Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo announced a re-design, with the option to include a large header photo across the top of Twitter user profile pages few weeks ago. Starting on December 12,all Twitter users will be forced over to use the “cover photo”, ala Facebook and other services.

Twitter announced the changes in a Blog post.

“A few months ago, we introduced new Twitter profiles so that you could make your profile beautiful and display your style on your profile page. By uploading a header photo on twitter.com or our mobile apps on iPhone, iPad or Android, you can make your profile more uniquely yours. We’ve seen a lot of cool takes on these new profiles –– including shots from Mars, silly themes, and brands and celebrities expressing themselves in clever ways.

On December 12, we’re rolling this out to all users: you’ll automatically get this new version of the profile on twitter.com. If you don’t upload a header photo by then, you (and everyone else) will only see a default grey image on your page. That’s not fun! To get inspired about what you can do, check out this video to see how to make your profile a little more “you”, less generic. Have fun out there.”