YouTube Thumbnail Design Checklist

Your free checklist to design more delightful YouTube thumbnails. Created by Nate Kadlac, founder of Approachable Design and the 80/20 Design Challenge. Subscribe to my Sunday newsetter here.

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🎯 Start here

Creating great thumbnails always start with a good idea. Ideally, you should have the idea and title picked before you start shooting.

Plan twice. Shoot once.

First, brainstorm thumbnail ideas using these 3 steps:

Brainstorm 5 compelling story points from your video. It could be a question, story, topic, or something the guest said. These will act as separate potential ideas for thumbnails. Get specific.
Write out 5 potential titles from these ideas with a max of 54 characters. (Longer titles can perform well, but will get truncated on mobile)
Pick the most interesting title idea and use the design checklist below.
BONUS: Take pictures related to your idea you might use for your thumbnails. It’s much more difficult to use low quality screenshots from your video.

Steps to Designing a thumbnail

1. Assemble your design kit

<aside> ☝ Your design kit is your starting point. It contains the fonts, colors, textures, icons, and motifs you use when you start a new project for you or your business.

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[ ] Pick a font with 6+ styles (This gives you a lot of flexibility: light, regular, bold, heavy, black, etc)
[ ] Pick a second font if you only need one for callouts. Make sure it contrasts (looks very different) from your primary font. (E.g. sans-serif font paired with a serif font)
[ ] Pick 1-4 colors to use. I usually have 1-2 brand colors and an accent if I need it. (The amount of colors doesn’t correlate to impressions/clicks)
[ ] Grab any icons you use from one project to the next. (Don’t mix icon sets. Invest in one like Streamline and reuse it.)
[ ] Find any common textures or backgrounds you use to maintain a consistent look and feel across your channels.
[ ] Collect image assets like mics, or photos of your expressions to use without depending on them from screenshots.
[ ] Put everything in one spot. I personally use Figma (It’s free) and add them to a single board.

2. Prepare your design assets

[ ] Many images you screenshot or take by default have low contrast. Use photo tools like Luminar NEO or Lightroom to enhance the contrast before using them in your thumbs.
[ ] Remove all backgrounds from people or objects, but keep them available. (Use tools like remove.bg, Canva, or Luminar NEO to remove backgrounds quickly)
[ ] If you’re using text in your thumbnail, choose a 1-4 keyword that enhances your title text from the Start Here section. (DO NOT use the same text from your title. Tell a story and drive curiosity)
[ ] Generally, use sans-serif fonts for your titles. (They take up less space, stand out more easily, and are easier to work with)
[ ] If you don’t have any visual assets, I would use Midjourney to create some backgrounds based on the idea you chose in the start here section. Try searching The Noun Project to get some ideas for visual metaphors if you’re still at a loss for visuals.

3. Make smart design decisions

[ ] You only get 1-2 main points of focus. Choose a face of a guest, an object from the video, or the text. (When everything screams for attention, no one gets any)
[ ] Use the rule of thirds to determine where you want to place your main point of interest. (E.g. The eyes of you or a guest)
[ ] Use layer stacking to create depth in your images. (Remember, the top most layer hides everything below it.)
[ ] Use contrast to buld visual intrigue.
[ ] Avoid busy backgrounds that detract from foreground imgery.
[ ] Use arrows or handwritten fonts to push focus to you top two visual priorities.
[ ] Blur or use screens to darken the backgrounds to increase depth of field in your thumbnails.
[ ] Avoid default drop shadows and unnatural looking lighting effects

🛑 Don’t Do This

[ ] Don’t create clickbait titles
[ ] Don’t use more than 4 words in your thumbnails
[ ] Avoid using logos in your thumbnails. They aren’t needed, and they’re already on your channel profile.
[ ] If you don’t have recognizeable guests, rely on unique and unconventioal hooks.

🎨 Design Resources for non-designers

Figma for design. You can also use Canva, but I prefer to iterate on my thumbnails side by side, while using layers to create depth.
Remove.bg for removing backgrounds. You can also use Canva (paid) or Luminar NEO (paid)
For fonts, use Google Fonts to download free fonts. If you want to level up, head to myfonts.com and look for affordable fonts that you love. Stay away from most free fonts that aren’t Google.
Midjourney for creating backgrounds or objects. Then use Remove.bg to isolate the object.

❓ FAQs

Should you use a logo in my thumbnail?
How do I learn Figma?
How do I choose colors?
What font should I use?
How much text should I use?
Characteristics of good thumbnails
Mobile vs Desktop
Bulk shooting expressions. Here are 6 expressions that cover every pose