Durga Puja Social Media Post Design: Festive Layouts in Photoshop and Canva

Every October, Bengal’s feeds fill with red-and-white borders, dhak drums and “Shubho Sharodiya” in gold. Most of these posts come from the same few templates, so they blur together. Good Durga Puja post design is about using the festival’s visual language with care, then adding enough of your own thinking that people stop scrolling.

This guide covers the sizes, colours, Bengali type and motifs that work, and two step-by-step layouts: one in Photoshop and one in Canva. If you want to build these skills properly, the Omebly Graphic Design Suite course covers Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Canva and social media post design with weekly mentor reviews.

Quick answer: For a Durga Puja post, design at 1080×1350 for the feed and 1080×1920 for Stories, use a limited palette of sindoor red, white, marigold and a touch of gold, pair one clear Bengali or English headline with plenty of space, and use your own photos or illustrated motifs such as kash flowers and alpona. Build a master layout in Photoshop or Canva, then make one version per Puja day.

Plan the series before you design

Durga Puja is a sequence, not a single day. In Kolkata in 2026, Mahalaya fell on 10 October, and the main days run from Shashthi on 17 October to Bijoya Dashami on 21 October, according to the Drik Panchang-based calendar published by Hindutone. Check local timings with your own puja committee.

A simple plan for a brand, shop or creator page:

Post	Day	Message idea
Countdown	2–3 days before Shashthi	“Pujo is almost here” or holiday hours
Shashthi	17 Oct	Welcome, Shubho Shashthi
Saptami to Navami	18–20 Oct	One light post or Story each day
Bijoya Dashami	21 Oct	Shubho Bijoya, sindoor or farewell mood
After	22 Oct onwards	Thank you, back to normal hours

If your audience includes friends and family far from home, pair the series with a shared evening online; our guide to hosting a Durga Puja adda online shows how. Design these as one family: same grid, same fonts, same palette, with one element changing each day. That consistency is what makes a page look professional.

Sizes and safe zones

Format	Size (pixels)	Notes
Instagram and Facebook feed	1080×1350 (4:5)	Takes the most screen space in the feed
Square feed post	1080×1080	Useful for Facebook and grid previews
Stories, Reels cover, WhatsApp Status	1080×1920 (9:16)	Keep text out of the top and bottom 250 px

Instagram’s grid now crops previews to a portrait shape, so keep your headline and logo inside the central area. In Stories, the top and bottom are covered by the profile name and reply bar, so treat them as decoration-only zones.

The Durga Puja visual language

Colours

The classic red-bordered white sari (laal paar sada sari) gives you a ready-made palette. Choose four colours and stick to them:

• Sindoor red for borders and headlines
• Off-white or cream for the background
• Marigold yellow-orange for accents
• Muted gold used sparingly for small details

Avoid gold gradients on large text. They look cheap on a phone screen and often fail contrast. Flat colour with a subtle paper texture usually looks richer.

Motifs that say “Pujo”

• Kash phool (kans grass), the white autumn flower that signals Sharad
• Shiuli (night jasmine) with its orange stems
• Alpona patterns, the white floor art of Bengal
• Dhak and dhunuchi, the drum and the incense burner of the evening arati
• Conch shell, lotus, terracotta textures
• The eyes of the Goddess (used with care, see below)

Pick one hero motif per post. A post with kash, dhak, lotus, conch and alpona all at once looks like clip art.

Bengali typography

Bengali lettering instantly feels local. Free Google Fonts families such as Noto Sans Bengali, Noto Serif Bengali, Hind Siliguri and Tiro Bangla are safe starting points. Always check the conjuncts (যুক্তাক্ষর) in words like “শারদীয়া” and “শুভ বিজয়া”: decorative fonts sometimes break them, and Bengali readers notice immediately.

Pair one Bengali display line with one simple English or Bengali sans-serif line. Two fonts are enough.

Layout 1: A Shashthi post in Photoshop

1. New document: 1080×1350 px, 72 ppi, RGB, sRGB profile. Turn on an artboard so you can add day-wise versions side by side later.
2. Background: fill with cream. Add a paper texture on a layer above, set it to Multiply at 15–25% opacity.
3. Border: draw a rectangle inset 40 px from the edges with a thick sindoor-red stroke. Add a thinner inner line in marigold. This is your “laal paar” frame.
4. Hero motif: place your own kash flower photo or an illustration in the lower third. Use a layer mask with a soft brush to blend it into the background, rather than a hard cut-out.
5. Headline: type “শুভ ষষ্ঠী” in a Bengali display font, large and centred in the upper third. Add a small English line beneath it, such as “Wishing you a joyful Pujo”.
6. Brand: your logo small at the bottom centre, with plenty of space around it.
7. Smart objects: convert the motif and headline into smart objects so you can swap them for each day without rebuilding the layout.
8. Duplicate the artboard for Saptami, Ashtami, Navami and Dashami, changing only the headline and the motif.
9. Export: File > Export > Export As, PNG for text-heavy designs or high-quality JPG for photo-heavy ones.

Adobe’s Photoshop user guide explains layer masks and smart objects in detail if they are new to you.

Layout 2: A Bijoya post in Canva

Canva is perfect for a small team that needs a post ready in twenty minutes.

1. Create a custom design at 1080×1350.
2. Set the background to off-white, then add a red frame from Elements and recolour it to your brand red.
3. Upload your own alpona illustration or photo. Lower its transparency if it sits behind text.
4. Add “শুভ বিজয়া” in a Bengali font from Canva’s font list (test the conjuncts), plus one line in English.
5. Add your logo and save the palette and fonts to a Brand Kit so the rest of the team stays consistent.
6. Use Resize to create a Story version, then rearrange anything that falls into the top or bottom safe zones.
7. Download as PNG.

Make a template look like yours

Canva templates are used by thousands of pages. If you start from one, change at least three things: the colours, the fonts and the main image. Remove decorative elements you don’t need. The test is simple: would someone who saw the original template recognise it?

Respect, rights and taste

• Don’t use pandal or idol photos you didn’t take. The artists, committees and photographers own them. Use your own pictures, licensed stock or illustrations.
• Treat the Goddess with respect. Don’t put discount stickers, prices or “SALE” banners over her image. If your post is about an offer, use motifs instead.
• Be careful with AI-generated images. They often distort faces, hands and religious details, and devotees notice.
• Keep it inclusive. Pujo is celebrated by people of many backgrounds; warm, simple greetings land better than heavy religious text from a business page.

Common mistakes in festive post design

• Too much text on the image. Put opening hours and offer terms in the caption.
• Low contrast. Gold text on a red background is hard to read on a phone in sunlight.
• Crowded motifs. One hero motif, lots of space.
• Broken Bengali. Test every word, and ask a Bengali reader to proof it.
• Different style every day. A series should look like a series.
• Forgetting the Story version. Many people will only see your Story or WhatsApp Status.

Durga Puja post design checklist

• Day-wise plan from countdown to Bijoya
• 1080×1350 feed and 1080×1920 Story versions
• Four-colour palette and two fonts, saved as styles or a Brand Kit
• Bengali text checked for broken conjuncts
• Own photos, licensed images or original illustrations only
• Headline readable at phone size, with strong contrast
• Logo present but small
• Offer details in the caption, not on the image

How Omebly can help

Festival posts are a great portfolio piece because they test colour, type, layout and consistency in one series. Our guide to learning graphic design online explains the wider skills path. The Omebly Graphic Design Suite course is live and mentor-led, with recordings: month one covers design principles, colour, typography and Photoshop basics; month two covers Illustrator and social media post design; month three covers InDesign, brand kit basics and exporting for print and web. Tracks are Core ($699, 3 months), Professional ($1,199, 6 months) and Career ($1,999, 12 months), and the listed capstones include a 10-post social media campaign. No prior experience is needed. You can compare it with our other live courses at Omebly Academy.

Planning a Pujo series of your own? Ask us about the course on WhatsApp or through the contact page.