Menno Visser is a 31 year young thumbnail designer from the Netherlands, now specializing more in what makes a good video and of course the good ol’ thumbnails.
He got started in late 2022 while teaching himself Photoshop alongside his full-time job in logistics. After seeing a thumbnail on his homepage that he felt could be better, he challenged himself to redesign it.
Since then, he has worked with fitness creators like Jesse James West, Jeff Nippard, and has been with vidIQ for nearly two years. Besides thumbnails, his work there now also covers A/B testing, channel management and contributing with ideation, target audience, market research and overall packaging.
Twitter (X) → x.com/Menno__Visser
Website → mennovissermedia.com
Featured design
Overview
At first the video was going to be titled along the lines of “AI has taken over YouTube” and when I read the script I started to gather some visuals that I thought were worth exploring. It needed to tap into this fear that a lot of us have in the creator economy. You know that AI is coming and that we need to protect ourselves against it. It was a good angle, but it could be better. Therefore we decided to go with a survive-angle as it created more urgency and allowed for more creativity.
With that shift we could emphasize that fear even more. We did explore some other options as well, but it didn’t look as urgent nor as dynamic. Whereas, on the other hand, the concept of AI trying to barge through the door is something I could envision working well with Dan on the other side trying to push back.
Initial Brainstorm
When starting out I like to make a moodboard which basically means that I am dumping thumbnails (read: thoughts) in a way that makes sense for me, so nothing gets lost.
Inspiration moodboard
The right side made for one version, but as mentioned, that lacked urgency and wasn’t dynamic as the left side of the moodboard.
When I was working on the concept of AI barging in, it sparked an idea of the subject, Dan, holding the door with a cyborg poking through kind of like that iconic scene from the Shining.
That got me hooked. I shot a picture of what I roughly wanted it to look like by using myself in too comfortable clothes as a subject.
I was wondering what it would look like mirrored? That turned out to look better and the timestamp wouldn’t cover anything of importance. The team wanted to see what it would look like if Dan would try to keep the door closed from the AI icons flooding in.
We did have a version of that.
But to me there was too much going on. AI needed to be personified like Mack did with the cyborg as seen in the moodboard. Dan provided me with a custom asset and voila.
Unlayered
Workstation
This setup is intentionally minimal as I’m currently between spaces and preparing for a move, so everything is kept functional and lightweight. It’s a bit improvised, but it does the job. I am definitely looking forward to upgrading once the move is there.
Hardware
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU (8 GB VRAM)
RAM: 32 GB
Software
Photoshop
ChatGPT / Freepik
Ideogram
Notion
What do you enjoy most about creating thumbnails?
On the strategy side, I really like to dive into the audience research. Trying to understand them, what are their fears, their desires, what intrigues them and where are they now that we can leverage to make the packaging resonate as well as we can with the audience. I am pretty sure this comes from my background of communication where I also enjoyed working on that.
From a design perspective, my favorite moment is when all the assets are all there, especially when given custom assets by the creator, and it becomes about making everything cohesive as one unified thumbnails.
How to become a thumbnail designer in 2026?
I am going to start like a granddad by saying ‘back in my day’.. no, but really back in my day it was pretty straightforward. I would come across thumbnails that I genuinely felt could be improved, so I just redesigned them. I reached out to said creator and eventually landed myself my first paid gig. Awesome!
The issue then was that I worked with assets with that I screenshotted from the video and they were limiting. However nowadays, with AI that is no longer an issue. AI should be part of everyone’s workflow and I am still working hard on that as the skill floor has been raised massively by it.
At the end of the day it still comes down to putting in the reps. I honestly think the best way to level up and get your name out there is by participating in the challenges that Joseph is running weekly in the Thumbnails 101 Discord server. Some of the work coming out of there is honestly incredible and I were a creator looking for new talent then I would consider it a goldmine of new thumbnail designers.
Best thumbnail you've ever made?
While I’m also really proud of my more recent work, I decided to go with a thumbnail I made three years ago. Why? I think it’s a more impressive thumbnail, because of where I was at just starting out.
Best thumbnail you've ever seen?
There’s plenty to choose from Ryan Trahan as his work is very influential for what you see on YouTube. You could argue that this one doesn’t highlight his creativity as much as other work from him, but I do think it turned out great and I remember being very impressed by it when it came out. Maybe it’s the soft spot for Pokémon, who really knows.
If you found this edition of Unlayered helpful, please consider sharing it with someone who might benefit from this workflow too! 💙