Graphic Design contest

Identity for "Autocratic Despair: The Podcast"

Name: Identity for "Autocratic Despair: The Podcast"
Price: 350 USD
Availability: OutOfStock

by Nick Mortensen

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Prize Awarded

$350

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106

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Creative Brief

What the contest holder asked for

Contest title: Identity for "Autocratic Despair: The Podcast"
Here is what I need created: Note- a few of the photos were done using my google gemini and this design brief.  I don't hate them at all - in fact, the avatars look pretty close to the hosts of the show.  I think AI can be good for concept art, but it isn't anything I want to put forward with our show & I think paying an artist and having the vector files is pretty important.   # DESIGN BRIEF — Visual Identity for *Autocratic Despair: The Podcast* **Prize:** $350 **Contest length:** [longest available — 10+ days] **Final files required:** Layered vector (**.AI**) or layered **.PSD** for every deliverable, plus flattened PNGs (transparent where noted). --- ## THE ONE-LINE VERSION (read this first) We want an identity that looks like **an important, credible podcast — with one small, deadpan thing undermining it ever so slightly.** The seriousness is the setup. The tiny absurd detail is the punchline. If you nail that contrast, you've nailed the whole thing. --- ## WHAT THE SHOW IS *Autocratic Despair: The Podcast* is a weekly comedy podcast about surviving American authoritarianism. Two hosts — Nick, a former comedian and manufacturing guy from Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Dr. Craig, a university lecturer with a PhD in the study of fascism — rate their despair on a scale of 1 to 10, talk through the week's news through the eyes of people who study how democracies fall apart, and somehow have a good time doing it. It's a show about a genuinely frightening subject that is, against all odds, fun to listen to. The tagline / call to action is: > ## "Stare Into the Abyss With Friends." That line is the heart of the identity. The show is a place to rest. Living in a declining democracy is exhausting and demoralizing, and for 45 minutes a week this show is a place where someone can look straight at the scary thing — with company, with a couple of friends who get it — and come away a little lighter. The abyss is real and daunting. The friendship and the humor are the **tools that make it survivable.** We want to hold that tension, not resolve it into something soft and cozy. Daunting subject; steady, human, faintly funny delivery. --- ## WHO IT'S FOR Politically disengaged but uneasy people, roughly **15–35**, who sense something is wrong and don't yet have the words or framework for it. They are not partisan die-hards. They're tired, smart, a little checked-out, and allergic to lectures. The design should feel intelligent and inviting — never preachy, never like homework, never like a cable-news chyron. --- ## THE CORE CONCEPT WE WANT **Two figures standing at the edge of a cliff, looking out into a vast abyss at magic hour** (deep oranges and purples in the sky). They are looking into something enormous and daunting — and they're doing it together, calmly, like it's just what you do now. That's the whole image: the void, and the companionship that makes facing it bearable. And then — **one small, dry, deadbeat gag somewhere in the scene** that undermines the seriousness *ever so slightly*. Not a pile of jokes. **One** quiet absurd detail. Examples of the register we mean (pick one, or propose your own in the same spirit): - a banana peel lying on the ground near the cliff's edge The comedy is **dry and absurdist**, not zany or slapstick. It should read as a *knowing* joke, almost easy to miss — the kind of thing you notice on the second look and smile at. **It does not have to be laugh-out-loud funny. It barely has to be funny at all.** It just has to gently puncture the seriousness. Think: a very serious, beautiful, almost cinematic image — with one thing in it that's quietly ridiculous. --- ## THE TWO HOSTS (they should be recognizable as *us*) The two figures should read as the actual hosts, at least in silhouette/signature-outfit terms. They don't need to be photo-perfect portraits, but they should be identifiable and consistent from use to use. - **Nick** — always dressed the same: a navy short-sleeve t-shirt under a **navy thin slim-fitting SPF hooded zip-up sweatshirt**, and a **light gray / green Green Bay Packers–style cap.** This is his permanent silhouette. Keep it consistent everywhere.  He's taller than Craig by about 7 inches. - **Dr. Craig** — reads as a **college lecturer**: a **sport coat with elbow patches, glasses, distinctive hair** — but paired with **jeans and sneakers.** (The professor-on-top, casual-on-the-bottom contrast is itself a nice dry detail; feel free to play with it.) Craig can vary a little more than Nick, but should always read as "the professor." --- ## MANDATORY: TWO LINKED DELIVERABLES (simple + full) Everything has to work **on a phone**, including at about **one-third of phone-screen width** (thumbnail size in a podcast app). A rich, detailed cliff scene looks great big and turns to mud when it's tiny. So we need **two connected pieces of art that share a visual language:** 1. **The full scene** — the two figures at the cliff, the magic-hour abyss, the small gag. Used for the main cover art and video. 2. **A dead-simple icon/mark derived from it** that stays legible at ~100px — for social avatars (remember: **circular crop**) and as a **video watermark.**  If the full scene and the simple icon feel like they belong to the same family, you've done the job. --- ## WORDMARK / TYPOGRAPHY We want a **new, custom wordmark** for **"AUTOCRATIC DESPAIR: The Podcast."** - **Legibility is the top priority** — it must be clearly readable at thumbnail size on a phone. - It must be **consistent** and work as a system across every deliverable. - It has to coexist with the cliff scene without crowding it (on the podcast cover, the name needs to be *in* the artwork and still readable small). - The name should feel **substantial and credible**, maybe even soviet — this is "an important podcast" — with the personality living in the illustration and the one gag, not in a wacky font. **No novelty/comedy typefaces.** - 3. My thinking is that we incorporate the banana peel, but it's an icon where we are looking at it from the ground up and it comes at us like an intimidating, brutalist building.  I've included a photo of the banana peel looking 'wet floor' sign as well as the first image to pop up when i googled "intimidating, brutalist building".  I don't have any particular affection for that building, so it can be simpler. --- ## COLOR & MOOD - **Direction:** magic-hour / golden-hour palette — deep **oranges and purples**, the sky at the edge of night. Evocative, a little cinematic, a little melancholy, but warm enough to be inviting. - We have some affection for the current **navy + orange**, and orange can carry through — but the palette is **open**, and a great magic-hour scheme is welcome. Don't feel boxed in by the old colors. - Overall mood: **serious, atmospheric, resilient, quietly witty.** Beautiful enough that someone would want it as a poster; simple enough to survive a thumbnail. --- ## DELIVERABLES (all in layered .AI or .PSD, plus PNGs) 1. **Podcast cover art** — square, **3000 × 3000 px**, RGB, under 512KB final, meeting Apple Podcasts artwork specs. This is the most important single asset and must be legible at thumbnail size. 2. **Standalone icon / simple mark** — the reduced version, legible at ~100px, delivered on transparent background. 3. **Apple Podcasts logo lockup** — the wordmark + icon arranged for platform use. 4. **Social media avatar** — designed to work inside a **circular crop** (nothing critical in the corners). 5. **Video watermark** — a clean, unobtrusive version of the mark for consistent branding on video, delivered on transparent background (corner-placement friendly). Please keep everything **layered and editable**, with fonts either outlined or named. --- ## WHAT TO AVOID (please read — this matters for a political-comedy show) - **No partisan symbols.** No donkeys, no elephants, no red-vs-blue team-politics coding. This is not a left-vs-right sports show; it's about democracy itself. - **No real politicians' faces or caricatures** (no Trump hair, no recognizable figures). It dates instantly and creates platform/legal headaches. - **No fascist or extremist imagery, even ironically** — no swastikas, no fasces, nothing in that family. It reads wrong and Apple will reject it. - **No heavy American-flag treatment.** Flag-waving is the wrong note for this show. - **Don't let "abyss" turn into doom-metal or goth.** No skulls, no horror, no edgelord darkness. The abyss is vast and daunting, not gory or evil. - **Don't over-joke it.** One small, dry gag — not a scene full of clowns and gags. If it looks like a comedy sketch, it's too much. - **No cable-news / chyron / political-attack-ad aesthetic.** No urgent red banners, no "BREAKING," no shouting. - **Avoid close resemblance to the "Lincoln Square" podcast/organization's logo** — we do not want to be visually confused with them. (Our current logo is a bit too close to that lane; part of why we're redesigning.) --- ## ABOUT THE CURRENT LOGO (what we're moving on from) A reference image of our current logo is included. It's a bold, all-type treatment — navy and orange, condensed, with a slight streetwear nod (think Supreme / Vision Street Wear box-logo energy). It's legible and sturdy, and legibility was the only thing we prioritized when we made it quickly. **We're not necessarily unhappy with it** — but it's a wordmark, not a full identity, it leans harder into "bold/aggressive" than into the warmth-and-abyss feeling we're after now, and it's a little too close to another organization's look. You are free to **evolve it or break cleanly from it** — both are on the table. --- ## THE TEST FOR YOUR SUBMISSION Ask yourself: *Does it look like a serious, credible, important podcast — with one small thing quietly undermining it? Does it read at thumbnail size on a phone? Would someone tired and demoralized see it and think, "that looks like a place I could rest for 45 minutes"?* If yes to all three, you're there. Thank you — we're genuinely excited to see what you make.
Types of files I need for this design: [object Object], [object Object]
Briefly describe your contest: Build a visual identity for "Autocratic Despair: The Podcast"
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