As a part of my design work for Goodreads, I was asked to spend a limited amount of time creating visual branding for co-founder and editor-in-chief Elizabeth Khuri Chandler’s new podcast, “Books of Your Life with Elizabeth.”
To kick off my portion of the project, I first met with Elizabeth to learn about her vision for the podcast, the different platforms we would need to design for, and about her stylistic preferences and personal aesthetic. She wanted something fun, optimistic and a little geeky, that also wasn’t afraid to be feminine.
Building off of that direction, and also reviewing other successful podcast art that tends to feature large titles with bold colors, I put together five rough concepts that we reviewed alongside two other members of her Goodreads editorial team.
We ultimately agreed on my first concept, featuring Elizabeth’s signature cat-eye glasses paired with a script font, on top of a bold, optimistic yellow that also works nicely with Goodreads’ color palette. A book-chevron pattern could also be incorporated for additional geekiness.
For Elizabeth’s profile photo, I found inspiration from an image showcasing a woman holding a stylized set of books. This in turn inspired Elizabeth to order a new set of Jane Austen books (one of her favorite authors) for a similar photo.
We used Elizabeth’s new photo on her Goodreads group profile page, as planned, but we also decided to use it alongside photos of her podcast guests to promote individual episodes.
See the final branding elements, plus rough original mocks, at right.