From 0 to 100 downloads: Designing a brand identity for the Black Bubblegum Podcast
2023
I collaborated with host Jasmine Danielle to create a cohesive brand identity for her podcast Black Bubblegum, designing assets for social media, the podcast website, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. This strategic effort ensured a consistent and engaging user experience across all touchpoints. As a result, the podcast's downloads increased from 0 to 100 in the first month.
Role: Brand Identity Designer, Graphic Designer
Design Time: 4 weeks
Tools: Adobe Illustrator
Black Bubblegum can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Context
Supporting a launching podcast where Britney Spears meets bell hooks
- What is BBP?
- Who are the listeners?
- When did it start?
- What's the content?
- How long has it been going on?
Opportunity
Attract followers and prospective listeners to a soon-to-be-released podcast
The podcast, born out of a popular Instagram account known for its insightful pop culture analysis, needed a cohesive brand identity strategy and a suite of assets to effectively launch and attract potential listeners. Since it had not yet launched, the podcast had no established audience or brand presence outside of Instagram. The challenge was to create a distinctive and appealing brand identity that would resonate with the existing Instagram followers and expand the podcast's reach to new audiences.
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The final moodboard and visual assets close up
Solution
A distinct brand identity and visual assets
- What did I create?
- What did I design?
- What did I give to the client?
- Where did the client put this work?
Results
A distinct brand identity and visual assets
- How many listens in the first month?
- Listens overall?
- How many IG followers?
- Podcast rating?
Developing a strategy
I leveraged advocates' perceptions of the brand to help inform strategy
- Write about how I talked to Jasmine's friend
- What did Jasmine's friend tell me about what about Jasmine's commentary IRL made him encourage her to create a podcast
- How did I use this information to inform the brand strategy?
The brand identity strategy is...
- Who was the competition? What does the space look like?
- Who's the target audience?
These are the different mood boards
Brand identity attributes
Creating several options for creative direction
- Why is it important to have options?
- How did I create logos? They respond to each direction and the overall strategy? What was my mood board?
- Why didn't I just start ideating from the name alone?
Brand attributes
- Characteristics?
Getting buy in from the client
- After agreeing to the direction,
Here are sketches I made of BBP's host as a potential graphical element
Collaboration
Weekly connects
- Why is it important to have options?
- Creating logos that respond to each direction and the overall strategy
- Why didn't I just
Getting buy in
- How did I incorporate feedback?
- How did I get feedback on creative direction?
Coordinating a handoff optimized for immediate client use
- How did it minimizing the need for additional support or guidance?
Here are the contents of a folder that contains the hand off documentation
