Muhammad Ehtisham is a high school student from Pakistan who designs YouTube thumbnails. He began exploring different skills at an early age and discovered his interest in thumbnail design in 2022.
Recently, he has been focusing on creating thumbnails for documentaries and is also expanding his skill set to include logo design and video editing. Ehtisham is available for hire.
Twitter (X) > x.com/Ehtishamvisuals
Instagram > instagram.com/ehtisham.designs
YT Jobs → ytjobs.co/@ehtisham
Featured design
The Hunt For The World’s Most Dangerous Hacker // Practice
Overview
This thumbnail was a practice project. I came up with the title based on The Hunt For North Korea's Most Wanted Hackers video. The overall art style was inspired by the vibrant, stylized look of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
Style inspiration
Composition Inspiration
Starting asset
Rough design
Editing Process
Logos
To give that logo a sense of hackers, I used Google's Nano Banana to blend the "Lazarus" logo into Hacker Mask & used them several times in the thumbnail.
Google AI Studio
Subject
For the subject, I did a basic face-retouch & then added some extra highlights & shadows to make his face stand out more, to give it an artistic look, I used "Filter Gallery" & added "Cutout" filter on it, just to give artistic/painted look
RGB Effect
I found a RGB/Retro kind of texture on Google & I turned down its opacity by 50% & changed the blending mode to "Soft Light" & I also added so much chromatic aberration on different stuff.
Text
I used the same approach for the text by adding another RGB texture on it & changing the blending mode to "Multiply".
Polish
For final polish, it’s mostly camera raw filter & adding chromatic aberration to give it more RGB style similar to the style of the movie.
Unlayered
Workstation
Tools
Adobe Photoshop
Gemini (Nano Banana)
Google
PC Specs
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GT 730
RAM: 16 GB
Storage: 500 GB HDD + 100 GB SSD
1. Why thumbnail design? What makes it special to you?
I tried many skills before, including coding, web design, SEO, etc., but thumbnail design really clicks for me because it’s a mix of story, emotion and design. Its special for me because sometimes it's dark, bright sometimes cartoony, realistic.
2. You experiment with a lot of different styles — how do you decide which direction to go for a new thumbnail?
I scroll through Pinterest to find new and unique styles. I choose or sometimes mix two styles that I find there. I only pick the styles that grab my attention the most and convey the emotions that you want to show in the thumbnail. I’d say Pinterest is a gold mine for me!
3. If you could master one new skill this year to level up your thumbnails, what would you pick?
I’ll learn more about AI because AI nowadays is a game-changer skill. I see tons of designers using it every day. Adapt to AI quickly because it will change your game forever, trust me. Whoever isn’t using AI effectively for their work might get replaced by the designers who are using it.
4. For beginners who want to get into thumbnail design but don’t know where to start, what’s the simplest advice you’d give?
Someone who is a beginner should study the great designers in the industry, because this is very important for me. I see many designers blindly making thumbnails in their own bubble, not joining communities or following great designers and studying them. The more you study others, the better you become.
5. You’ve started expanding into logo design and video editing — what made you want to branch out?
It’s because some of my thumbnail clients demand video editing or logo design, which I don’t know how to do, so I started learning the basics of them. That sparked my interest in these skills, so I thought of giving them a try.
6. Best thumbnail you’ve ever made?
Design by Ehtisham
7. Best thumbnail you’ve ever seen?
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