Posts

Before publishing content to any official DHL social media channel, make sure you’ve answered the following questions:

Message

Does the message your post is sending match our DHL Brand values and policies? Does it fit our brand personality? For more information on our communication guidelines, please download the Social Media Playbook.

Quality

Are you using high-quality images? Is the spelling and grammar correct? Have you fact-checked your information?

Branding

Did you review our corporate design rules before creating the post? The layout, typography, and color choice must be in line with our brand design. For more information on our communication guidelines, please download the Social Media Playbook.

The format of your posts depends on the social media platform. It will most likely be either a square or landscape format. However, you can design the layout as you wish to send the best possible message within that format. You just need to keep the essential elements of our brand image in mind at all times. 

We highly recommend using a mixture of full-page images, illustrations, and posts with a white or Postyellow gradient background to ensure variety on your social media channel. The Postyellow gradient makes an excellent text background because it provides good legibility. But you don’t have to use it in every post, nor should you. Also, you don’t have to brand every post with our logo. The channel generally identifies the content’s author, and the DHL logo will often be found in the images you use. Be sure to double-check the related guides when using our logo, typography, and other basic design elements in your posts.

For posts with a width of 1080px, for example, we recommend setting the DHL Logo width at 280px with a base unit of 40px. 

IMPORTANT: The recommended formats on each social media platform may change at any time. Please regularly review to make sure your formats are up to date.

We use imagery and videos to bring our brand to life on social media. They evoke emotions, convey our brand personality, and are a crucial component in social media communications. Make sure the images you post and share are high quality and closely aligned with our DHL image style, “Focus on You”, which is bright and energetic, with depth of focus and vivid color contrasts. By consistently applying our image style across all media, we ensure that it is recognizable no matter where people see our images. Choose images and videos depicting scenes that appear authentic and not staged.  

Sometimes there’s simply not enough time to create a professional image or video. Nevertheless, even if time is short, you need to keep the most important parameters in mind at all times, such as perspective, detail, and lighting. Make sure the imagery and videos you select for social media posts and the format fit the intended channel. Double-check the visual message you are sending and ask yourself: is it clear? And be sure you have the appropriate copyright to use and publish your media. 

To integrate our design elements into videos (e.g., text, lower third, and outros), please review our Motion Graphics Design Guide. There you will find all the essential information, including a professional Motion Toolbox to use with Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro.

Usage

Dos and Don’ts

In addition to images and videos, you can also post illustrations and animations on social media.

Illustrations and animations can add emotion to your posts, visualize ideas, convey information, and make complex content easier to understand. Our DHL illustration style provides a wide range of possibilities. It is based on the following attributes:

• Modern, up-to-date, serious, and realistic 

• Simple, smart, and charming

• Clear and lifelike, not playful or kitschy

In addition to our DHL colors, Postyellow and DHL Red, you can also use colors outside the DHL color pallet. However, they must be muted, not too bright, and have a lower saturation than our corporate colors.

Dos and Don’ts

Our tailor-made typeface, “Delivery”, gives our communications a unique and unmistakable character. The font style Delivery Black Condensed in all caps combined with toplines and sublines in Light Condensed can make your posts especially powerful. Please review the Typography Style Guide for guidance on how to apply Delivery properly.

Dos and Don’ts

Infographics provide a great way to illustrate important information or easily and quickly convey complex content. When creating infographics or adding facts & figures to your posts, focus on the most important information and avoid overcrowding the graphic with too much information. If you have many facts and figures to share, communicate them across multiple posts.

Some social media platforms offer story formats to complement regular posts. While posts are primarily reserved for high-quality, evergreen content, stories provide a way to communicate quick and temporary snapshots, announcements, or a look behind the scenes. On most platforms, stories only last 24 hours and are more casual than posts. Therefore, it’s unnecessary to include corporate design elements, and you may use candid photos and videos as long as the quality is sufficient. 

Be sure to use full-format imagery/videos and minimize text in your stories. Also, make sure the narrative flows naturally from one story to another.

GIFs and Stickers

GIFs and stickers can provide an added touch, especially to stories. Use them to emphasize your message, evoke emotions, and generate attention.

Try to use our DHL GIFS and stickers where appropriate but please do not overuse these design elements.