To make life a little easier for us designers; here are some recommended Facebook image sizes for 2021:

• Facebook profile picture size: 180 x 180
• Facebook cover photo size: 820 x 312  
• Facebook link image size: 1200 x 630   
• Facebook image post size: 1200 x 630  
• Facebook highlighted image size: 1200 x 717  
• Facebook event image size: 1920 x 1005 
• Facebook group cover image size: 1640 x 856 
• Facebook video size: 1280 x 720  
• Maximum Facebook video length: 240 minutes  
• Facebook image ad size: 1200 x 628  
• Facebook video ad size: 1080 x 1350 (ratio 4:5), at least 1080 x 1080, ratios from 16:9 to 9:16 are also supported  
• Facebook Story ad size: 1080 x 1920 
• Facebook messenger image ad size: 1200 x 628 

A quick tip: The attention span of the audience is extremely short on social, so try to keep Facebook videos as short as possible. While the maximum video length is 240 minutes, Facebook recommends keeping them as short as 15 seconds. ​

I had the pleasure to design 17 of the National Hockey Leagues outdoor games. I spent 10 years designing the graphics for these games which were mostly played back East and in Canada. I'm from California so I did not really follow hockey nor did anyone I knew but they were interesting projects to say the least. I became an expert of hanging the graphics on the portable ice rinks each were a bit different configuration depending on if they were playing in a baseball or football stadium. It was a new thing for a boy from Cali to experience sub-30 degree weather while trying to take measurements of a stadium. This meant being out in the cold sometimes for 3 entire days! At the time I had wished we could get the NFL Super Bowl account back which our design firm had lost a few years before. The article above references many of the games I had worked on. Our small sports design firm called, "Flying Colors' had been sold to a Chicago-based printing firm who ultimately didn't know how to sell or manage a business like we were in. On an end note, our small design team would watch every game on TV not for the game it's self but to see our designs on the small screen!

I have been a professional Graphic Designer for more years than I would like to admit. I got into this business because even as a little kid, I had the gift to draw, the gift to quickly come up with some brilliant, creative ideas and execute them on paper.

The ad/marketing agency world they always want to see your creative portfolio and I wonder why some times. More and more the work at these agencies is not creative but following a brand style guide. There is no room to be creative. Everything is spelled out from "x' space around the logo the (5) possible images you can use for variation. It's very "dry" work at times.

I was hired by an excessive creative director at one ad agency because he loved my illustrated posters. In the year I was there I did not drawing a thing, instead I had to study and be the expert on two large tech company's branding. There was no room to do any variation to the branding. 

Is it more important you know the ever-changing graphics software than coming up with an original idea? Designers now regurgitate concepts that other designers post on Pinterest and call them "mood" boards. Where is the creativity in that? Of course knowing the software you are using can broaden the possibilities for you but do you need to be a creative person to be a graphic designer? When I started in this business I assumed all designers knew how to draw. I have learned that is not the case...  

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