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Discovering Nature: Branding a Podcast for Education and Conservation

Our nature podcast branding showcases the beauty of nature and reflects our commitment to environmental wellness and sustainability, appealing to outdoor enthusiasts and nature lovers.

Service

Client

Branding

Tune into Nature

Year

2021

Podcast

Appeal to nature lovers and outdoor enthusiasts

The founder requested a podcast art that represents New Zealand's wildlife and landscape with nature sounds and a lush forest to promote appreciation for the country's diverse flora and fauna. The concept resonated with me, and the branding and language needed to be bold, beautiful, and soulful to create an inspiring and immersive experience for the listeners.

Branding

1

Competitor Analysis

A detailed competitor analysis was carried out to understand how other adjacent players in the market did their branding. Discovered a few interesting podcasts - one brand used stunning and eye-catching imagery of the city's wilderness and wildlife to capture the attention of potential listeners. Another brand collaborated with other story tellers to reach their audience and bring the natural world to life.

2

Brand Positioning

This helped in evaluating where one can position Tune into Nature. The positioning statement developed was : Tune into Nature is the ultimate podcast for nature enthusiasts. Authentic audio takes listeners on a journey through New Zealand's outdoors, with engaging interviews and informative discussions recorded on location. Experience the beauty of wilderness, wildlife, and conservation efforts from the comfort of your own home with Tune into Nature.

3

Value Proposition

The positioning statement and an analysis of value maps, pain points, gains and customer profile, helped in creating the value proposition for Tune into nature:

For authentic and immersive nature experience, Tune into Nature offers engaging audio of New Zealand's wilderness and wildlife, recorded on location with experts and researchers. Differentiated from other podcasts, Tune into Nature brings the beauty of New Zealand's outdoors to listeners worldwide.

Brand messaging

The following statements were one-liners developed for usage of the brand. The exercise began with building a brand story, followed by developing the brand pillar statements. 

"Listen to stories of nature and wildlife with refreshing birdsong and natural sounds recorded in Otago's wild places."
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Visual Branding

With the messaging and value proposition for the brand in place, I developed a word cloud that could help me derive a direction to build the visual identity for the brand.

The terms picked out after conversing with the client for a better understanding of their audience was Nature, conservation, immersive, audio and then journey, environment, outdoors, wildlife.

1

Typography based identities

Nature podcasts often feature elaborate names that can be highlighted with a distinctive typography-based visual identity.

2

A bird or an animal

The researched identities featured a bird, animal, or natural elements as a crucial element, leading to some identities being non-responsive and visually overwhelming. We opted to avoid using the mic symbol as well, which was already overused in the industry.

3

Colours

Many brands and their identities were cool, sky tones like blue and green. Hence, tune into nature's branding can opt for something more cool and vibrant.

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Process

During the podcast cover art process, we initially considered incorporating a mic to signify that it was a podcast. However, upon further consideration, we opted to return to our original approach and replaced the mic with headphones for a more subtle nod to the audio medium.

A Minimalistic Approach with Fantail Birds and Teal Color Tones

Cover Art

NZ is an island nation with some beautiful green places. I started off with simple elements like a Fantail bird (one of popular birds). I kept it as minimal as possible and then started adding landscape elements like hills, lakes and ferns. I went with a teal colour-tone, as it is a blend of ocean blue and forest green.

Also placed the moon and a circle around it to create attention to the title text. Instead of going for a mic that has been overused in many podcast covers, I decided to use headphones on the Fantail. Just to inspire people to listen to the nature podcast.

Also the word ‘nature’ has been clipping masked with the background to create a window through which you see. Similar to how this show brings nature indoors.

Typography

The font used for ‘Tune into’ is cursive and handwritten to show melody, whereas the word ‘nature’ is imperfect and is in bold showing its strength. I did this to bring in a contrast within the title.

Colours

 

Since the competitor analysis already indicated that blues, purples and greens were opportunity areas for the brand, explorations were done in these hues alone. The client picked Bluish Teal.

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Hoodie.jpg
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Digital Poster that I designed for display in Dunedin Public Library, New Zealand

Takeaways

  1. Designing a strong and consistent branding is crucial for any project or business, including podcasts, as it helps to establish a unique identity and connect with the audience.
     

  2. Conducting thorough research on competitors and the target audience can provide valuable insights and help to inform branding decisions.
     

  3. The selection of typography, colour scheme, and imagery is crucial in creating a cohesive and visually appealing brand identity that effectively communicates our message.
     

  4. Developing merchandise that is both useful and attractive is an effective way to promote our brand and generate additional revenue.
     

  5. Displaying our branding in public places, such as libraries or partnering with local businesses and organisations, can increase visibility and attract new listeners.

All the projects in this website are for informational purpose only. The work belongs to the offices/ clients that I worked for.

© 2023 by NagaHarshiethaD.

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