you never get a second chance at a first impression and your YouTube channel art
plays a big part
in whether people will subscribe to your channel or even watch your videos
see you want to make sure that your YouTube channel looks great
and depicts who you are and what your brand is all about
So, today by request this week's tutorial all about
how to create your YouTube channel art for free without using Photoshop
and it's super easy to do, so let's get started. The three websites you want to have open are
Google Image Search
Canva and YouTube. On your YouTube channel
make sure that you're logged in and you go to the top right
go to Edit channel art and go to how to create channel art
and it will bring you to this page that's super helpful with lots of tips on how to create your channel art.
And then it'll also bring it to you this section where you can actually
download the template.
So, go to your downloads.
Open this and you want to take the
fireworks version and not the Photoshop version because you're not going to be using
Photoshop
Drag that onto your desktop.
From there, you wanna go to Canva. Make sure that you create an account for yourself
and log-in.
Go to the top section where it says create a design, click on more
and then go all the way down to social media and email headers.
Click on YouTube channel art with the correct dimensions.
Open that and you'll already have your exact dimensions that you'll
need for your channel art. From there,
you go to uploads and you upload the template
so right here is the channel art template that you saved to your desktop.
And then you click on that and it will automatically populate itself into the template
I'm not sure why but it kind of shrinks it when it does that, so you just have to
resize it and stretch it to the appropriate dimensions.
There you go!
So as you can see it's already set with what is
actually going show up with your channel art.
So for desktop version, you'll see this area here.
for tablet it expands slightly.
and then for desktop maximum depending on what kind of computer you're viewing it
on
it could go all the way to the edges here but to
keep it easy for yourself you kinda want to keep your graphics right in this area in here.
So, here's how to you actually create your template
to make a really easy banner you can go to text on the side here,
and just pick any one of these templates that they already have or you can just add your own text, but let's say
I want to use this template. It fits perfectly within the dimensions
But I want to change the color so I can change it to black
and then maybe I want to change the font
I'll change it to something a little more bold
and I'll change this to
my name and I'll change this to
new videos every Tuesday.
That's the template for your text
it fits in the parameters and now you want to upload some kinda background.
So you go to Google and I did a search for
old school film background so I'm just gonna screenshot this and then I will
upload that
to Canva and then when I click on this
it will bring it into frame and I just want to move it back so I can still see
the text.
And then it can go completely overtop of the backdrop.
And you just want to spread it out to fit the dimensions.
And then you want to delete this layer and there you go!
That is an easy, easy, easy
version of channel art for your YouTube channel. You can get as creative as you want
with this, choose any kind of background or text and do it through Canva.
So, to create the channel art that I currently have
I got a little more creative with it
so I uploaded I my image
to Canva. So, I added it into the area here.
I wanted it a little bit cut off on the side, so I just left it like that.
and then I wanted my backdrop to be white, so I just took a screenshot of a white page and
uploaded it to Canva.
And you want to move that back, pull that over.
And you know that the text box is going to end here.
So, then I just added in a shape
which you can search in here, too.
You can do, shapes, say I just want to create an arrow
I'm going to make it black
and I'm going to movie it right here
so it still fits within the dimensions and then I'll add text to that
Let's just use this as an example
and then I added a logo
basically drag and drop and move it to your liking and then I can make the entire
backdrop
white just like it did with filmstrip and then
I just downloaded that and save it as an image to my desktop
Once it's saved to your downloads you can just drag it to your desktop.
Then you go back to YouTube, go to the same button you did at the beginning. Go edit
with the same but you did at the beginning go edit channel art
select photo from your computer or you can just drag and drop
so this is the final edited version of my
channel art and it will show you what it looks like on desktop, on TV and on mobile.
You want to make sure that auto enhance is not clicked because it can
change the filter or the tone of the white in your banner art.
You can adjust the crop if you need to
but I like how it's cropped right now, so I'm going to leave it.
Go back to devices preview and then you say select
and your channel art is ready to go! You also want to make sure that your links
are available on your channel
so, to add in links to your social profiles, go to edit links
and you can add them right in this box here, up to five
I have my website Facebook Instagram and Twitter
it's a simple as that so I encourage you to go and play around with Canva
and find the perfect channel art for yourself and if you want to try out
another tool, I've mentioned PicMonkey before
in my tutorial about creating your own custom thumbnail
and that's another great tool to use to make your channel art for free
and there's another youtuber named Emily who made a really great tutorial using
PicMonkey
to create your channel art so I will link to that right here
and there will also be a link below this video. Now before you go building your
masterpiece remember these two really important elements if you can include
them in your banner
make sure you include a consistent schedule, so on mine it says, I post new videos every Tuesday
so when people come to my channel they know they can expect regular consistent
content for me
and also I think it's important to include a photo if you can
just so people recognize you easily in your videos and
it gives them a sense of who you are
right off the bat. I put some helpful links below with some
other tips and tricks that you can use to create your channel art and some
other resources. So check those out if you need a little more help.
And if you like this video you found it helpful please hit the like
button below
share with your friends and be sure to subscribe because I post new video
marketing
and social media tutorials everything single Tuesday! If you have a request for a
video please leave it in the comments section below.
Thank you so much for watching and I will see you guys next time!