The Second Chair is an interview podcast about the people who stand just behind the top job: deputy mayors, sous chefs, vice principals, co-founders. The cover needs to win attention as a tiny square on a crowded app grid, then stretch cleanly into a poster for the live recording without losing its identity.
Overview & Goals
- Design a square cover that reads clearly and feels distinctive at 100 pixels, before it reads at full size.
- Build a visual language playful enough to stand out among rows of small podcast squares.
- Create an episode template a producer can fill in with a guest name and number, no design software required.
- Extend the same system into an A2 poster for the live recording, so the poster feels like family, not a spin off.
Budget & Timeline
Artwork is finalised by 15 September, giving a two week buffer before the 1 October launch across all platforms and the live recording poster.
Print production
- Format
- One square cover artwork at 3000 x 3000 px, delivered in every size the platforms demand, plus an episode template where a guest name and a number can be dropped in, and an A2 portrait version for the live recording.
- Where it's used
- Digital only, Displayed
- Print run & paper
- Forty A2 posters for the live recording, on whatever the venue's printer runs. Everything else stays digital.
- Content
- Ready to use
- Platforms & size
- Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Own site, Print
Target Audience
Interview podcast listeners scrolling a wall of small squares on their phone, usually mid commute, who decide whether to tap in about a second.
Style
Colour
Direction chosen
Playful & unexpected
Colours that should not work together and do. For brands that do not take themselves too seriously.
Examples of the mood, not the colours anyone has to use.
In the client's own words
The Second Chair is a new interview podcast about the people who are second in command: the deputy mayor, the sous chef, the vice principal, the co-founder who is not the one on stage. Twenty episodes commissioned, launching in October. We have a name, a host and a producer, and nothing visual at all. It needs cover art that survives being a small square in a podcast app, and a version we can put on a poster when we do the live recording in November.
Scope & Deliverables
- Square podcast cover artwork, master file plus full platform export set
- Episode template with editable guest name and episode number fields
- A2 portrait poster for the live recording, built as an extension of the cover system
- Style notes for the producer covering how to use the template correctly
Do's & Don'ts
Do
- Design and test the cover at 100 pixels first, since that is where a listener actually chooses it.
- Give producers an episode template they can fill in directly, without opening a design file.
- Treat the poster as an extension of the cover, sharing its palette, type and mood rather than a fresh design.
- Make sure the A2 poster holds a date and a venue clearly, without crowding the artwork.
Don't
- Do not put the host's face on the cover, the show is not about him.
- Do not use a microphone, a soundwave or headphones anywhere in the design.
- Do not let the small square version rely on fine detail that disappears at thumbnail size.
- Do not design the poster as a separate concept that breaks from the digital cover system.