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Your LinkedIn banner: what to put there if you're not a designer
The LinkedIn banner occupies the strip at the top of your profile. It is the first large visual block a visitor sees, almost as eye-catching as your photo. And almost nobody makes use of it.
This guide is for professionals with no design training who want their banner to say something coherent with the rest of the profile, without falling into generic templates or CV-banners with five logos and a marketing slogan. If you still have the blue gradient LinkedIn sets by default, this is the most visible adjustment you can make today.
By Sheena de PunkVoice · Edited by Mario Pérez
Dimensions and how it actually looks
LinkedIn recommends a banner of 1584x396 pixels. It is a very elongated ratio (4:1), unlike any other social network, which means many generic templates do not work.
There is one critical detail: your profile photo covers the bottom left corner of the banner on desktop and almost a third of it on mobile. Anything you put there disappears. You design the banner thinking of an inverted L: the right side and the upper centre are the always visible zones.
Another point: on mobile, the side edges get trimmed by a few pixels. Do not put critical information hard against the left or right edge, leave at least an 8% safe internal margin.
If you are going to try a banner, take a screenshot of the profile from mobile and from desktop before leaving it published. The difference between how it looks in Canva and how it looks on LinkedIn is one of the things that surprises people most the first time.
Four visual structures that work without knowing design
A solid colour with one small detail. A banner in a single brand colour (blue, bottle green, burgundy, whatever you use) with one discreet graphic element on the right side. It works because it communicates intent with no need for graphic talent. It is the safest option when you do not know where to start.
An abstract or landscape photograph. A photo of your city, of your industry (offices, workshops, nature), or of a symbolic element close to your activity. You are after something evocative rather than literally representative. Avoid stock photos of hands typing or corporate handshakes, they read as templates.
A photograph of your real activity. You giving a talk, a view of the environment you work in, a fragment of a project. It works when it is a good photo and when it reinforces the headline's positioning. It fails when it looks amateur or when the activity has nothing to do with what you sell.
A minimalist typographic composition. One large word or a short sentence on a flat background, using a clean typeface. High risk if you do not have an eye for it: a typographic slip sinks the whole banner. If you go this way, keep it to five words maximum and a single typeface.
How to think about visual coherence between headline, photo and banner
Tools that work when you are not a designer
Canva is the obvious option. It has LinkedIn banner templates with the correct dimensions, and the free plan is more than enough for one or two banners a year. The trick: start from a blank or very minimalist template, not a saturated one. Templates with many elements are recognised as templates even after you modify them.
Figma works if you already use it. It allows total control and clean exports. It carries a steeper learning curve, but it gives more professional results if you are comfortable with it.
For background photography, Unsplash and Pexels offer free images of acceptable quality. The rule: look for wide images with negative space on one side, so your profile photo does not eat important information.
And one honest option when the banner is strategic: paying somebody 60 to 150 euros to design one properly. A decent banner lasts two or three years, so the cost per use is negligible.
Common mistakes that give a mediocre banner away
Piled up logos. Five small logos of companies you have worked with, lined up in a row. Unless they are Apple, Google and the White House, it does not work. It creates visual noise and communicates insecurity about your own name.
An epic sentence in a script typeface. Sentences like "Inspiring tomorrow's leaders" in italic script do not age well. They read as questionable self advertising.
An obvious template. Banners with lots of coloured triangles, geometric waves or flat illustrations in the 2020 style seen on thousands of profiles. They are recognised instantly and they subtract.
Critical information in the corner covered by your photo. If you have put your name or your proposition exactly where the profile photo overlaps, that information does not exist.
A colour that fights with your headline and photo. If your photo has a light background and your banner is very dark and saturated, the contrast hurts. Always look at the whole profile as a single visual piece.
A banner that weighs a lot. Banners exported without optimising (several MB) load slowly on weak networks and spoil the first mobile impression. Keep it under 500 KB.
When changing your banner is worth it
When you still have LinkedIn's factory gradient. It is the highest returning change. Any decent intentional banner improves the situation.
When you have changed role or proposition significantly. A banner still referring to your previous job creates dissonance with your recent headline and content.
When you have had the same banner for more than three years. Visual fashions age fast, especially in creative sectors. A banner that was modern in 2022 can read as dated in 2026.
When you notice your profile appearing often in screenshots, presentations or reviews. If your personal brand is starting to be visible, the banner goes from cosmetic detail to communication asset.
What is not a reason to change it: boredom. Changing the banner every few months confuses your network without bringing you visible traction.
If you are not a designer, the rule that matters most: less is more
The universal mistake of non designers is adding things to fill the banner. Because there is space left, they put a logo here, a sentence there, an icon alongside. And the result always looks overloaded.
The rule that best protects against this: start with an empty banner, add ONE element, look at the result, and only add another if it is better. Almost always, the first element is already enough.
And one clue that helps: a banner only needs to pass three questions. Does it communicate something coherent with my headline? Does it have no obvious typographic or quality errors? Is it still legible on mobile? If all three go green, you are already above 80% of your industry.