Stand Out on YouTube: Branding
As a design studio, we know that the importance of a strong brand identity cannot be understated. This is not only the case for businesses and services, but also for musicians and YouTubers too.
YouTube is a wonderful but crowded space, with thousands of new channels being created every single day. In this sea of online content, branding is what will set you apart from the crowd. It is important to understand the magic that a strong visual identity can bring to a brand, and a YouTube channel is no different.
In this blog post, we are going to be talking about why branding your channel is a game changer. We will also be using a case study of our own work, recently done for our wonderful friends Amy and Wes from the YouTube channel Boat Time.
Standing Out From The Crowd
As we have already mentioned, thousands of YouTube channels are created every single day. It is estimated that on average, 18.15 million videos are uploaded to YouTube each week, which is a whole lot of competition! We are living in an age when attention spans are short, and so the branding of a channel needs to grab the attention of a viewer immediately.
Investing in your channel’s branding is essentially giving it a visual personality, one that your audience will remember and connect with. Branding can really level up a YouTube channel, and should consider your logo, colour palette, typography, and overall aesthetic.
First Impressions Matter
When somebody comes across a new YouTube channel, the first thing they see are the video thumbnails, the banner, profile picture and a very brief description. A well branded channel will immediately allow a viewer to get a feel for the creator and content. This moment usually results in a snap decision of whether the viewer wants to watch your videos, or continue on the search into the millions of others uploaded that week. Those first impressions are the difference between someone clicking on your videos or not. The work begins far before someone even clicks onto your videos or channel, and this is why first impressions matter so much on such an oversaturated platform.
If you have a channel, you want to make sure that your branding reflects who you are as a person, and draws in the right crowd for your type of content.
Styling Your Brand
With millions of YouTube channels out there, branding helps you carve out your own space and identity. A unique visual style, logo, and colour scheme can differentiate you from competitors. Your branding should reflect your personality, and can be fun, professional, edgy, minimalist, or whatever best represents you.
Consistent visuals create a sense of familiarity, and people are more likely to subscribe if they recognise and associate with your style.
YouTube is an extremely competitive space, and your videos need to stand out. Eye catching thumbnails with a consistent style can dramatically increase your click through rate, because they grab the attention of the viewer. The more appealing and professional your branding is, the more likely viewers are to click on your videos, watch them longer, and engage with your content. This branding will convert casual viewers into subscribers.
Brand Recognition
When you think about your favourite YouTubers, the chances are that you could recognise their videos before even reading the title. That’s the power of branding! A cohesive design, including thumbnails, fonts, colours and a logo are what makes content instantly recognisable.
Think about some of the most successful YouTube channels on the planet, they all have unmistakable logos and branding. Mr Beast, Dude Perfect and Sidemen are perfect examples of using branding cleverly to level up their channels, setting them miles apart from the competition.
YouTube channels are businesses that can earn money and create sponsorship opportunities. Brands and sponsors are more likely to collaborate with creators who have a strong, professional brand presence, and a loyal subscriber base. When your channel looks polished and stands apart from the crowd, you appear more marketable and trustworthy to potential partners or sponsors.
Credit: Denbighshire Freepress
Boat Time Case Study
In the case of Boat Time, Amy and Wes had a successful YouTube channel based around travelling the canal networks of the UK in their gorgeous narrowboat Gregory’s Girl (or G.G. to friends and viewers). After vlogging their adventures for years, their channel had started growing more and more, particularly after appearing on the Channel4 show Narrow Escapes.
As the subscribers were growing, and they were able to turn their channel into a full time job, Amy and Wes understood the importance of refreshing their channel’s branding in order to represent the refreshed, modern, professional platform that they have poured so much time and love into.
Although this sounds like a very niche area of YouTube, there are lots of channels based around narrowboat life, and lots of the channels look very similar to each other. Boat Time recognised that they wanted to gain new viewers and to create a thriving business and channel for themselves, and to do that, they would need to create a more polished and professional brand.
We had actually been long time viewers of Boat Time, and although we always loved Amy and Wes and their videos, we agreed that their current branding didn’t necessarily reflect their unique, fun, modern, vibrant personalities. So after a cuppa and a cake, we had an in depth chat with them about exactly what they wanted to achieve from rebranding their channel.
Amy and Wes knew that they wanted their channel to stand out from all of the other narrowboat ones, and they also wanted to be able to create a brand that they could use well into the future, to use across various social media platforms and merchandise. Our task was to create an entire new brand, including a logo and word mark, colour palette, typography, social media examples, merchandise examples and any other graphic elements we thought they would benefit from. We then put together a mini brand guidelines and handed over the assets to team Boat Time to roll out across their platforms.
A Breakdown Of The New Boat Time Logo
One of the most important things about rebranding to Amy and Wes, was that they wanted to refresh their channel without alienating any longtime viewers. As longtime viewers ourselves, we understood this completely, and set to work designing something bold and new, while still paying homage to their past and memories.
We had decided that a mascot was the best way to go about representing Boat Time’s personalities, because we could make it striking, instantly recognisable and fun, while adding in some easter eggs that their subscribers would understand. The use of a mascot would also translate really well to merchandise like clothing, sticks, pins and badges, and would be fun to use on social media.
The mascot that we designed, was a character formed out of a port hole that you would find on a boat, topped with a sailor’s hat, wearing Converse trainers (Amy and Wes’s favourites and old faithfuls). On the bottom of the shoes, what looks like a scuff mark is actually their initials when zoomed in close up. The backpack that the mascot holds in their hand represents their love for travel and exploring, and is also full of dog toys and rabbit food, to honour their beautiful and beloved pets, Doops and Rufus. Any viewer (or Chip Pal) of Boat Time knows their absolute love of chips, which is why the mascot just had to be holding this snack! There are so many easter eggs hidden within this design, which makes it extra personal and meaningful to both Boat Time and their viewers.
The typeface that we decided on was one that was legible but also fun and bold, with the ‘A’ in ‘Boat’ shaped to look like the front view of a narrowboat. The bright red colour clashes perfectly with the colours of the mascot, and conveys the sense of fun, fresh, vibrancy that Boat Time were looking for.
The colour palette that we chose was bright, striking and something that would definitely stand out across the other narrowboat channels on YouTube. In a sea of neutral colours, the colours we chose were bright blues, pinks, red and cream. When used in conjunction with the font and logo, this rebrand looks cohesive, professional, slick, fun and full of personality.
Every single element of this project was thought through with great detail, working in close communication with Amy and Wes to make sure that we were hitting the nail on the head, and delivering exactly what they were looking for. The end result was something unique, fun, personal and eye catching. The overwhelmingly positive reaction from their subscribers and fan base, told us that all the decisions and details had paid off.
The rebranding gave Boat Time’s YouTube channel a bold and eye catching lift, and can also be used across all future merchandise and social media platforms. One thing for sure, is that their channel and videos stand out and set them aside! It fits perfectly with their personality, content, video style and attracts the right viewers to their channel.
Whether you are a business, content creator, influencer, musician or company, it is so vitally important to get your branding right. It is what shows who you are before you have said a word, and this is even more important in the crowded world of YouTube. If you are ready to level up your YouTube channel, give yourself a better chance of standing out and representing who you are, we would highly suggest looking at your branding.
If you need helping designing your YouTube branding, please get in touch with us for a chat! We’d love to chat about this area that we are passionate about. Let’s create something amazing together!
If you would like to book us in for any design jobs in 2025, please get in contact at hello@designbynurture.com
Written by Charlene Payne.
