YouTube channel branding: banner, thumbnails, watermark

YouTube channel branding is the set of seven visual elements that tell a viewer a video is yours: the profile picture, the channel banner, thumbnails, the video watermark, Shorts covers, title cards and end screens. Each one appears in a different place, from search results to the corner of a playing video. They work when they share one look, so a viewer who knows your thumbnails recognises your banner, and the other way round.

Use this as a checklist. If you build creator content as a person rather than a channel, YouTuber branding covers the personal side; this page is about the channel's parts.

The YouTube channel branding checklist

Profile picture and banner

The profile picture appears next to every video title and comment, very small. Use a simple symbol, a monogram or a tight portrait, centred, with no text. It should match your avatar on other platforms.

The banner is uploaded at 2560×1440, but televisions show the whole image, desktops a wide strip across the middle, and phones a narrower slice. Only the central 1546×423 area is safe on all of them. Put your channel name, a short promise and an upload rhythm there ("New guides every Thursday"), and let the rest be background that extends naturally on large screens. YouTube banner size has the full map of crops.

Thumbnails do most of the branding

More people see your thumbnails than anything else on the channel, usually before they know who you are. A recognisable thumbnail style is the strongest branding a channel has. Pick one background family, one typeface in a heavy weight, and two or three layouts you rotate. Keep the words to three or four, large enough to read on a phone, and away from the lower right corner where YouTube shows the video length.

YouTube thumbnail design goes deep on composition and thumbnail text on type that reads small. Gradiently is useful here because a Mark moves its calmest, best contrasting region behind your words and picks light or dark ink per line, so a big headline stays readable on every thumbnail without boxes or shadows.

Adding a YouTube watermark

The watermark is a small image that sits in the corner of the player on your videos. On desktop, hovering over it lets viewers subscribe without leaving the video, so it is both branding and a button.

1. 1

   Make a simple square image

   Your symbol or monogram, no words, on a transparent background. Fine detail vanishes at this size.

2. 2

   Open YouTube Studio

   Go to Customisation, then Branding, and find the video watermark section.

3. 3

   Upload and choose timing

   Show it for the entire video, from a custom start time, or only at the end.

4. 4

   Check it on a real video

   Play one on a dark and a light scene to make sure the symbol reads on both.

YouTube's own instructions live in the YouTube Help Centre, which also lists the current file requirements.

Shorts covers, title cards and end screens

Shorts covers are 1080×1920. The interface covers the bottom and the right side, and the channel page crops them shorter, so keep words in the middle third. Use the same background and type as your thumbnails, so the vertical side of the channel looks like the same brand. See YouTube Shorts cover size.

A title card in the first seconds of a video should echo its thumbnail, so viewers feel they have landed where they clicked. End screens run in the last 5 to 20 seconds and carry YouTube's own video and subscribe elements; design a calm background with space for them rather than a busy frame. YouTube end screen design shows workable layouts.

The fastest way to keep seven elements in step is to make them from one design. With Gradiently Pro you can resize a design to every size in one step, so your banner, thumbnail template, Shorts cover and end screen all come from the same Mark. Gaming channel art shows the same system for a gaming audience.