New to Venture

Brandy Identity, Logo Design

Creating a venture capital podcast cover for a client.

Venture capital is a notoriously exclusive industry, making it difficult to attract new audiences to a podcast that focuses on the growth of young companies. The goal of this project was to create a logo that communicates themes of venture, such as growth and innovation, while also appealing to a millennial audience and those uneducated about the field.

Tools

Figma

Illustrator

Role

Brand Designer

Timeline

4 weeks

Challenge

How can we make learning about venture more accessible and inclusive?

How do you create a logo for a venture podcast that communicates approachability and fosters excitement around the growth of new companies for any individuals interested in learning more?

Discover

To begin, I conducted a competitive analysis with the client to analyze a variety of existing venture capital podcast covers on Spotify. We used the designs we liked to create mood boards to highlight and annotate the elements that stuck out to us. When comparing and contrasting the logos, we noticed contrasting themes of simplicity and elegance. After brainstorming the brand identity with the client, we wanted the cover to be digestible and welcoming to all audiences. With that in mind, we decided to utilize sans serif fonts with simple line elements to create a playful feel.

When comparing and contrasting the logos, we noticed contrasting themes of simplicity and elegance. After brainstorming the brandy identity with my client, we wanted the cover to be digestible and welcoming to all audiences. With that in mind, we wanted to utilize sans serif fonts with simple line elements to create a playful feel.

Whiteboard Exercise

Once we solidified the tone and personality of the brand, we moved on to further ideation through a whiteboard exercise. I led my client through a 5-minute sprint where we both drew potential logos that came to mind. This allowed us to freely express any ideas that came to mind and then come together at the end to identify common themes and inspiration to capitalize on.

Resume

Designing Drafts

After finalizing our brand direction, I used the consolidated themes to create initial iterations in Figma.

I also presented different brand elements to my client to further refine our design direction.

One challenge I encountered was ensuring that the logo was readable, which was one of my client's main goals. We were unsure if the letters N and V were easily distinguishable from each other, so I presented the logo iterations to some peers to get their feedback. After receiving a variety of opinions, I concluded that I would have to sacrifice some stylistic choices in order to make the logo more intuitive.

Refinement

After presenting and going over the drafts with my client, we still had reservations about the direction we were going towards. We liked the designs, but we didn't love any of them. In order to incorporate feedback from my peers and to gain more inspiration from a different perspective, I transitioned over to Adobe Illustrator and work on new iterations.

Instead of designing from the text itself and converting it to outlines, I played around with creating shapes from guides and vectors. With this new approach, the designs turned out sharper and bolder, better communicating the themes of the ventures.

Some of the new iterations included:

Glowing edges
Cool-toned gradients and backgrounds to add depth
Different text arrangements

Final Design

The final design features sans-serif fonts and playful line elements, creating a welcoming feel. The result is a logo that effectively communicates the essence of the podcast and its values of inclusivity and approachability.