Inspiring Podcast Logos: How To Design a Podcast Logo

There are over 4.5 million podcasts in the world. If a potential listener is scrolling through their podcast app, the main way they’ll interact with that staggering number of shows is through the shows’ unique artwork.

It may not always be best to judge a book by its cover, but making a strong first impression is essential. Picking the right podcast logo can be the difference between somebody listening to your podcast or skipping it entirely.

So, how do you make a podcast logo that grabs listeners’ attention? Take a look at how some of the most popular shows on the internet have crafted their own inviting images—and then move on to how you can create your own.

What is a podcast logo?

A podcast logo is a graphic you use to represent your show, and it’s typically prominently featured in the show artwork, the thumbnail image that appears at the top of a podcast page. A podcast logo may be a wordmark, a stylistic logomark, or (most likely) a combination of both. When combined with other elements of a podcast’s visual identity, the logo contributes to an instantly recognizable brand.

Excellent podcast logo examples

• Sounds Like a Cult
• Normal Gossip
• Bullseye
• Crime Junkie

There are many factors that make a podcast logo work, including legibility, visual identity, and an overall aesthetic that resonates with your target audience. Here are some great podcast logos to draw inspiration from.

Sounds Like a Cult

Sounds Like a Cult is a podcast created by New York Times–bestselling author Amanda Montell. The show digs into various cultural phenomena (raves, Erewhon, BookTok, and more) to answer the question: “Is this a cult?” 

This podcast artwork features a psychedelic illustration of a mouth against a kaleidoscope of colors. In the center of the frame, the podcast title appears in a stylized, bold script. It’s an effective podcast logo because it’s eye-catching, interesting, and evokes the imagery of the ’60 and ’70s, when cults had their heyday. 

Normal Gossip

Normal Gossip is a chat show created by Kelsey McKinney and Alex Sujong Laughlin. The hosts read gossip sent in from listeners before commenting on all the juicy, weird, and hilarious details. 

A good logo helps attract the right audience for your show. Normal Gossip’s logo features an illustration of three people in a game of telephone, passing gossip from one to the next. This pairs with a fun, somewhat silly bubble font for the title. The bright colors capture the show’s fun, digestible tone and content. Since the show is part of the Radiotopia network, its artwork also includes Radiotopia’s logo in the top left corner.

A variation on the show’s logo—using the same wordmark and color palette with a slightly different image—is used for the show’s merch.

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

Bullseye is an arts and culture show from the podcast networks Maximum Fun and NPR. Host Jesse Thorn interviews creators and artists, digging into pop culture, music, movies, and more. The podcast logo for Bullseye is a stylized image of a bullseye, with the title of the show front and center in a strong, red font. This artwork includes the show’s home networks on the bottom in a matching color, and a secondary logo on the top left for NPR.

Crime Junkie

Crime Junkie is a titan of the true crime podcast genre. Hosted by Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat, the show has been running since 2017. It uses a conversational format to dig into both obscure cases and stories that have been extensively covered by the media.

Crime Junkie’s logo follows the core rules for good podcast art: simple, legible, eye-catching, and quick encapsulation of the show’s identity. The show’s artwork includes a logo made of a C and J paired with a wordmark reading “Crime Junkie.” Unlike most of the other shows on this list, Crime Junkie doesn’t use its standard logo for individual episode art. Instead, it includes the logo at the top of the artwork, while the image itself features the theme (“murdered,” “missing,” “survived,” etc.) and the name of a victim or killer.

The show’s distinctive logo also appears across merchandise, including on hats and t-shirts.

How to create a podcast logo

1. Brainstorm different approaches
2. Decide on a logotype
3. Pick a logomark
4. Ensure your logo meets display requirements
5. Decide: professional or DIY?

Though podcasts are an auditory medium, a well-designed logo serves as a visual representation of your show on platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher. Designing logos for brands is an art form in itself. It takes a distinctive combination of colors, fonts, and imagery to create recognizable and visually appealing artwork for potential listeners to latch on to as they scroll. Here’s how to get started:

1. Brainstorm different approaches

Experiment with varying aesthetics to find the perfect fit for your show. Your logo will likely be part of a broader portfolio of brand assets, including the text and imagery on your website, social media, and merch. This is the stage at which you’ll begin the process of brand identity design—and figure out how your logo aligns with your overall aesthetic.

For instance, the Criminal logo uses a stark all-caps typeface and a black-and-white color scheme–a master class in effective simplicity. This aesthetic is reflected across its website and allows for brand recognition.

2. Decide on a wordmark

A wordmark is one of several types of logos that’s ubiquitous for podcasts. It’s a graphical representation of your show name—usually in a unique font. Start by toying with the standard fonts that come with software like Adobe Illustrator or Canva. Different fonts have different connotations: sans-serif fonts tend to be a bit more sleek and digital-forward, serif fonts have more gravitas and formality, and script fonts have a hand-drawn aesthetic.

Once you’ve found the general style of font you want to use, decide whether you’ll work with a free font (one with an Open Font License), a licensed font (which you’ll have to pay for the right to use), or a custom font you’ll make from scratch (or hire a designer to create). If you opt for a licensed font, make sure you read and understand the rules of use before making it part of your logo design.

3. Pick a logomark

A logomark is a design element or symbol that communicates your brand’s name without using words. Scrolling through Spotify or Apple Podcasts, it’s rare to see a show that doesn’t include some sort of logomark. Your logomark may be an elaborate image—a la Normal Gossip—or a minimalist lettermark—like Crime Junkies. Creating a logomark for your podcast may require a professional graphic designer if you want an image that perfectly conveys your brand. Many podcasts use a combination of logotype and logomark as their show artwork—but the logomark should be able to stand alone.

The show 99% Invisible, for instance, pairs its wordmark with a distinctive logomark—a graph with 100 squares, one of which is filled in yellow. This logomark relates to the show’s themes (architecture and design) by evoking the graph paper you’d find on a drafting table, and it also serves as a direct visualization of the show’s title; 99% of the grid is “invisible,” so to speak.

The combined wordmark and logomark is used all across the show’s branding, not just its episode art. This is a perfect example of a podcast logo at work: a visually distinctive graphic that combines both text and imagery.

4. Ensure your logo meets display requirements

The current standard format for podcast artwork is a square JPG or PNG image with a maximum size of 3,000 pixels by 3,000 pixels and a minimum size of 1,400 pixels by 1,400 pixels. For the sharpest image, 3,000 pixels by 3,000 pixels is ideal.

You will upload this square image to your podcasting host, and it will automatically populate on all popular podcast apps like Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Hark, RadioPublic, and Spotify. One thing to note is that Google sunsetted its podcast app in favor of YouTube, which defaults to the square artwork—but it also allows you to replace that art with YouTube-specific artwork (square or horizontal) across the show or on a per-episode basis.

5. Decide: Professional or DIY?

If your show has the budget, hiring a professional designer is the best way to create a good podcast logo. If you give a designer a rough idea of what you want, they can create the premium logo of your dreams. For that matter, they’ll likely give you a few options to choose from. A few design companies that have designed podcast art include Good Tape Studio, AQ Design, and Warbird Creative. If you’d like to try your hand at doing it yourself, tools like Shopify’s Logo Maker, Adobe Express, and Canva can help you design a podcast logo on your own.