— THE CREATIVE BRIEF
Create a captivating brand identity for the popular podcast about applied behavioural science in the wild.
A brave DM turned into a beautiful collaboration. I've been an avid listener of Nick's "It's All Just A Bunch of BS" podcast for a while now so when the opportunity presented itself to create visuals for the podcast, I jumped right in.
Selling science is not easy, but done right, science can be hella sexy.
How can I help make a topic as nerdy as behavioural science interesting, cool, enticing enough for someone to want to sit down and listen to Nick interview his guests (famous scientists, educators and practitioners) for 40 whole minutes! This is how.
— THE THOUGHT PROCESS
I wanted to take charge of the fact that people like to judge a book, or in this case a podcast, by its cover.
The oldest trick in the book (pun intended), is to make a great first impression, by making eye-catching cover art for the podcast episodes.
Nick's podcast is great. The topics discussed and knowledge provided in each episode is beyond just useful, it's important. These episodes deserve a good cover, to reflect the high quality content inside it.
Seeing that this is a podcast about humans and their behaviour, and that the guests are always very interesting people, I just knew we needed to have faces on the cover. Research shows people connect quicker and easier with other people's faces.
But it wasn't just going to be plain portraits of the guests, that would be f*cking boring. Now, the idea of drawing the guest either dressed up in a certain way that represented their story or doing some activity that embodied the episode's essence sounded like a much better strategy, one that we eventually went with!
This not only makes the cover look interesting but for those who are interested, they can also get a quick glimpse of what the episode might be about from just looking at the cover. You don't even need to read the description text! Now that's what I call a "visual episode trailer". I'm trademarking this so don't get any ideas.
Distilling and capturing the essence of each episode and turning it into one piece of cover art is as challenging as it is exhilarating. For me, the brainstorming is the best part. Yes, just like the Daniel Caesar song.
— THE SOLUTION
Captivating podcast episode covers. Bringing the sexy back into behavioural science.
— THE IMPACT
Upon implementing the new artwork and illustrations I created, the total number of monthly episode downloads increased by 41%, and the average consumption rate of episode listening increased by 11%.
— THE BZ BUZZ: A SPIN-OFF SERIES
With the success the OG podcast had amassed, Nick decided to branch out into creating episodes that focus on the business side of BS. He invites the founder(s) of products/services that either apply or are inspired by behavioural science on the show to introduce and discuss the features and importance of such applications and inspirations. We decided to give this spin-off brand a new name ("The BS Buzz") accompanied by a more hip derivative of the original brand identity (neon version of the OG colours - blue and yellow). Using a combination of a brighter color palette and object based illustrations, we achieved this brand new look that is both refreshing and familiar to loyal listeners.
— THE NICE THINGS NICK HAS SAID
"I am just thrilled with the animated GIFs Iris creates weekly for my podcast covers. And my listeners love them just as much! Iris is attentive and committed to bringing out the essence of each episode in the most creative and unexpected ways. Her designs and concepts always manage to capture the feeling of the episode and the guest I have on the show. Iris is also very receptive to my ideas so we often riff off of each other's vision. But best of all, Iris meets tight deadlines and delivers high quality work each and every time. Our collaboration is effortless. I feel very lucky to have her working with me on the many future episodes to come, and I encourage anyone in need of creative work to reach out to Iris. She's the best in the business."
