viewing your launch page on desktop, you’re happy with it being the first thing they see, and you need a 1st graphic which works alongside the video thumbnail but that also works without. We agreed that having duplicate content would look strange, so we made our thumbnail a “title page” and our first graphic our “what is it” page. Thumbnail: https://i.imgur.com/1bnTQSG.jpeg What is it/1st graphic: https://i.imgur.com/cvSH8jv.jpeg 4. As little text as possible on each graphic Think about how you ingest graphics and materials on social media and Product Hunt. Personally, if I’m looking to understand something, I want it in bullet points - one liners that tell me quickly what I want to know. If the bullet points have engaged me, then I’ll open up a website, or read a 1st comment to learn more details. So keep your graphics simple, with one headline on each that you want viewers to take away, to convince them to find out more. So those were the learnings from making graphics for my first product hunt launch (which you can see here: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/choppity ) I’d love to hear from you if you think I’ve missed anything, or if there’s anything you’d change? A sample size of one launch is obviously very limited :)