90s Yearbook Glow-Up: Then vs Now Split Card

The split-card format that owns feeds — a retro 1995 yearbook portrait side by side with a modern glow-up, built as a single shareable graphic.

Best tool Ideogram
Aspect ratio 4:5
Difficulty Intermediate

The prompt

A split-panel graphic in a retro 1990s yearbook style. Left panel: a school portrait of [your selfie] with a classic airbrushed teal-and-purple laser beam gradient background, flat studio lighting, film grain, slightly faded Kodak color grading, wearing a 90s collared shirt, year label '1995' printed in bold yearbook serif font at the bottom. Right panel: the same person in a modern glow-up editorial portrait, warm golden-hour lighting, confident expression, contemporary outfit, sharp and vibrant. A bold center divider line with the text 'THEN vs NOW' in a retro varsity font, cream and navy color palette. The overall design mimics a real printed yearbook page layout with decorative corner borders and a subtle paper texture overlay.

Negative prompt

modern background on left panel, matching lighting on both sides, cartoon style, illustration, blurry text, wrong year labels

Why it goes viral: The 'Then vs Now' format is one of the highest-engagement Instagram formats because it invites followers to tag someone and debate the glow-up.

How to use it

Upload your selfie to Ideogram using the image-to-image or style reference input.
Paste the full prompt and set the aspect ratio to 4:5 in Ideogram's settings.
If the text rendering is off, use Ideogram's text prompt correction to re-lock 'THEN vs NOW' and '1995'.
Download and optionally boost contrast on the left panel in Snapseed to emphasize the retro-vs-modern contrast.
Post with the caption: 'The glow-up is real. What year were you stuck in?'

Pro tips

In Ideogram, use the Text Emphasis feature to lock in the 'THEN vs NOW' wording — it handles typography better than most diffusion tools.
Keep your description of the 'modern' panel vague (golden-hour, editorial) so the model doesn't conflict stylistically with the retro left panel.
Generate at 4:5 ratio so it fits Instagram feed natively without cropping — the split layout needs the full vertical space.

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