Add attractive text overlays to social videos

Discover how to create professional lower-thirds text with perfect placement on videos.

Published January 26, 2026

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00:01

Introduction

In need of professional lower thirds for your videos?

My name is Sydney Michuda, Creative Director of Super Creative.

In this video, I'll guide you through choosing the perfect placement for each platform.

Let's get started.

00:10

Setting up artboards for YouTube and TikTok

Create a new document and set the artboard to a standard video size for YouTube, 1920 px x 1080 px, and set the Color Mode to RGB Color for digital.

Let's add another artboard for TikTok's vertical size.

Click Document Setup, click Edit Artboards, click and hold Alt and drag a new artboard to the side.

In the properties above, click the Portrait orientation.

00:32

Preparing brand assets and video references

Bring your brand colors and fonts into the document for reference.

Bring some video screenshots into your document as well so you can test out your graphics over video examples.

Let's create some colored shapes to sit behind your text,

00:42

Designing lower third layouts and text hierarchy

so your info is nice and legible.

With the Rectangle Tool, create a shape aligned to the left side of your artboard and change the shape's color to one of your main brand colors.

Bring the type to the front by clicking Object, Arrange, and Bring to Front.

Using the Type Tool and your brand fonts type out a placeholder name for the headline.

Place this text over the new shape.

Repeat this process, so we can add a description line below.

Create a new, smaller rectangle that ends before the first.

Place a script or copy like a job title or details about the headline.

Make sure the font is smaller than the text above, since it's more of a subhead.

You can keep the graphics super simple or jazz it up with brand assets like this example.

01:23

Adapting lower thirds for vertical video safe zones

Vertical social media videos have a lot of text and graphics to avoid.

Use a safe zone template to know where to put your graphics so they remain visible.

Duplicate the graphics from YouTube and drag them to your TikTok artboard.

Position them about halfway up the layout, so they stay in the safe zone and avoid the platform graphics.

Adjust the design if needed to fit the space, then delete the safe zone template.

To turn these into a template,

01:47

Saving and exporting lower thirds as reusable templates

remove the background image, save your work as an .ai file, and then open them in Adobe Express, where you can easily add them to video and edit away.

Now you have the tools and process to create streamlined lower third graphics for your videos.

Again, my name is Sydney Michuda of Super Creative.

Give it a try yourself and share your results.

Note: Stock assets provided are for practice purposes only. See terms.

What you’ll learn

Create artboards sized for popular video formats

Set up artboards sized correctly for platforms like YouTube and TikTok, using landscape and portrait orientations as needed.

Gather and lay out visual elements

Assemble brand colors, graphics, and fonts on the canvas and a static image representing the video. Experiment with text layouts, and for vertical formats, use a safe-zone template to ensure visibility around platform graphics.

Save your text overlays as a template

Clear out the background graphics, save your work as an Illustrator file, and bring it to Adobe Express to confidently apply your attractive, on-brand, and highly visible text overlays to your social videos.

Instruction by: Sydney Michuda
Design by: Sydney Michuda
Adobe Stock Contributors: Drazen; Liubomir

Try these tutorials with Illustrator

Create illustrations and other graphics with vectors.

View all plans

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