YouTube Banner: Which one looks best?

[Former Member]

Banner 1



Or



Banner 2



I really like both. But on the Mage Productions color will change if the second one is chosen.

[Star's Legacy]

I like the second one as the text kind of pops out at me and is easily readable. The first one just feels too dark overall to me.

[Former Member]

Yeah, I am leaning towards that too.

Here is one with the Mage Productions lightened up. 

[Kami]

The second one in your OP is more legible. I'd honestly stay away from the whole red/black gamer theme bc it's 1) way over done, there's literal memes about it; 2) with the bevel it's hard to read.

I will say I find your use of drop shadow / bevel to be a little overkill. If you're going to use a bevel (which, I don't personally find attractive and it seems to be a bit outdated in terms of current trends, but tastes vary) then I'd stay away from straight black shadowing + black dropshadow. You gotta create some contrast, but there comes a point where it's overbearing and winds up muting your text.

The biggest critique I have at this moment is - I don't see the point of "Mage Productions" being so out of the way but with a massive dropshadow that draws your eye to it. Why not place it above the top divider line, befor your name, and change it to "Mage Productions Presents" or something along that line? As it is, it seems disjoined and doesn't seem necessary. Adding it as a brand name, of sorts, will help first-time viewers understand that it's connected to other stuff. I'd also really, really, really lessen the drop shadow. You want the focus to be on "Nick Bean".

A few aesthetic nitpicks:

- the social media texts and icons are not horizontally aligned with each other

- i don't think the swoopy white things on either end are necessary and kind of detract from your name

-- sub point to the above: if you really want to use them, drop the opacity and place them UNDER the bar layer(s). them being overlaid detracts, I think.

- your mileage my vary but I think the lil mage guy would look better if he weren't resting on the bottom bar, and more between the two social media icons.

- sorry i keep harping on the bevel / drop shadow: if you can't find a way to make the text legible without it, you may need to rethink the colours you are using. Drops and bevels should be subtle.

- use better kerning so that your letters are equally spaced apart. You may need to rasterise the layer or use individual layers for letters and put the layers in a smart layer.



Overall tho I have to say that this is a heck of a lot better than your earlier attempts at a youtube banner and I'm glad to see improvement.

[Former Member]

I will actually go an edit this through what you stated and will try it.

I didn't know there were meme's about it. XD I know there are literally meme's about intro videos with bouncing text that goes with a song. It's become a trend upon kids who play minecraft.



You have a real good eye on the alignment of the links. I had to really zoom in to tell the difference. xD Or do you mean the text and the social media Icons?



I do love drop shadows. I can lessen them. I always liked the drop shadow as it was the most coolest thing when I started out years ago.



I'm trying to create an ice effect, since it looks icy. Otherwise the Fire Mage would have been the red one. Whilst the Ice one is the bottom one.



With the bevel and all that it just looks flat and I can't for the life of me figure out how to make it pop without it.
:/

I am unsure what a smart layer is. Rethink the colors in the bg? or on the text?

Here is what I got out of it. It looks flat now. Looks really plain looking. 

Thank you! I am trying to improve! I am stuck on some things though.

[Kami]

@ncbean - as you know this is my job so yes i have a good eye for it :P

I understand the thing about bevels and drop shadows. they were cool when i first started too but as a whole design has moved almost entirely past it.

if you'd like -- and only if you'd like -- im bored rn and if you want to send me a link to the .psd i can fiddle with it to show you how I'd personally do something like this?

[Former Member]

I actually did not know that! That is actually quite cool. I knew you designed but didn't realize it was your job.

I guess I am stuck in the early 2000's then? XD

Sure, I'll PM you.

[Kami]

Jan 5, 2017 0:44:22 GMT -8 @ncbean said:

I actually did not know that! That is actually quite cool. :D I knew you designed but didn't realize it was your job.

I guess I am stuck in the early 2000's then? XD

Sure, I'll PM you.

I swear I told you I was a professional freelancer. *scratches head* Maybe I'm confused. I focus more on illustration right now but yeah (:

A little bit stuck yeah ;x It hasn't really been in style for a long time.

[Former Member]

Jan 5, 2017 0:47:08 GMT -8 Kami said:

Jan 5, 2017 0:44:22 GMT -8 @ncbean said:

I actually did not know that! That is actually quite cool. I knew you designed but didn't realize it was your job.

I guess I am stuck in the early 2000's then? XD

Sure, I'll PM you.

I swear I told you I was a professional freelancer. *scratches head* Maybe I'm confused. I focus more on illustration right now but yeah (:

A little bit stuck yeah ;x It hasn't really been in style for a long time.

Possibly. I don't remember. So much has happened this past year I tend to forget. :/

I liked 16-17 year old me playing with Photoshop in school. xD But I guess 10 years later Things tend to change. haha.

[Kami]

Jan 5, 2017 0:53:53 GMT -8 @ncbean said:

Jan 5, 2017 0:47:08 GMT -8 Kami said:

I swear I told you I was a professional freelancer. *scratches head* Maybe I'm confused. I focus more on illustration right now but yeah (:

A little bit stuck yeah ;x It hasn't really been in style for a long time.

Possibly. I don't remember. So much has happened this past year I tend to forget. :/

I liked 16-17 year old me playing with Photoshop in school. xD But I guess 10 years later Things tend to change. haha.

Yeah definitely. I'd start looking up contemporary design trends if you're interested in learning. I got your PM as you know and I'll get back to you when my internet lets me remote desktop again.

[Kami]

@ncbean  - okay so I have two versions for you, and I'll explain what I did for each.

Major Change - Content Size: I noticed that you had a template for sizing in the .psd you sent. Your original attempt exceeded the minimum width which is a huge design no. The template is there for a reason, so exceeding the boundaries of the smallest allowed size means that you are by definition going to cut your banner off. The trick is to make sure that your content is legible for all sizes while staying in the confines of the smallest boundary.

Major Change - Font Squash: Do not do not do not distort your typeface lmao. It makes the text look blurred and distorted. If you don't like the natural height or width, find another font. There are very few instances where distorting typeface looks good... actually that's arguable. I'd personally say there are no instances where this looks good; if you need the text to have a distorted effect, you're better off using text effects (if you're not very proficient) or designing custom typeface in illustrator.

Major Change - No Bevel / Gradients: I hate bevels lmao. Unless I'm specifically looking for a raised effect I don't use them -- it's rare that I find raised effects necessary, too, unless I'm designing something that is supposed to look like it's embossed on fabric or metal or something like that.

Minor Change - Added "Mage Productions Presents": I thought this was cute and unifies your 'brand' of YouTube. I know you want to become a YT success, which is an admirable goal, so creating brand unity will help you and help people recognise when you branch out to different genres of video.

Minor Change - Moved Dividers: Surrounding "Nick Bean Gaming" with the line dividers draws the immediate focus to the channel name, rather than everything else. The other stuff is still noticeable, but creating a focal point helps the image not look so busy.

Minor Change - Second font: I used a sans-serif font (mixing a sans-serif and serif font tends to produce good results) for the less important text ("Mage Productions..", and your social media handles). The font name is "SketchFlow Print".

Addition - Reflection + Ice: I also added a reflection to the "Nick Bean Gaming" text. This was done by duplicating and rasterising the text. I then moved the duplicated layer under the original, and transformed the text to be flipped vertically. For the fade effect: layer > layer mask > reveal all. Set background and foreground colours to white and black respectively, and drag along the layer mask to get an appropriate fade. Then add fliter > pixellate > mezzotint (medium point) and add filter > blur > motion blur > distance: 180 degrees.

---

Version 1: This version tries to keep your original colour scheme. I added some filter effects in order to give it a frosted over look, and darkened the colours so the white text was legible.

The frosted over look was created by creating a new layer and filling it with white, then going to filter > pixellate > mezzotint (medium point), then setting the layer mode to screen and playing with the opacity.

The background colour was darkened by going to image > adjustments > levels.

I also made your social media handles vertically aligned with the social media icons, and set them an equal distance from the centre of the mage image. I also moved the mage image to be centred, and an equal distance from the bottom of the second divider and the end of the bleed area.





Version 2: I took your "ice mage" thing to heart here and tried to create an even more obvious frosty / ice effect. The biggest difference between this and the first version is that I added two layers to the background. Layer one is a muted green colour (#607c75) placed under your original gradient. I set the original gradient to blend mode: overlay @ 78%. I then created a new layer, and set it to filter > render > clouds and set it to blend mode: overlay @ 100%. Lastly, I created another new layer, filled it with white and set it to filter > pixellate > mezzotint (medium point). I then inverted the colours and set the layer blend mode to screen @ 52%.




NOTICE: I actually used drop shadows. The key here isn't NEVER using them, it's knowing how to do so subtly to enhance the text, not over compensate for legibility issues.


    
I can send you the .psd later if you want, as my internet is messing up again and won't upload the .psd to my server :|


Hopefully this helps! Let me know if you have any questions. Obviously you don't have to use these / do things like I do, but this is an example of how you can achieve a readable, "ice" effect without resorting to bevels and harsh dropshadows / early 2000s design trends. (:

[Former Member]

Wow. Those are amazing! When drop shadowing I usually use what is default. I need to learn a lot more. lol. Both Carla and I agree on the first one. I like both. They are amazing. But I think the darker colors really bring out the text a little more. Going between mine and your 2. It really looks legible to read! If you want to put your watermark in you can. Also if you'd like I can add your name into my description. A LOT of youtubers are looking for designers, where they are willing to pay! So, if you want I can add that you redesigned the image. A PSD will work. Especially since I can go over it and study what you've done and learn from it!

Thank you again!

edit: I did have to reopen it in photoshop and make the file size smaller. YouTube for some reason only allows I think 4MB max upload for banners. Which is weird. Because the current one I uploaded was 5.36MB the other day...

Yours



Mine


It looks a lot better. I just need to redo my "Mug shot" haha. So I either A. Need to make a text image, or try to figure out how to pose for the avatar. I want it to be "me" though. Not a character. 


EDIT: Oh and the PSD would be nice when you are able to get that uploaded. As the Facebook link is wrong. xD it's supposed to be 09. 04 is my actual facebook, whilst 09 is my like page. >.< I need consistent URL's tbh. for Darkmage4 was taken at the time for FB apparently. and the twitter handle darkmage4 is also taken as well. :/
I met a darkmage5 on the PSN a long time ago. So apparently the name is used a lot.

[Kami]

Im glad you like it! I'm feeling a bit under the weather right now but I'll fix that up tomorrow and upload the .psd for you. the file size is probable large because of the preserved layer info (pngs don't compress as much as jpgs do) so i'll also provide a flattened version that should be smaller in size.

As far as credit that's sweet of you! I don't watermark my designs for other people because it takes the focus away from their branding which defeats the purpose of what I was designing. Send me a PM and I'll give you the link to my site so if anyone asks you can give it to them (:

(as a side note i do illustrations too ;p )

[Former Member]

Good work shouldn't go unnoticed. You changed a disaster into a masterpiece! I will PM you! Thank you!