Thumbnail Projects Overview
Understand what thumbnail projects are, how the workspace is organized, and how a project's cover image surfaces back on your Ideas.
A thumbnail project is the whole workflow for one video's thumbnail, kept in a single place. Instead of trading PNGs over Slack and losing track of which version is current, your team brainstorms directions, drafts concepts, iterates on designs, collects approvals, and ships a final — all inside one project.
Each project is really a small A/B/C/D testing workspace. You can explore several concepts (distinct thumbnail directions) side by side, take the strongest ones into full design, and let reviewers approve the winner. Because multiple projects can link to the same Idea, you can even run competing thumbnails for one video.
Where thumbnail projects live
Every Channel has a Thumbnails page — the gallery of every thumbnail project in that Channel. Open it from the Channel's tab bar.
Each card summarizes a project at a glance: its cover image, status, due date, concept and iteration counts, open comments, and approvals. Use New project to start one from scratch.
The toolbar lets you search, filter (by status, due date, open comments, and more), sort, and switch layouts.
Three layouts are available for the gallery — Gallery, Kanban, and List — so you can review the same projects as rich cards, a status board, or a compact table.
Inside a project
Opening a project drops you into its workspace: a header with the title, linked Idea, and share/notify actions, plus a tab bar for the five stages of the workflow.
- Brainstorm
A freeform mood board for references, sticky notes, sketches, and links — plus a brief and a discussion thread. See The Brainstorm Tab.
- Concepts
Lay out competing thumbnail directions as lanes, react and vote, and collect approvals. See The Concepts Tab.
- Iterate
A zoomable review canvas where designs progress v1 → v2 → v3 with pin, region, and sketch feedback. See The Iterate Tab.
- Assets
The project's photos, graphics, mockups, docs, and links — plus your whole team's shared library and an AI mockup generator. See The Assets Tab.
- Designer Panel
A designer-focused dashboard of status, assignments, what needs attention, and a live feedback feed. See The Designer Panel.
Link a project to an Idea
A thumbnail project can be linked to an Idea so the thumbnail stays attached to the video it supports. Link one from the project header, from the Idea window's Thumbnails tab, or when you create the project.
The payoff shows up back in the Idea Catalog: a linked project's derived cover image appears on your Ideas. Bluprint picks the cover automatically — a final-flagged iteration first, otherwise the latest design, otherwise the latest draft.
That cover can show up in the Idea Catalog three ways:
- On grid cards (shown above).
- On kanban cards.
- As a dedicated thumbnail column in the table layout.
Common mistakes
Treating every concept like a separate project
Keep competing directions for the same video as concepts inside one project — that is what makes side-by-side review and A/B decisions easy. Use separate projects only when you genuinely want separate, independently linked thumbnails.
Expecting a cover on an Idea with no linked project
The Idea Catalog cover comes from a linked thumbnail project that has at least one iteration. Link the project to the Idea and upload a draft or design, and the cover appears automatically.