How I recreated an F1 broadcast graphic in the browser

I wanted a graphic that looked like the ones that flash up during an F1 broadcast — bold type, team colour wash, driver photo cut into the frame — without opening Photoshop. This is what I did with the Breaking News generator.

Starting point

Broadcast cards are simple on purpose:

1. A strong background colour (usually the team)
2. A geometric texture so the flat colour does not feel empty
3. One photo
4. One headline and a short subtitle

That is exactly the layout on /create: a fixed 1080 × 1350 canvas (4:5), which is the Instagram feed ratio I actually post with.

Step 1 — Team preset, not freehand colour

I picked Ferrari from the team tab. The preset applied the red gradient and the 2026 Ferrari logo in one click. Hand-picking hex codes is how fan graphics end up “almost right” — presets remove that guesswork.

Step 2 — Photo framing

I uploaded a driver portrait (PNG with a transparent background reads cleanest). On the canvas I:

• Dragged until the helmet and shoulders sat behind the headline zone
• Zoomed until the face filled the available space without clipping the chin
• Left a little breathing room on the side where the geometric overlays sit

Busy JPEGs with studio backdrops still work, but they fight the team gradient. A cutout wins almost every time.

Step 3 — Headline hierarchy

I wrote a short surname-led headline and a one-line subtitle. Observations from testing:

• All-caps surnames feel closest to broadcast lower-thirds
• Subtitles longer than ~8 words start wrapping into the photo on mobile previews
• Light text on Ferrari red worked; dark text was better on pale Mercedes / Cadillac washes

Font size in the tool scales with length, so shorter copy stays punchier.

Step 4 — Export and check

Export produced a PNG at 1080 × 1350 — the finished file at the top of this post. I dropped it into an Instagram draft and a Discord channel:

Check	Result
Instagram feed crop	No text lost
Discord dark theme	Red gradient still readable
File size (typical)	A few hundred KB to ~1–2 MB depending on photo

No upload spinner, no “processing on server” message — the PNG appeared from the browser download prompt, which matches how the tool is built (client-side capture).

What I would do differently next time

• Start with a transparent PNG instead of cropping a full-bleed press shot
• Keep the subtitle under one line for Stories-style reposts
• Duplicate the URL after tweaking colours — the editor syncs useful state into the query string, so shareable drafts are free

If you want the same workflow written as a reference rather than a story, use the product guide.