Tips on Creating an Appealing Channel Banner (2014)

I uploaded a 300 dpi cover.....its was a very High definition picture and it looks very HD when i open it in Windows Picture viewer.......
But when i upload it on Youtube,,, it looks a little blurred....Not very blurred...but it does look odd........[DOUBLEPOST=1408036466,1408036330][/DOUBLEPOST]I Think the video matters...not the banner........
But still.....you need a good banner if you want your channel to look nice and tidy :)
 
brodielawrence said:
Hi there, so I see alot of people asking about channel backgrounds/banners and if theirs is good, so i'm going to give you a few tips on what can make a good background, consider this like a check list, just remember there is no right or wrong answer to making a banner :)

Match the Style of your videos: if you made comedy videos for example you might want to add some funny pictures or make it bright colours, to summarize, put things in it that represents your channel/videos to let people know what your channel is about.

Have Good Contrast Between Text and Colours (sometimes): If you are putting your username in the banner or you have some kind of message you want to get across about your channel, it can be a good idea to try having good contrast between both, for example the main colors of a background is black and grey, you might want to use something yellow to make it stand out, this way the focal point of the background is the message you are trying to get across, and this doesn't just apply to text, it applies to anything. If you have your own style having text similar to the background can give a nice look too. It really depends on what kind of person you are :D

Keep to a Neat Layout: Try to keep things spaced out so that the banner doesn't look messy (unless that's what you're going for), if you are struggling deciding what to put on it, decide which is most important and use that, don't add unnecessary text or images, additional information is good but keep to the main point and if you have space then think about the other things you could include.

There are things like the avatar and links in the way so be sure to place everything in the right place. It's probably best to have the main part of the banner in the place that it can be seen by all devices. Having additonal things could be added in areas where only on the web or TV can see them. Keeps things nice and tidy :)

Make it Original: Try to make your background as original as you can, it is a good idea to develop ideas from other peoples backgrounds but don't copy from them, make your own ideas :p

File Size: Be sure to keep an eye on the size of your files! Currently the max file size for banners are 2mb, so be careful, you don't want to go making a perfect a work of art then be finding out it's too big! Normally I find that using photoshop doing "save for web" at png 24 with the second option selected works good keeping small file size but all the detail.

Take advantage of animated banners!: Recently Youtube has incorporated animated GIF banners for people to use. This is a great feature, and utilized properly can be used as a huge advantage. Good uses of animation for banners can be to show something that symbolizes your channel such as moving characters, or flashing text to show high energy to really 'sell' your channel. The possibilities are pretty much endless! Another great way to take advantage of animation is to direct users to the links on the side of the banner, having pointing arrows to the links, possibly with a side note such as 'click here to see more' or 'more cool things' etc, you get the idea :p
Youtube no longer supports gifs :(
That's all I hope this has helped you in some way, some of you might disagree with me, that is fine, you might have a different opinion on this, like I said before there is no right or wrong answer, so get out there and be creative!:D
If you have any tips, feel free to share them with us all! :)
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Thanks for the great advice. I recently figured out how to make thumbnails for my videos..soon I'll want to start learning how to do the channel banner and background.
 
I need a change not that urgent, but my channel is too dark / mysterious haha, people noticed, seems to be a good thing ...
 
Thanks for all your great tips. I'm looking to redo mine. I paid someone on fiverr to do it and he made me look all weird:(
 
Somer Nelson said:
Thanks for all your great tips. I'm looking to redo mine. I paid someone on fiverr to do it and he made me look all weird:(
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Oh is that the banner you have just now? Looks like the avatar on it is just out of proportion, if you mask it out and stretch it on the Y axis on photoshop it should look a little less obscure :p
 
Epic tips, very useful I have to say! But I think you missed a very important part ~ The dimensions of the channel banner. It would be nice to include them here, and to mention that for every device (TV, PC, tablet, mobile...) the banner will look different. I think that's what people would like to know, first of all, when creating a banner :) But hey, that was great anyways ;)
 
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