Want to design your own YouTube banner but don't know exactly where or how to start? Well, today's your lucky day since I'm going to show you how you can easily make a banner using Placeit's YouTube banner maker, without having any prior design skills.
You'll see how easy it is to find a banner template that fits your channel's needs and then use the custom banner maker to build your own banner design.
If that sounds interesting, follow me in this quick tutorial as I will walk you through the process of using the YouTube channel banner maker.
Or if you're just looking for a ready-made YouTube banner template that you can customise for your own channel, check out these great options:
1. What Is Placeit?
Before we begin, I wanted to take a couple of moments and quickly talk about what Placeit is and how it can leverage all the hard work for you.
If you aren’t a designer yourself, most of the time that means that you won’t have access to the tools that designers usually use, such as Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Sketch, etc.
But what if sometimes you actually need to create something yourself, but don’t feel like spending a lot of money on a graphics suite that you probably won’t use all that often?
Well, when that happens, Placeit can prove to be a better fit, since it comes with a set of online tools that help you create banners, mockups, logos, etc., using just a couple of clicks.
That being said, we’re going to see how easy it is to create your very own YouTube banner design using Placeit's custom banner maker.
2. How to Access the YouTube Banner Maker
Before we can start working on the actual banner design, we first have to navigate to the correct section of the website in order to be able to access the YouTube Banner Maker.
Step 1
If you take a close look at the horizontal navigation menu found next to the Placeit logo, you’ll quickly notice that you have a category called Designs.
Step 2
As soon as you click on the link, the website will redirect you to a new page, on the left side of which you’ll find the Design Templates menu. If you go through the different template categories, you’ll quickly spot the one that we’re interested in, which is YouTube Banner Maker. Of course, you can always use the provided search function, which should bring up all the available banner templates.
Step 3
Once you’ve selected the desired category, it will bring up a library of 132 different available YouTube banner templates (at the moment of this tutorial), from which you can choose the one that you feel fits your channel’s needs best.
3. How to Use the YouTube Banner Maker
At this point, let’s say that we’ve found a banner template that looks good, and we've decided to use it on our channel.
For this tutorial, I’ve decided to go with this gaming one, which lets you adjust the look and position of its elements using interactive editing.
No matter what template you end up using, the editing layout will mostly be the same. On the left side, you’ll have all your text-related controls along with some graphics elements, while on the right side you’ll find all your background and shape-related ones. All the changes that you make will immediately be previewed within the banner itself, which is front and center, allowing you to adjust it as you please.
Step 1
Let’s start by adjusting some of the text elements found on the banner. For example, I want to change the channel’s name from The Gaming Channel to Mario Busters. To do so, I’ll simply select the text in the top-left input box, and then overwrite it with my own.
Step 2
I can easily change the font by clicking on the dropdown box found underneath, and then choosing a new one from the available list of included ones.
Step 3
If I want to, I can also change the color of my text by clicking on the little dropdown box found next to the font, which will allow me to use one of the predefined values or a new one of my own once I click on the More button. For this tutorial, I’m going to go with the value provided by the template, since I’m going to use it to build my color scheme.
Step 4
If you need to, you can completely remove the current text field (or any other one) by simply unchecking its little checkbox.
Step 5
Next, I’m going to customize the second text-based element by going through the same settings that we’ve adjusted for the channel’s name.
Step 6
If you take a look at the right side of your banner, you’ll notice that you have a little subscribe indicator, which I’m going to adjust by changing its font and color. We’re going to leave the indicator as it is for now, since we’re going to make a few more adjustments in a couple of moments.
Step 7
I then have an option called Graphic, which allows me to change the actual illustration surrounding my text-based elements using either one of the ready-made graphics or a new one of my own. Since I found that the provided elements are really high in terms of quality, I decided to go with the more rounded SNES controller.
Step 8
If we move to the right side of the site’s page, you’ll see that you have a couple more options, which allow you to further adjust the look and feel of your non-text-based elements.
The first one is called Arrow, and as the name suggests, this enables us to change the color and look of the subscribe arrow.
Step 9
Finally, we have another option called Background, which allows us to add a subtle color overlay to the actual background, which we can change using some of the provided ones.
I’m going to set the overlay to an orange-red, leaving the background graphic as the default one since I find it adds more motion to my otherwise static banner.
Step 10
If you feel that some elements could use some little adjusting, you can easily do so by clicking on them in order to bring up their bounding box, which you can then use to resize or reposition that specific element.
For example, you can move both the subscribe text and arrow a little more to the bottom. If for some reason you're not happy with your changes, you can easily undo them using the Reset Layout button.
Step 11
Once you're happy with how my banner design looks, you can easily download it by clicking on the Download button, which will charge a small fee each time you use the banner template generator.
4. How to Upload Your Banner to YouTube
So you’ve finished creating your awesome banner using Placeit’s online banner generator, but now you might be wondering how you go about using it on YouTube.
Well, first you need to make sure you have an account and are already logged in to it. Once you’re in your account, simply go to My Channel and then click anywhere within the banner section, which should bring up the upload window.
As soon as you select your file, it will give you a preview of what the banner design will look like across different devices.
Once you’re ready, all you have to do is click on the Select button and your design will be viewable by anyone who visits your channel.
Infinite Possibilities
No matter what type of YouTube channel you're starting, you can easily find a great banner template that will be a perfect fit for your content.
For example, if you want to share your love for animals with the world, you might want to check out this pets themed banner template:
If you want to become a beauty icon, then why not use this awesome cosmetics vlog banner template?
Or maybe you just want to show the world how crafty you can get using this craft blogger banner template.
Awesome Job!
As always, I hope you’ve found this tutorial useful, and if you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comments section and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can!
Expand Your Skills!
Just finished going through this quick tutorial, and feel like learning more of what it takes to become a visual tinkerer? Well, if that’s the case then you’re in luck since I’ve put together a little list which should get you up and going in no time!
Different Image File Types and Formats
What Is a Mockup?
27 Best Flyer Design Ideas Using a Flyer Maker (With Photo)
How to Make a Movie Poster Online With a Poster Creator
24 Cool Event Flyer Templates Using a Flyer Maker (Without Photoshop)
How to Make a Flyer Online With a Flyer Creator (Without Photoshop!)
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