We're about to run through exactly
how to make a YouTube banner template,
for your YouTube channel,
just like the ones showing on screen now.
In just a few minutes with free software
and then how to make it look good across all devices.
In this YouTube Channel Art Tutorial.
Hi, it's Justin Brown here form Primal Video
where we help you amplify your business
and brand with video.
If you're new here,
make sure you click that subscribe button
and all the links to everything we've mentioned
in this video you can find linked
in the description box below.
So let's jump into it.
Custom channel art
for your YouTube channel is an incredibly important piece
of branding.
One of the first things that potential subscribers see
and it's a powerful way to instantly capture their attention
as well as communicate exactly
why your viewers should subscribe.
So right now we're gonna step through exactly
how to create your own in free software
and also throw in a few tips along the way
to make sure that it looks great on all devices.
Make sure you stick around to the end,
'cause I'll also show you what you need to know
to work in a call to action
that'll attract new email subscribers
that's baked into your channel banner.
Now just before we jump into the actual creating bit,
you can use a range of software, both free or paid
but in this tutorial we're gonna be using Snappa,
because it's simple, it's free
and these same principles we're gonna cover,
you can apply to pretty much any software out there.
Now, just before we get into it,
there is a link in the description box below,
taking you to this page from YouTube
which is talking about the the sizing and the requirements
and everything for your channel art.
And if you scroll down here you can see
that there is a downloadable channel art template
that you can use as a guide
to help you create your template.
Now this is gonna be really important
if you're not using the tool that we're using
in this walk through, Snappa.
Snappa actually has this built in.
So if using Snappa you won't need to download it,
but if you're using any other application,
it's a good idea to download this and use it as a guide
while you're creating your channel art.
Okay, so here we are in Snappa.
Now, you can start up by creating your graphic
and typing in the size, 2560 by 1440.
Or you can actually come down the bottom here
and they've already got one set up as a preset.
2560 by 1440, so we'll select on that one.
Now in here there is a heap of different presets
that you can use and templates and things
that are gonna get you up to speed quick
and if you like the look of one of these
and you wanna customize up one of these
then definitely by all means.
You don't need to start from scratch
and you can see that if you pick one of these
it's going to be really simple to customize up
and get it set up for you. So you just double click on here
and you can see that everything is customizable.
Now, we're gonna close out of here,
'cause we're not gonna use one of these prebuilt ones
for this walk through.
Go create a graphic.
Go back down to our YouTube channel art
and we're going to start from scratch.
Now, you can see already
because we chose YouTube Channel Art,
we've already got that template already showing here
and we can toggle that on and off
with the little button up here
for YouTube safe zone overlay.
So this is the whole image that we are working with
that we're creating, but you can turn on or off this overlay
to help you see what's gonna be shown on each device.
So you can see all this area at the top
and down the bottom is only gonna be displayed on TVs.
This white area is gonna be displayed on every device.
This next area out here to the side a little bit
on either side
is the tablet safe area.
So they're the things that are gonna show on a tablet
right through to this very edge here.
Which is the maximum desktop safe area.
So a desktop browser that is stretched out or maximized
to its maximum width this is where that would display to.
So the most important part that we're gonna be focusing on
is getting all the important content and text
and everything inside this white box,
because it's gonna be displayed on all devices.
Now, I'll turn this off and if you're not using Snappa,
the first step to do would be
to import that YouTube graphic template.
So in this case we go to graphics,
and we will go to upload, upload an image.
And we would select that template that we downloaded.
Once it's uploaded we can click on that
to add it in, you scale it up to the right size.
Now you can see that we've got those exact same areas there.
Now it would be a good idea to lower the transparency
or the opacity on this
so that it's not actually getting in the way
of your creation but you can just see it
as a guide there in the background
and then before you save out your image,
you'll wanna delete or turn this off.
So it's not visible and not gonna show
in your channel art.
Alright, so because we've already got it built in
I'm gonna delete this layer, I'm gonna select it,
press delete and then we'll get
into creating our channel art.
So let's go over to background.
We'll pull in a background image
or a pattern or something first
to add some color into it, a bit of texture.
So you see there's a heap of photos
that you can use in here.
There's patterns and those sorts of things as well
or you can upload your own.
I'm gonna go with a pattern, and I choose this wooden affect
that you can scale them up and reposition it if you need to
by selecting reposition background.
You can move it around. I think it looks pretty good there
for what we're going to use it for.
I hit apply.
Now, I'm wanna come over to affects.
Make sure we got this selected.
And we're gonna add an overlay color.
Now, our branding is primarily blue
so we want our branding here to look pretty blue.
Something around that.
Obviously we can come in here and change the color.
We can pick out Primal Video blue.
And then adjust the opacity or the level of the color
that we're overlaying here.
Probably want it as a point where it's not distracting,
but just something as a bit of texture in the background.
Now you can also add a little bit of blur to that as well
just to soften it off a little bit.
Next up you'll probably want to add some text in.
Now this is where I would turn that overlay back on
so that we can see it.
And again all your text you wanna have in that blue area,
that center area and we're gonna add in some text.
So for us our font is Oswald, bold.
Let's type in PRIMAL and if we select on that
we can come up the top to duplicate layer
and that will give us a second copy of it.
And we can type in video in this one.
And I'll probably make both of these a little bit bigger.
So let's go
on 85, 85.
Move it off to the side here.
And we'll make these look like our Primal Video logo.
So I'll change the color to white for both of these.
And I'll also add in box around the background
of each of them.
So do that, we'll go to shapes.
We'll choose a filled in shape.
Let's make this one here black.
We'll resize it down til it fits behind it.
We'll move that layer back behind the text,
so you can see now the text is on top of it.
And I'll reposition the text
so that it fits in there.
And adjust the size of the box so that it fits
where we want it.
And we'll do the same, we'll select that box
and we will come at the top to duplicate,
so we've got two of them, let's put video back.
And let's make this one here our Primal Video blue.
Let's go to popular.
There it is, saved down the bottom there.
Pick up our background.
Again we're gonna drop it down below the text,
so we'll keep pressing this.
There we go, til it's behind our text.
Change the scale, change the sizing
so that it all fits and reposition.
That's pretty hard to see there at that point.
So we'll probably darken this background a little bit more.
So I'll select on the background, come up here to affects
and we can probably darken this down, cool.
So you still have a see
a little bit of that texture in there
and if we turn off this layer
and that's currently what we're working with.
Doesn't look like much so far.
Alright, so we got our logo in there,
so people know where they are but they need to know
what they're actually going to see on this channel,
so it's a good idea to write some text about your channel,
and what people can expect on there.
So we'll come back over here to text.
Actually we're gonna duplicate this text,
select our text box here, hit copy or duplicate layer.
So we already got our fonts and everything in there.
So we'll start with that.
Amplify.
And then use a separate box, duplicate that one.
And you can also use your keyboard shortcuts
to copy and paste.
So control C or command C to copy.
Control V, command V to paste.
You duplicated your layer that way too.
Your business and brand with video.
So that's our tagline.
So we create a lot of video around.
And we can resize some of these to make it stand out.
Something like that to move that up over to the side.
Amplify your business and brand with video.
I can create to make some of this stand out.
We can add some more of our branding.
Which our branding is typically like you'll see here.
This is our logo with plain text with a background color
in a box behind it.
So create another shape, box, drop it in
and select it change the color, we'll go to our blue again.
And let's move it over here behind amplify.
We will push it down behind our text.
And resize it up so that it fits.
And we use the keyboard arrows to move that around.
Amplify your business brand with video.
Actually might move these across here.
So it's just a matter of picking these elements up,
moving them around to see what works for you
and for your brand or the branding that you're looking for.
Maybe I'll center these.
Alright so someone that's viewing this on their mobile phone
this is what they're going to see,
this little section here.
They can see our channel name and bit of a tagline
around what we've got.
If they're viewing this on a tablet or other device,
they're going to see a lot more.
If we turn that off, this is what it would look like
if they were looking at this on a TV.
So there's a heap of extra area in here
that you can get more advanced with
and do more creative things with.
And specifically in this area here on desktop.
You can actually add a more advanced call to action.
Now, I'm gonna cover that little bit later in the video
but you can have clickable buttons
that are displayed on your YouTube channel around here
that are only visible or only work on your desktop.
So by knowing where these safe margins are
you can make sure
that you're only including those clickable buttons
or references to those buttons in those areas.
Again, I'll show you this in just a minute.
That looks pretty good,
but it's still probably a little bit plain.
So we could actually add something else in here.
Another shape.
Let's go another square, drop that in.
Make it really big and let's put it about here
and we drag it down, and we get this rotation too,
let's drag that around so we're able
to create an angled line and make it bigger
so that it fills our entire area.
So this is what we've currently got now.
We're gonna move this behind all our text.
So it goes right to the back.
So now we're able to do something a little bit different
that stands out a bit more.
So we change the color on this.
Dark gray is another one of our colors.
Let's go custom and go across to gray
make it a little bit darker.
Something like that and we can also drop the opacity
on that as well, so we're able
to see some of that background come through a little bit
in there as well.
Okay, so if we were looking at this on TV,
you would see this entire area.
And on the different devices you can see
that you're now cropping in on that.
So super simple, just using a couple of different elements
to pull this out and to make it look more engaging
for the viewers and all of this is just super simple.
Obviously if you wanna add in other photos
and those kinds of things you can come up here to graphics
and you can import them and maybe even photos of you
depending on the type of channel that you've creating.
It might be a good idea to get your face on here somehow
or show pictures or images of things
that you cover on your channel.
But for this tutorial we'll leave it here.
And I'll turn off that safe zone.
And we're gonna export this.
And I'll show you how to upload it to your channel.
So go download.
And here you can choose either web optimized JPG
or High-res PNG.
I'd probably go High-res PNG
to get the better quality image.
Go through, it'll generate it and let you download it.
And you wanna save it somewhere on your computer.
Let's go, YouTube banner.
Save it on the desktop.
Now you wanna go over to your YouTube channel,
I've just got a test account here.
Once you log in, go over to customize channel
and then at the top of the channel here,
you can choose channel art, add channel art.
Select a photo from your computer,
find the one that we just made, YouTube banner.
And this gives you a preview of what this looks like
on desktop, on TV and on mobile.
Now if you do wanna crop in,
which you probably don't need to
if you followed this process, but you can also resize
and reposition things in here as well.
So back out of that and hit select and then you can see
we've got our channel art added in there.
Now if you're using YouTube to grow your business
then your channel art can be a great place
to work in a call to action to a lead magnet
or even to an email subscribe button.
On desktop mode and only on desktop mode,
YouTube lets you add in a custom link with a title.
Right under the channel art.
So if you get a little creative you can work in
a simple call to action
that'll draw a lot more attention to that call to action,
but the key to remember when doing this is
that the links only appear in desktop mode.
So you wanna make sure that your call to action fits
inside the range for desktop
but outside the range for mobile if possible.
Now if you stuck around for that last part
then you already know the value of growing an email list
for your business.
And YouTube is an incredibly powerful platform
for growing an email list.
Our email list grows by over 30%
of our new YouTube subscribers each month,
completely organically.
If you wanna learn how to maximize your email list
using YouTube we've put together some free training
stepping through how to set the whole thing up
which is linked on screen right now.
And I'll see you soon.