MY CREATIVE PROCESS

OF BRANDING A POLITICAL PODCAST

FOR FINC TANK

The Back Story:With the rise of America’s divisive political climate people are more on edge and less likely to engage in dialogue with fellow Americans from across the aisle, or with differing ideals. My client was inspired to launch a podcast in hopes to break this trend, and return to civil discussions about the real problems we The People face. The podcast also serves as a platform for Independent and Third-Party members to speak their minds as well.

More Designs

1. INVESTIGATION

Branding a product or service first requires research. First thing’s first, I scoured the interweb for podcasts revolving around news and politics to get a sense of direction of the genre. The common theme was the minimally whimsical editorial cut-out style, and bold contrast.

Figma’s FigJam tool is my jam to drag & drop screenshots to easily share thoughts.

Figma’s cloud and browser service makes it an ideal approach to brainstorm, allowing client access via web browser at any time. It’s a simple process for me and the client to add quick side notes and sticker our favorites in real time screensharing.

2. INSPIRATION

I know it’s been said before, but just absorbing content everyday sparks some inspiration. The best places for me to stumble upon a muse is Pinterest, Instagram, and Dribbble. I tend to favor Pinterest, as I like to limit my time on social media platforms. :-)

I’ll never get bored with Pinterest boards.

In addition to creating a Pinterest board dedicated to the project, I organize it further in Eagle App. This piece of software is a great investment for the designers with O.C.D. It allows you to organize images from the web, supports numerous codecs, and can be a great tool to organize all your design assets.

Aside from actual art inspiration, I get inspired by being outdoors. I run on adrenaline and enjoy exerting energy on trail runs and majestic hikes. The fresh air and endorphins really do contribute to my creative process.

3. EXPLORATION

This is where fun becomes funner! After spending time consuming and gathering content from the web (or real-life areas, depending on the direction or project type) I draw out my thoughts, and scribble down words or phrases that are relavent to the project details or direction.

Some words that I came with during this brainstorm sesh:

1. Bulb
2. Move forward
3. Capital building
4. Tech
5. Soundwave

Field Notes are the GOAT

This is where fun becomes funner! After spending time consuming and gathering content from the web (or real-life areas, depending on the direction or project type) I draw out my thoughts, and scribble down words or phrases that are relavent to the project details or direction.

I began to sketch ideas that came from the list of words, and one that really struck me was the bulb with the Capital building as its’ end.

4. ROUGH

My thinking: the bulb represents an idea, the Capital as its’ base represents the topic of conversation, the “FiNC Tank” filament represents illuminating the change the organization can bring to our political system.

While going through the process, inspiration and ideas ebb and flow. I added a few more touches to the logo - a jagged missing piece from the bulb to illustrate that our current idea of government is broken, and the purple palette.

I experimented with color, and rightly so with the most obvious color combination; red, white and blue. This didn’t feel right to me. It was orthodox. My solution was to actually combine them for a nice soft, desaturated purple to represent that we are all Americans, and that we need to unite.

"I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong,”
- Fredrick Douglas

5. REFINE

As the process furthers along, I begin to create assets around the brand; secondary logos, patterns, merch mockups, advertising and poster mockups, badges, and animations. This requires going back to the associated word list, or creating another more refined list.

During the process I worked with the team for tag lines for marketing, and went from there to create ad copy and more merch and assets.

6. RESULT

Sometimes I get to experiment with audio. The direction I went with the designs allowed me to be a little wild with the sound design for the podcast’s intro music. I typically use freesound.org and archive.org for my music and sound effects needs.