Student Work

Video Thumbnail Exercise: Watercolor Basics

Mockup of two phones displaying the YouTube video thumbnails I designed for a video about watercolor basics

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 "Watercolor Basics for Absolute Beginners - Part 1." The background for this video is that a woman is starting a YouTube channel about watercolor painting, and her first uploads will be a six-part series on watercolor basics. Her ideal thumbnail for this initial video is a design that has a lot of color and showcases the natural, vibrant texture of the paint.

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 Designs

After looking at the design brief, I began my search for a suitable watercolor photo, as well as a typeface that was reminiscent of brush strokes. I chose the font Lullabies from Adobe Fonts to use as the main heading and found two photos, the first of which I sourced from Pexels and the second from Pixabay. I used Montserrat for the subtitle text, as it has great legibility and doesn't compete too much with the style of the main heading.
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While I was a bit limited in my photo choice, as I used free stock libraries, the first photo did a decent job of showcasing the textures of watercolor as it's applied to paper, while the other brought in a more dynamic feel as well as some texture on both the pallet and the surrounding paper. I did a small amount of enhancements to each photo to increase contrast and color.

After designing a bit with the first photo, I realized I needed to apply texture directly to the text itself, as the design was feeling flat and the nature of the brush typeface itself was not enough to really connect it to the subject at hand. I found both watercolor paint and paper textures on Unsplash, and I used them to give the text and its surrounding area the texture it needed while preventing it from being lost in the photograph. I used pinks for the text to relate it to the painting shown.

I started a composition with the second photo and made sure to play off of the existing angles in the photo, which made it feel a bit more dynamic than the first design. I chose blues for the text, as blue was prominent in the photo; it's also known for its universal appeal and can even be mentally associated with water. I chose to change one of the paints from brown to orange to increase overall energy and add vibrance.

In each design, I placed the "Part 1" text on top of watercolor texture from Unsplash and Pixabay and matched the color to that of the main heading text.

Two YouTube video thumbnail designs that read "Water Color Basics for Absolute Beginners." Both feature text stylized to look like watercolor brush strokes. One design features a photo of a watercolor piece being painted by a brush and the other features a photo of a brush lying across a watercolor pallet

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