The Second Chair is an interview podcast that celebrates the people who make things run from the second seat: deputy mayors, sous chefs, vice principals, co-founders who stay out of the spotlight. The identity needs to read instantly at thumbnail size and scale up honestly to a live event poster, all without leaning on the usual podcast visual crutches.
Overview & Goals
- Build a cover that reads clearly at 100 pixels, since that is the size listeners actually choose it at
- Extend the same cover system into an A2 poster for the live recording without redrawing it
- Establish a playful, unexpected visual identity that avoids microphones, soundwaves, headphones or the host's face
- Hand producers an episode artwork template they can fill in without opening a design file
Budget & Timeline
Artwork needs to be finalized by 15 September, leaving a two week window before the 1 October launch. The poster deliverable should land alongside the final cover files, since the live event date and venue text depend on the same layout being locked.
Print production
- Logo files
- We still need a logo
- 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.
- Handover
- Open design files only
- Platforms & size
- Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Own site, Print
- Series
- Cover plus episode artwork
- Print colors
- Not defined yet
Target Audience
Listeners drawn to the overlooked half of leadership stories, people who back the person usually in the spotlight and want to hear from the ones actually holding the second chair.
Style
Typography
Chosen
- The Second ChairLoud & compact · Condensed displayExample typeface: Oswald. A starting point, not a requirement.
Colour
New color direction
Playful & unexpected
Colours that should not work together and do. For brands that do not take themselves too seriously.
Examples of the mood. The final colors are part of the job.
For print
The new palette has to be defined for print as well: CMYK values for four-color process, and Pantone or HKS for any color that must match exactly.
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
- Podcast cover artwork optimized for thumbnail legibility
- Live recording poster as a direct extension of the cover
- Episode artwork template for producer self-service
- New logo design
- Open design source files for handover
Do's & Don'ts
Do
- Design the cover at 100 pixels first, since that is where it gets chosen in app
- Build the poster as an extension of the cover, not a separate redraw
- Leave clear space on the poster for a date and venue line
- Deliver an episode template a producer can fill in without touching design software
Don't
- Do not put the host's face on the cover, the show is not about him
- Do not use a microphone as an icon or motif
- Do not use a soundwave graphic
- Do not use headphones as an icon or motif