hawkazThumbnails · Titles · Editing

Packaging for documentary channels.

Thumbnail and title, designed as one piece and built from the videos already breaking out in your niche. Editing too, for documentaries of 15 to 25 minutes.

Send me your next video See the work
hawkaz as a kid in a bow tie, pen in hand, in front of a gold circle.
Redesign: colorized aerial photo of Fort Drum under bombardment, smoke over the deck, with 3,000 HITS in white and 0 DEAD in red.
Case 01 · Hidden History · The fort that took 3,000 hits.
Redesign: the bow of a broken container ship sinking in rough sea with its container stacks still on deck, a red arrow and the words BROKE IN HALF.
Case 02 · Nauctis · The ship that broke in half.
Redesign: three older Nvidia gaming cards glowing green in a dark room, with the words NOT FOR AI.
Case 03 · CodeSource · It was never meant for AI.
Redesign: a cartoon dam split in two, with crossed-out eyes and water bursting through, under an angry storm cloud at night, with the words 26,000 DEAD.
Case 04 · The Interpreter · The one that killed 26,000.
Redesign: a radiotherapy operator console with Malfunction 54 on a green terminal and a red beam button, with the words 100x THE DOSE in yellow and white.
Case 05 · Paul McAllister · The screen that lied.
1 / 5 Click or swipe the stack

Recent work · on spec

Real channels, redone.

Thumbnails from documentary channels I'd like to work with, rebuilt from what is already breaking out in their niche. None of them are clients.

See each case

The work

Redesigns

Thumbnails from real documentary channels, redone on spec. None of these channels are clients. Judge the idea first: each redesign is a draft made in a day, and a finished thumbnail follows your channel's own style.

Case 01

Hidden History

98.5K subscribers · WW2 naval history

On spec · not a client

The original idea

A gray ship and an arrow.

The new idea

The fort that took 3,000 hits.

Click the print behind to bring it forward.

The video
America's Secret Unsinkable Battleship. Fort Drum, the island in Manila Bay the US Army shaved flat and rebuilt as a concrete battleship.
What I saw
A gray block on gray water, with a red arrow pointing at it. At feed size it is a smudge, and nothing says why this ship matters.
What I changed
The video's own aerial shot of the fort being shelled, colorized, and the number the narrator repeats twice. Two lines, read in a second.

The three titles · click one to try it below

How it looks on YouTube, where it gets judged.

Thumbnail
Title

Suggested, next to a video · 168 px

15:11

How Stalin Stole 155 Warships from Germany

Hidden History

66K views · 3 days ago

13:20

America Turned an Island Into a Concrete Battleship

Hidden History

7.5K views · 1 month ago

13:31

The Most Unlikely Naval Victory of WW2

Hidden History

598K views · 10 days ago

If it doesn't read here, it doesn't ship.

Home feed

13:20

America Turned an Island Into a Concrete Battleship

Hidden History

7.5K views · 1 month ago

Views and dates are this video's real ones today, the same in both versions. A new thumbnail comes with a better chance at the click, never with a promised number.

Case 02

Nauctis

198K subscribers · ship engineering and megaprojects

On spec · not a client

The original idea

Two ships on a calm sea.

The new idea

The ship that broke in half.

Click the print behind to bring it forward.

The video
The biggest container ship disasters, led by the MOL Comfort: it cracked in rough seas in 2013, broke in half and took more than 4,000 containers down with it.
What I saw
A video about ships breaking apart and sinking, and a thumbnail of two ships sailing in peace. At sidebar size it read as a logistics video.
What I changed
The channel's own footage of the bow going under with the stacks still on it. The house style stays: one big real scene, a short yellow and white line, the red arrow.

The three titles · click one to try it below

How it looks on YouTube, where it gets judged.

Thumbnail
Title

Suggested, next to a video · 168 px

13:14

What Happens When a Giant Crane Lifts a Shipping Container?

Nauctis

18K views · 8 days ago

13:16

The Ship That Took 4,000 Containers to the Bottom of the Ocean

Nauctis

1.2K views · 12 days ago

13:30

How Billion-Dollar Cruise Ships Actually Make Money

Nauctis

7.3K views · 2 weeks ago

If it doesn't read here, it doesn't ship.

Home feed

13:16

The Ship That Took 4,000 Containers to the Bottom of the Ocean

Nauctis

1.2K views · 12 days ago

Views and dates are this video's real ones today, the same in both versions. A new thumbnail comes with a better chance at the click, never with a promised number.

Case 03

CodeSource

104K subscribers · history of software

On spec · not a client

The original idea

Nvidia won.

The new idea

It was never meant for AI.

Click the print behind to bring it forward.

The video
The story of CUDA: how a free feature on gaming cards became the moat behind the AI boom.
What I saw
A strong topic and a famous face, but the thumbnail tells the ending, Nvidia won, instead of the twist.
What I changed
The twist up front: old gaming cards glowing in a dark room, and three words. CUDA was never meant for AI.

The three titles · click one to try it below

How it looks on YouTube, where it gets judged.

Thumbnail
Title

Suggested, next to a video · 168 px

13:09

How curl Quietly Took Over the World

CodeSource

84K views · 1 month ago

14:54

How Two Gaming Cards in a Bedroom Made CUDA Unavoidable

CodeSource

29K views · 13 days ago

17:33

The Untold Story of Redis

CodeSource

76K views · 1 month ago

If it doesn't read here, it doesn't ship.

Home feed

14:54

How Two Gaming Cards in a Bedroom Made CUDA Unavoidable

CodeSource

29K views · 13 days ago

Views and dates are this video's real ones today, the same in both versions. A new thumbnail comes with a better chance at the click, never with a promised number.

Case 04

The Interpreter

79K subscribers · disasters explained in cartoons

On spec · not a client

The original idea

Nine dams in a row.

The new idea

The one that killed 26,000.

Click the print behind to bring it forward.

The video
Every worst dam disaster, from Malpasset to Derna. The worst of them, Banqiao in China, killed 26,000 by the official count, and the details stayed hidden for twenty years.
What I saw
Nine small dams with captions on a white background. At sidebar size it turned into wallpaper, with no focal point, and the white melted into the YouTube page.
What I changed
One dam, in the channel's own cartoon style, big and bursting on a stormy night. Next to it, the number the video gives and the old thumbnail didn't: 26,000 dead.

The three titles · click one to try it below

How it looks on YouTube, where it gets judged.

Thumbnail
Title

Suggested, next to a video · 168 px

15:57

Every Budget Airline Disaster Explained in 16 Minutes

The Interpreter

9.7K views · 2 months ago

15:17

The Worst Dam Failure in History Was Hidden for 20 Years

The Interpreter

5.3K views · 2 months ago

14:18

Every Worst Airbus A300 Crash Explained in 14 Minutes

The Interpreter

7.4K views · 2 months ago

If it doesn't read here, it doesn't ship.

Home feed

15:17

The Worst Dam Failure in History Was Hidden for 20 Years

The Interpreter

5.3K views · 2 months ago

Views and dates are this video's real ones today, the same in both versions. A new thumbnail comes with a better chance at the click, never with a promised number.

Case 05

Paul McAllister

111K subscribers · dark histories of American companies and towns

On spec · not a client

The original idea

An empty treatment room.

The new idea

The screen that lied.

Click the print behind to bring it forward.

The video
The Therac-25: the radiation machine that gave patients about 100 times the prescribed dose between 1985 and 1987, while its screen showed almost none.
What I saw
"Therac-25" is a model number, and it means nothing to most people at sidebar size. The scene was an empty, clean treatment room, with no danger in it.
What I changed
The operator's console from the video: Malfunction 54 glowing green, the beam button beside it, and the number the screen hid. The channel's yellow stays; the scene moves to the screen that lied.

The three titles · click one to try it below

How it looks on YouTube, where it gets judged.

Thumbnail
Title

Suggested, next to a video · 168 px

54:05

Why America Stopped Shopping at Kmart

Paul McAllister

218K views · 6 days ago

56:19

The Radiation Machine That Said It Never Fired

Paul McAllister

3.3K views · 2 weeks ago

54:05

The Most Impossible Rise of a Company Ever: Avon

Paul McAllister

14K views · 3 days ago

If it doesn't read here, it doesn't ship.

Home feed

56:19

The Radiation Machine That Said It Never Fired

Paul McAllister

3.3K views · 2 weeks ago

Views and dates are this video's real ones today, the same in both versions. A new thumbnail comes with a better chance at the click, never with a promised number.

What you get

Pricing

Packaging

Per video

  • Three concepts, each built from a video outperforming in your niche right now
  • The final thumbnail, plus an editable copy
  • Three titles written with the thumbnail, so the two never say the same thing
  • Checked at 168 px, next to the videos it will be suggested beside
  • Two rounds of changes on the concept you pick

Concepts in 2 days. The final 1 day after you pick.

$75First video

Then $120 per video.

For weekly channels

Monthly

Packaging · 4 videos a month

  • Everything in Packaging, for four videos
  • $100 a video instead of $120
  • Made for channels that post every week
  • Starts after your first video at $75

Same timeline, every video.

$400Per month

Four videos, paid upfront each month.

Editing

Per video · 15 to 25 minutes

  • The full edit, from your script and voiceover
  • Every claim on screen with its source: documents, headlines, archive
  • Archive footage and b-roll found and cut to the word
  • A cold open planned shot by shot
  • Sound mixed for YouTube, color, and a captions file
  • Two rounds of notes

First cut in 10 days.

$400First video

Then $650 per video.

Not included: scripts, voiceover, paid stock, and running your thumbnail tests. Scope, date and price are agreed in writing before I start.

The method

Clicks that stay

YouTube's own thumbnail test doesn't pick the winner by clicks. It picks it by watch time. A click that leaves in ten seconds counts against you, so I don't design for clicks. I design for the viewer who stays. Every thumbnail passes four checks before you see it.

  1. 1

    Start next to your video

    Most views come from suggestions. The videos breaking out in your niche, the ones yours will sit beside, set the direction.

  2. 2

    One sentence first

    What the viewer loves, the state it's in now, and who did it. If the idea doesn't fit in a sentence, no image will save it.

  3. 3

    The video keeps the promise

    The image, or what it promises, shows up in the first seconds of the video. Whoever clicked knows they're in the right place.

  4. 4

    Thumbnail and title split the job

    They never say the same thing. And both have to read at 168 px, the size of a suggested video.

How it works: send the topic and the upload date. You get three concepts in two days, each with the reason behind it. Pick one, and the final files arrive the day after, with two rounds of changes.

hawkaz

Who's behind it

One person. hawkaz.

I make thumbnails, titles and edits for documentary channels. Every concept starts from what is already breaking out in your niche, and nothing ships until it reads at feed size.

You talk to the person doing the work, and you get a reply within a day.

Before you write

Questions

Can you promise more views?

No. Nobody honestly can. What I can promise is the method. Every concept starts from what your audience already clicks, and you see it at feed size before it goes live.

Do you use AI?

For backgrounds and textures, sometimes. Never for a real person's face, and never for anything whose authenticity is the point of the video.

What do you need from me?

The topic and the upload date. Then your channel's rules: fonts, faces, colors, anything off-limits.

My channel is on this page. Can you take it down?

Yes, the same day. Write to hawkaz@hawkaz.media and the case comes off, no questions asked.

How do I pay?

By invoice, in US dollars, by card or bank transfer. The first video is paid upfront. Editing is half upfront and half on delivery.

Send me your next video.

The topic and the upload date are enough to start. I reply within a day.

Or write to hawkaz@hawkaz.media