_{Oh yeah, in four weeks the prize pool increased from 18 to 33 STEEM thanks to our dear sponsors (more about this below).}

Sadly, this will be the last post of the sort. I've enjoyed selecting thumbnails and giving advice. But what I have enjoyed the most is to inspire a few steemians to successfully up their thumbnail game, like @riverflows did.

Below you can find the previous posts:

• Week One
• Week Two
• Week Three

And here's a post with tips for your thumbnail design that I appropriately titled "Your Thumbnails Suck".

The thumbnail is an essential element of a great post.

This is the fourth and last week of Steem's best thumbnails of the week showcase + design tips.

This time we have 33 STEEM in prizes:

• The 18 STEEM I give out from my wallet on every edition of this contest plus 1 STEEM leftover from the last time plus 1 I will add this last time.
• @riverflow's 10 STEEM she sent for contest "bribery".
• and @preparedwombat's donation of 3 STEEM for this week's winners.

Prize distribution

Prizes in liquid steem will be given to the first three places:

• 1st place wins 9 STEEM
• 2nd place wins 6 STEEM and
• 3rd place wins 3 STEEM

This week we have 15 additional STEEM to give away:

• 14 extra STEEM for the first three places to be distributed equally, and
• 1 STEEM for @null to burn

The reason for this pseudo-contest / showcase / giveaway / design tips post

I've identified a painful point here on our Steem blockchain: the lack of graphic design skills on most post's thumbnails.

Therefore, this series of posts aimed to showcase those authors who have done a great job with their thumbnails, and to point out what I thought was great about them.

This last time let's change things a little bit: you will tell me on the comments what do you think it's great about each design. The most accurate commenter will get 3 STEEM from me via direct wallet transfer.

So, in order to foster good and simple practices of graphic design, for four weeks:

• The best 6 thumbnails of the past 7 days, were selected.
• I dissected each thumbnail and explained the reasons why I thought it was great design. This served as tips that you could have applied on your thumbnails to better your designs.

The criteria for the selection was:

• Thumbnails must have been from individual authors. No thumbnails from projects or companies.
• Thumbnails must have included text.

Bonus points

• Thumbnails must have looked good across all Steem front ends.

The last two weeks' best thumbnails were:

1st place winner 9+5 STEEM: @kaelci and (foolishly) Attempting the Archeage PTS!

Tell me in the comments what's good about this thumbnail.

Proof of prize

2nd place winner 6+5 STEEM: @jaynie with JUST DAB IT! - Because life's too short not to "roley" in you underpants :)

Comment with what you think makes this thumbnail a great design.

Proof of prize

3rd place 3+4 STEEM: @midlet with Crossed 15K Steem

What do you think is good on this thumbnail?. Let me know in the comments.

Proof of prize

4th place: @quochuy with Witness Earnings Weekly Report - 2019-10-07

What do you think makes this a great thumbnail?.

5th place: @molometer with Some of these days live music performance 2019

Please let me know why do you think I chose this thumbnail.

6th place: @riverflows with It Ain't a Garden if It Don't Give Ya No Salad!

What's your opinion about what makes this a great thumbnail?. Please let me know in the comments.

---

Once again, thanks to @whatsup, @riverflows and @preparedwombat for helping me to give bigger prizes during these four weeks of contests.

I have burnt 1 STEEM by sending it to @null with a link to this post so it will hopefully be noticed by @smartsteem while, at the same time, executing my STEEM burning duty.

Thanks a lot to everyone for the support, the comments and the resteems in the past four weeks.
@greencross

Posted using Partiko Android