Design Ideas and process

I’m going to introduce the podcasts and for the first one, I’ve used a light pink (#fde9f4) background. I think it’s a milder colour, and I’ve put a computer illustration in the middle. I think that graphic communication often requires the use of Adobe software on the computer, and Photoshop is very useful software. Photoshop is also the software I use to create my podcasts.
I believe different typefaces give the reader a different understanding and feeling. In the podcast, the illustration is behind the text and the colours I chose (#bddbd9, #e3d7ed) are lighter and smaller in size because I didn’t want audiences to focus only on the computer and ignore the text I was trying to convey. The text in the bottom left corner is relatively unimportant, so the size is smaller and placed on the bottom left. But I didn’t want my readers to miss this information, so I used a brighter colour (#fff4de). It’s a great way to get the reader’s attention without stealing my theme and ending the whole podcast.

For the second podcast I used a brighter yellow colour as the background, I think yellow is the brightest of all colours. Many people think it is a colour that represents happiness, optimism, enlightenment and creativity. I wanted this podcast to have a positive feel, so I chose this colour (#ffde59). The theme of my podcast is graphic design. Above this theme, there is an illustration with different buttons representing different topics. The illustration is not complicated, as I wanted my work to be simple and easy to understand. In the design, I have taken reference from the general layout of a podcast on the phone. So I put in the forward, backward and in-play graphics under my theme. I chose to use the in-play graphics rather than pause because I think the knowledge of graphic design is endless and can’t be suspended. If in doubt, you can go back, master it, go forward, but you can’t stop.

For the third podcast, I used the colour orange (#cf6b49) because I think orange gives people a sense of energy, warmth, and health. Instead of using a brighter orange colour, I used a milder orange colour. As the podcast is seen through the screen, I wanted this colour to soften the irritation to our eyes and make my readers feel comfortable watching it. The second main colour is white, which represents innocence, safety, understanding, possibility.

I wanted my work to bring out a positive feeling. I used the illustration of the headphones because a podcast is an audio file for easy listening. The square at the back is an irregular illustration that draws attention to the pattern without being too obtrusive.
The text at the bottom is the theme of typography, which is obviously a little larger than the graphic communication on the right. Although typography is the theme, it is because I think it is closely related to graphic communication. I wanted to draw the reader’s attention to the graphic communication but not steal the whole thing, so I added a soft beige (#efe8d8) rectangle to the back. The flowers on the side are to add a sense of life to the monotonous background.

Software tutorials

I did a few different versions and colourings in photoshop at first and used different photos to piece together, but the results were not very satisfying and not what I had expected. Because I wanted my podcasts to be a simplified style, I decided not to use photos. I started to gather more information and re-imagine my idea, then simply drew the layout and illustration of the podcast on my iPad procreate. This first draft has given me a strong knowledge of what typography is available when I am actually working on my typography. What can be used, what can be changed or what style I can use. And how I can change my typography depending on the size of each image. I think this is very important and I enjoy the process of discovering different styles. I then went to photoshop and split them into different layers and put different colours on them, and could balance the size, space and layout etc. I enjoyed the process, I’m a beginner in Photoshop, so I watched some basic YouTube tutorials, I got a lot of inspiration and made a lot of different versions, I’m glad I finally finished a design that I like and am more satisfied with. I would like to develop more Photoshop skills, as I think I am weak in colour mixing and I hope that with more practice I can enhance my knowledge of using Photoshop. This is a short video I watched on Photoshop skills, it was easy to understand and helped me a lot when I was making these podcasts. Because I needed a basic understanding, it was important to build my inner mind.

Resources for research and inspiration

I referenced different podcast graphics, and these six gave me the most inspiration. I referenced the gentle but attractive background colours in figures 5 and 6.
My inspiration for podcast 1 came from the computer in figure 1. Graphic design and computers co-exist, so I added illustrations to my design.
The inspiration for Podcast 2 came from figures 2 and 3. Because podcasts are usually designed for the player, I used this concept. The illustration comes from the player in figure 4.
Podcast 3 is a little different from the first two podcasts in that I have taken references from Figures 5 and 6. The two-coloured background in figure 5 creates a prominent illustration, which I really like, so I have added similar elements to my design.