Thumbnail Designer

YouTube Thumbnail Designer — College Football Channel (Monthly Retainer) Channel: TGR Football Discussion Niche: College football film breakdowns, player evaluations, team evaluations, takes on the sport Engagement: Ongoing monthly retainer Volume: 3–5 thumbnails per week (roughly 12–20/month) Turnaround: 24 hours from brief to first draft Location: Remote, but must have meaningful overlap with US Central Time About the channel I run a college football YouTube channel covering film breakdowns, player and team evaluations, and takes across the sport. Content is reactive — when news breaks, a game ends, or a transfer portal move happens, a video goes up fast. Thumbnails are the single biggest lever on whether those videos get watched, and I need a designer who treats them that way. What you'll do Design 3–5 YouTube thumbnails per week (1280×720, under 2MB) based on a written brief with the video title, angle, and any specific players/teams involved Source your own imagery — player photos, team logos, stadium shots, stat graphics — and handle cutouts, background removal, and compositing Design thumbnail text that reads clearly at mobile size (assume the viewer sees it at about the size of a postage stamp) Deliver 1–2 concepts per video, then one round of revisions Build and maintain a consistent visual identity across the channel while keeping individual thumbnails distinct Occasionally produce A/B variants for videos I want to test What I need from you Required: A portfolio with sports thumbnails in it — football preferred, but basketball, soccer, or any team sport works. I want to see you've done this specific job, not general graphic design. Photoshop proficiency. Clean cutouts, realistic lighting and shadow, believable compositing. Bad edge work is the fastest way to make a thumbnail look amateur. Strong typography instincts — hierarchy, weight, contrast, and legibility at small sizes Reliable 24-hour turnaround, including some weekends during the season (late August through early January) Clear, responsive communication. If something's going to be late, I need to know before the deadline, not after. Strongly preferred: Actual knowledge of college football. Knowing who a player is, what a team's colors and uniforms look like, and why a matchup matters means I spend less time explaining the brief. Familiarity with what performs on sports YouTube — you should be able to look at a thumbnail and tell me why it works Experience designing for both YouTube and short-form vertical formats Not required: Video editing, motion graphics, or channel branding work. This role is thumbnails. How we'll work I send a brief with the video title, the angle, and any must-include players or teams You return 1–2 concepts within 24 hours I give notes; you deliver the final within 12 hours of feedback Files delivered as PNG or JPG, plus the layered PSD Weekly check-in on what performed and what didn't — I share CTR data and I expect us to iterate on it What I'm looking for in your application Please include: Your portfolio — link me directly to sports thumbnails, not a general design site One thumbnail you're proud of, and why it worked. Tell me what the design choice was and what result it drove. This is the part I read most closely. Your weekly capacity and your typical turnaround Your availability during football season, specifically Saturday nights and Sunday mornings Your rate — per thumbnail and as a monthly retainer for 12–20 thumbnails Applications without a sports-specific portfolio won't move forward.