Student Work

Video Thumbnail Exercise: Deadlift Challenge

Overview

To refresh my graphic design skills, I decided to take the Graphic Design Masterclass by Lindsay Marsh on Udemy, which is a self-directed video course. As part of this course, students were challenged to create YouTube thumbnail designs in Photoshop, following some sample prompts.

The prompt for this design was for a fictional video called "Deadlift 500 Pounds Challenge." The background for this video is that a weightlifting YouTuber participated in a deadlifting challenge at a local gym. He wants the design to have a masculine feel in terms of color and typography, as well as feature him lifting weights.

As a part of the in-house marketing team, I completed various creative tasks. I was responsible for:

Creating new print and social media post designs for marketing campaigns, program information, industry news/updates, events, or internal communications
Updating existing design files with updated loan officer/realtor information
Managing and adding content to both the existing website and company's internal intranet dashboard
Proofreading designed material
Attending marketing meetings
Narrating and editing internal tutorial videos for loan officers
Writing or editing blog posts
Communicating with other internal staff outside of the marketing department when needed in order to obtain project objectives and send deliverables

I had multiple projects assigned to me at any given time. I worked alongside other designers and marketing specialists. Tasks were divided up between the members of the team, and we all had to communicate effectively to make sure all projects for our loan officers and company were completed and accurate.

Programs used: Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Canva, Teamwork, Microsoft Teams, Adobe Premiere Pro, etc.

The Thumbnail Design

After looking at the design brief, I looked at inspiration online and began sketching out some rough ideas on my iPad. I knew I wanted to experiment with text interacting with the photo of the man, as well as another version featuring an angled text area to increase legibility while still feeling dynamic with the diagonal orientation. I knew I wanted to use a condensed, strong typeface and use capital letters to tie into the masculine feel.

The Initial Designs

I found a suitable photo for this project on Pexels and originally chose to use the typeface Din Condensed. I separated the man from the background in terms of color, contrast, and focus to direct the viewer's attention to him. I trialed having the text appear both behind and in front of him, and I tried out different colors that I felt would add energy to the compositions. I found a background pattern for the text area on the website called Every-Tuesday.

The version with the angled text area worked out the best in terms of legibility and provided for a more grounded composition overall, while still allowing the text and photo to interact due to the overlap. The typeface, however, was lacking in character, and I would set out to find another solution. I also wanted to make the background of the text area better fit the tone of the video.

The Final Design

I determined that enhancing the tough, masculine tone of this piece would come down to picking a stronger typeface and incorporating texture. I used the typeface called Veneer from Adobe Fonts, which would give me exactly the result I was looking for; this typeface has a very solid feel, while showcasing a rugged, worn texture. To further push this rugged feel, I added a concrete texture from Unsplash to the text area's background, and I lowered the opacity of the existing pattern.

To provide more visual interest, I used angled shapes, one behind the word Deadlift and one along the intersection of the text area and photo.

I settled on the color orange for this thumbnail; it combines the passion and aggression of red with the energy of yellow. Red can also signify alarm, and while it has great use cases, for this graphic, I wanted to tone that overall feeling down somewhat while still feeling bold and energetic.