Design Ideas and Design Process
When developing my Podcast covers, I wanted to create designs that used all components of image, type and exploration to create a slick, professional looking design with visual flare. When starting this task I was already pretty comfortable using photoshop but I really wanted to push myself and give myself challenges, such as a podcast cover that I had never done before. For my first Design I really wanted to explore the idea of sound waves and how they move linking this to the use of a microphone in a podcast, I then imported a microphone to lay over the top of the image as an eye-catching centre piece, experimenting with colour and coming to a conclusion that white stood out the best. My first design was my chosen design as I felt it has strong links visually to what a podcast is and looked the most similar to the examples I had seen. My second Design explored a more simplistic approach having the image set as the background for my text, I used the hue and saturation tool to play with the colour of the image, whilst also looking at the way the text should be displayed and adding in logos such as the Spotify, bringing in image being a skill I had previously struggled with knowing how to do. My final Design incorporated more of a typographic stance, using only words to build up my design other than a blue box to allow the text to stand out, I again looked at the layout, the colour and hue and saturation as well as the text type.
Above – Final Designs
Above – Development Screenshots
Software Tutorials
The software tutorials I used helped me develop my designs because I was firstly able to see the way in which they look which helped me to come up with my own ideas based off of the designs that I looked at when searching up ‘Podcast cover design’. I also watched many YouTube videos that did not just show these successful designs but the process in which was used to make them, something that really helped me when making and developing my design. An important new tool for myself was the used of grids, these allowing my work to correspond to a grid format and therefore have a layout that was even mathematically correct. Within this project as a whole I feel that I’ve only just scratched the surface of the designs I have the potential to develop but by watching more videos like the one I did I feel a can really push myself in photoshop from now on. Whilst there are many skills that have been highlighted to me during this task, as I stated on my troll board I’d like for myself to experiment with more typefaces as well as using the tools for images experimenting more with the colours, hue and saturation, black and white, posterise and invert tools to really bring the podcast cover image to life. By watching more videos I feel I can learn more ways of creating visually pleasing pieces that look carefully made with a slick finish.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQHIc0-fFdY
Design resources and articles
When looking at design resources and articles the first thing I noticed was the abundance of examples there was to show podcast cover design, from images to websites to articles on a specific one it was a really insightful way to learn about the best ways to design a cover and how to make the most successful design. The additional resources I looked at where images, books on podcast design looking at how they’re made, why they’re made and the key features to them. As well as this I looked at many ‘how to guides’, by looking at multiple I was able to come to the conclusion of the basic principles that they all shared and the individual style that each one explored. I also looked at many articles that discussed podcast cover design and how they’re best portrayed, the best layout, dimensions, looking at ‘Competition’ for inspiration and ideas, how to keep it consistent with your other designs creating a brand identity for your podcast and what features really matter.
https://blog.spreaker.com/9-steps-making-great-podcast-cover-art/