Created as a bundle of potential promotional materials for Digging for Idols, the attached pdf (also featured below) includes a large-format print poster, a square Instagram image, an 8×5 inch print design, and a widescreen format Facebook post. While the smaller format images serve as general social media calling card style awareness plugs for the podcast, the large-format poster has a unique interactional element that I’m enthusiastic about and will be printing a run of them once finalized.
Thinking of the first 40 episodes of Digging for Idols as a season’s worth of material, I got to thinking that it would be fun to create a print poster that also serves as a checklist for listenership. In the spirit of a high school sports team season schedule poster or a sports trading card checklist, I created a 40-episode grid that outlines what each Season 1 podcast episode covers (including the title, Survivor castaway discussed, their season of Survivor, and whatever film or television media we researched for the episode) along with a checkbox column and some peripheral assets including the show’s logos, pod stores where it’s available, screenshots taken during recording, and a humorous quote from a listener review.
In order to functionally serve as a checklist, the table has a defined number of rows and columns. Because of that, I started there and built around it. It needs to be legible for anyone using it as a wall-mounted checklist, but that supposes a raised level of effort for a user that I think justifies the smaller, softer-colored text it contains. Almost like you could look past it if you wanted to, but if you’re using the checklist, you can read it and it has all of the information you need. Psychologically, I’m thinking that offering the show’s catalog as a checklist may nudge task or challenge-oriented viewers toward a completionist listening experience.
For anyone not using the checklist (yet) or more casual viewers of the poster, I prominently arranged the logo, photos of the hosts of Digging for Idols, and larger text featuring a blurb about the show’s topic, a listener review, and social handles around it. These would be more noticeable than the content of the checklist for a casual onlooker.
In terms of the arrangement, I chose to center the checklist a bit more on the left side of the poster, then stack images on the right side along a guideline. I think this allows someone to look past the checklist at the colorful Survivor-inspired imagery and smiling faces without getting bogged down in the table details, should that not be of interest to them. The design here avoids trapped, empty space, and clusters like items together as much as possible with open areas pushed to the outside.
For the smaller graphics, the intent shifted away from the checklist mentality due to size constraints. Because the table couldn’t possible fit in a legible way, I rearranged assets from the full-sized version to serve more as business cards or general awareness plugs, with a brief of the show’s topic, that same review blurb, social assets, and assorted images from the show’s creation (with orientation tweaked as needed based on the aspect ratio of the image).
In the blurb area, because of the differences of intent between the largest poster design and the smaller images, no one single blurb could apply to each, so I have included some general language inviting listeners to explore the current Digging for Idols catalog. I think that, along with the graphics, helps position the podcast as a fun and aesthetically pleasing media experience with professional production and a regular release schedule.
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