Guide to getting an excellent podcast logo and design

Are you launching a new podcast and in the market for a podcast logo and overall branding? This guide is for you! We’ll address some of the design assets you’ll need for your podcast, not just a logo but episode artwork, social media assets, and general branding guidelines that you can apply to other mediums like video title cards and more!

We’ll also talk about places you can go to get great designs for your new podcast.

Where to start

Before you dive into getting your podcast logo and design guidelines, you must have a clear mission, audience, and value proposition in mind for your new show. Your design should reflect who you are, who your audience is, and what you’re all about. If your sewing podcast has mostly an audience of Grandmas, then your design will be very different than for a gaming podcast that targets Gen Z.

Aligning your design to your mission and audience is probably fairly obvious to you, but it’s worth putting down on paper if you’re working with someone on your podcast design so it’s clear to them precisely what your brand should say.

What you’ll need: podcast logo, design, and branding

With your mission and target audience in mind, it’s essential to understand what design assets you’ll need for your podcast.

Podcast logo

The most obvious one is a logo for your podcast.

We’ve discussed what makes for a good logo design for small businesses. For podcasts, a good logo is especially critical. As we’ve mentioned, you must have your target audience in mind and know what sort of logo they might click on when browsing the thousands of podcasts in their favorite podcasting app. While you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover or a podcast by a glance at its logo, with so much choice in the market, that’s what listeners will do. They’re making a split-second decision on whether to subscribe, so make it super obvious to them that they should.

This article from Soundstripe does a great job of outlining what makes it a good podcast logo. To paraphrase, here's their list of 5 things all great podcast logos have in common:

• Topic Relevance: Logos that clearly hint at the podcast's content, making it easier for potential listeners to find shows that match their interests.
• Brand Consistency: Successful logos maintain a consistent look across all platforms, reinforcing the podcast's overall brand.
• Personal Touch: Adding unique elements personalizes the logo, making the podcast more relatable and memorable to the audience.
• Simplicity: Effective logos are straightforward and recognizable, even when scaled down, focusing on clarity over complexity.
• High Image Quality: Great logos are always high-resolution, ensuring they look professional and appealing across various media.

Podcast Episode Artwork

You’ll want unique artwork for each episode that gives the listener an idea of the subject. While you can just use your podcast logo to show up in the feed with each episode, having stand-alone episode artwork helps listeners quickly identify whether they want to listen to particular episodes.

If you’re an interview-based podcast, you might have the guest’s image for each episode, accompanied by a title and your logo. Or it can be something else related to that episode’s specific subject matter.

Social Media Assets

When each episode comes out, you will want to promote it! Social media is the obvious way or even newsletter blasts. For this outreach, you’ll need assets that match each format; this can be as simple as sharing the episode art or more complex, like captioned videos for TikTok or Instagram or different perspectives for Instagram and Facebook stories. Wherever you’re sharing, you’ll want an asset in the proper format for that platform.

Branding Guidelines

Finally, you’ll need branding guidelines and a style guide. These will come in handy in the future when you’re creating new assets—say, for a brand new social media platform or for someone who wants to share you in your newsletter. Branding guidelines make it simpler to create new design assets in the future and ensure your branding is always aligned.

Where to Find Great Design for Your Podcast

While this seems like a lot, there are plenty of places to get help or to outsource your podcast design needs.

DIY Design Tools

There are lots of relatively user-friendly, do-it-yourself tools with templates that you can use to do your design. These include Canva or, my personal favorite, Looka. Platforms like Canva are more generalist-oriented, while Looka is focused exclusively on logos and branding, including social media assets and branding guidelines generation.

The issue with any of these is you’ll have to do it yourself, and using templates means you’ll likely get pretty generic designs that utilize clip art.

Freelancers

We’ve written about the problems with Upwork, so we suggest seeking out freelancers directly via job postings or Dribbble. Find someone whose design matches your taste and that you can work with for the long term so they can continue to provide design help.

One of the downsides of hiring freelancers is they generally charge hourly, which can vary wildly depending on how quickly they work. They also can be flaky if they take on a lot of new work and no longer have as much time for your project.

Peak Digital Studio’s Podcast Design Package

Finally, you can try out our very own Podcast Design Package. For a set monthly price, you’ll get the following:

• Logo
• Branding guidelines
• Episode art (ongoing service - we’ll create a new one for each episode)
• Social media assets (ongoing service)
• Website designed and developed (optional)

Our subscription model means we’re always there to help and turn around new designs for your podcast schedule. We work with our clients for the long-term, so you never have to wonder if we’ll have time to finish your designs before the next episode’s release.

TL;DR Podcast Logo and Design

TL;DR: Launching a new podcast requires enthusiasm and a clear brand identity, starting with a compelling logo that speaks to your target audience. This guide emphasizes the importance of understanding your mission, audience, and value proposition to create resonate design assets. Essential assets include a podcast logo, episode artwork, social media assets, and comprehensive branding guidelines. Options for obtaining these designs range from DIY tools like Canva and Looka to hiring freelancers to opting for comprehensive services like Peak Digital Studio's Podcast Design Package. Each choice offers unique benefits, from the affordability and personal touch of DIY and freelancers to the consistency and long-term support of professional packages. The key takeaway is that your podcast's visual identity should be as carefully crafted as its content, ensuring it appeals directly to your intended listeners and stands out in a crowded market.