Whether you’re a pro live streamer or just a beginner, you already know how important stream design can be to your success. Overlays, logos, alerts and banners create a unique image and show your dedication to your stream’s branding, which attracts more viewers. Luckily, there are tons of amazing tools that can help you create the perfect graphics, including live stream overlay makers and banner makers.
In this guide, you’ll learn about the best tools and resources to help you make custom banners, overlays and other assets for your live stream.
Quick answer: you can get Twitch and stream overlays in two ways. Download a ready-made overlay pack, free or paid, from marketplaces like Streamlabs, OWN3D, Nerd or Die or Hexeum. Or design your own with a graphic design tool like Canva, VistaCreate or Adobe Express. Then add the overlay as an image or browser source in OBS Studio, or upload it in the Graphics tab of Restream Studio.
What are the main design elements of a video stream?
People rarely remember streamers with no logos and basic overlays. Before we get into the tools to help you make these graphics, let's go over the main design elements that can help enhance your live stream:
- Overlays: Overlays are the boxes, circles or other shapes that sit on top of your video feed and help create the overall layout of your live video.
- Stream screens: A stream screen, also known as a cover image, is typically a 1200 x 380px image your audience sees when you are AFK (Away From Keyboard) or offline.
- Banners: Banners are images you can add to your live stream channel, whether it’s on YouTube, Twitch, Facebook or another platform.
- Panels: Panels are exclusive to Twitch and they convey important information about your stream, sponsors, social links, equipment or anything else you want to add.
- Alerts: Alerts are pop-ups that signal new followers, subscriptions, tips, donations and more. Design custom alerts to personalize your stream.
- Logos: You can impose your live stream logo over your stream (like an overlay) or use it as your avatar on the platform you’re streaming to.
- Watermarks: Use a watermark to add your logo to your live video, but in a less noticeable manner.
Where to get free and premium Twitch overlays
If you'd rather not design overlays yourself, these marketplaces offer ready-made overlay packs for Twitch and other platforms. Check each site for current prices and license terms before you buy.
- Streamlabs: a library of free and premium stream overlays for Twitch, TikTok and other platforms.
- OWN3D: overlays and alerts optimized for Twitch, sold as one-time purchases or through a subscription pass.
- Nerd or Die: a shop of overlay packs with a free designs section.
- Hexeum: paid overlay packages plus free designs. The former Strexm site now redirects here.
- Elgato Marketplace: free and paid assets for streamers, such as OBS scene collections and widgets. The former Visuals by Impulse site now redirects here.
Tools to make overlays, banners, panels, and more
Now that you have a handle on the design elements, how do you make these custom graphics? It requires some creativity, but the process is easy if you pick an app to handle the technical aspects. The following tools are some of the best for creating custom live stream elements.
Canva
Canva allows you to create beautiful designs for nearly anything. It has hundreds of free templates for banners and logos ready to use. Design skills aren’t required for Canva, so it’s suitable for everyone. Some templates require a paid Canva Pro subscription to customize. Also, you can only export video designs as GIFs or MP4 files with Canva Pro. Free templates are available, however, and you can customize them as much as you want and download your design when you’re done.
Features we like
- Photo enhancing effects
- 8,000+ templates with the free plan
- Brand kit for storing brand assets like colors, logos, etc.
- Font library
- Drag-and-drop design editor
- Image animation
- Content calendar and social media integration
Snappa
It turns out graphic designers are a thing of the past — or at least Snappa suggests so. The service offers an enormous image library, hundreds of banner templates and the most popular banner dimension presets. With Snappa’s help, you can repurpose your banners in just a few clicks. Plus, they have awesome guides on how to use their services. Snappa’s free option is more than enough to make a unique, memorable Twitch banner.
Features we like
- Photo cropping and editing
- Adding text and flair to images
- Background removal for images and logos
- Banner maker for social media, ads and email
- 6,000+ free templates
VistaCreate (formerly Crello)
VistaCreate, previously known as Crello, is an online design tool with templates for social media, including banners and graphics you can adapt for YouTube, Twitch and Facebook. You can start for free and upload your own fonts and images.
Features we like
- Templates for social media banners and graphics
- Image background remover
- Brand kit to save your assets
- Animated designs
Adobe Express (formerly Adobe Spark)
Adobe Spark is now Adobe Express. It lets you create Twitch banners and other social graphics from customizable templates, and gives you access to Adobe Stock images. The free plan has fewer features and premium templates than the paid plan.
Features we like
- Templates for social graphics, web pages and videos
- Fully customizable templates
- Work with your design by layers
- Access to Adobe Stock images
- Musical score added to videos
Easil
Beautiful, practical and creative — Easil allows you to create all kinds of graphics or choose from thousands of amazing high-quality templates. There’s everything, from unique templates for Instagram stories or IGTV to engaging banners and posters for Facebook and LinkedIn. Easil also has a great design approval workflow for teams, allowing for a brand manager’s approval before a design can even be downloaded.
Features we like
- Drag-and-drop designing
- Brand kit to save your assets
- 1 million+ free stock images
- Set team permissions by individual design elements
- Color palette generator
Placeit
Struggling to come up with a logo for your Twitch or YouTube channel? Not only does Placeit help you create the live stream logo of your dreams, but it also offers thousands of fresh banner templates to choose from. Everything is customizable. Plus, if you decide to sell merch to help monetize your channel, Placeit has apparel, coffee mugs, tote bags and more. The downside, however, is that you have to pay for access to the Placeit banner and logo maker.
Features we like
- Huge mockup library
- Templates for physical products in addition to streaming graphics
- Logo templates sorted by industry
- Ready-to-use Twitch templates
- Drag-and-drop video editor
Nerd or Die
For years, the team at Nerd or Die has been creating overlays for all kinds of streamers. Its shop sells overlay packs that work with popular streaming software, and it has a section of free designs. Nerd or Die is also developing a new overlay maker, currently in beta.
Features we like
- Overlay packs designed for streamers
- Works with popular streaming software
- Free designs section
- Overlay maker in beta
How to add overlays in OBS Studio
- In OBS Studio, select the scene you want to use and click + under Sources.
- Choose Image for a static overlay, Media Source for a video overlay, or Browser for an animated overlay or widget with a URL.
- Select your file or paste the URL, then click OK.
- Drag the overlay above your camera and game sources in the Sources list so it appears on top, and resize it in the preview if needed.
New to OBS? Follow our step-by-step OBS guide.
How to add overlays in Restream Studio
- Open Restream Studio and click the Graphics tab.
- Pick one of the built-in graphics, which are free to use, or click + to upload your own overlay. Uploading custom overlays requires a paid plan.
- Click Show on the overlay to put it on screen, and click it again to hide it.
For the best result, upload overlays at 1920x1080 px. Files can be up to 25 MB, and you can add up to 50 overlays. Overlays appear exactly as uploaded, so resize the original file if you need a different size. Learn more in how to add graphics to your stream in Studio.
Create stunning live videos
Restream Studio is the easiest way to create high-quality live videos on multiple platforms at once. It's user-friendly and offers an engaging viewer experience.
Wrap-up
All these amazing tools can help you customize your live stream in a unique way. Once you’re sure your live stream stands out, you can share it with the world. And the easiest way to share with as many viewers as possible is to multistream on several platforms all at once. With Restream Studio, you can use all your new custom overlays, panels and banners while you multistream on more than 30 platforms right from your browser.
Whether you design your own overlays with Canva, Snappa, VistaCreate, Easil or Placeit, or download a pack from a marketplace like Streamlabs, OWN3D, Nerd or Die or Hexeum, the right overlay makes your stream instantly recognizable.
