Podcast cover art is just as important as the content of the podcast itself. After all, an effective cover art design has the power to entice potential listeners, leading to sought-after clicks and subscribes.
You’ll see a huge range of eye-catching podcast cover art on platforms like Apple Podcasts and Spotify, but what makes certain podcast graphics stand head and shoulders above the rest?
Small and mighty podcast cover artwork is the gateway to gaining more listeners and subscribers, and with a few simple cover art design tips in mind, you can set your podcast on its way to the top of the streaming charts.
Learn the secrets behind great podcast cover art with this complete guide to designing cover artwork and audio branding visuals.
For more on how to create and record a professional sounding podcast, and for FREE podcast cover templates, check out these useful articles:
What Makes Great Podcast Cover Art?
Head onto any podcast streaming service, and you’ll see examples of the most popular podcast cover art on the homepage. These effective podcast graphics have helped to win over legions of listeners and subscribers, with the cover art acting as a marketing masthead for the podcast.
What does all great podcast cover art have in common? While the style and subject of podcast thumbnail images might vary widely, generally all good podcast cover art have two things in common: They are all legible and graphically striking, even at an incredibly small size (they can be as minuscule as 50 pixels on some platforms). They all pack a serious visual punch that attracts the eye and entices clicks.
We can sum up this approach to designing great podcast cover art as small and mighty!
Of course, the secrets behind creating the perfect podcast cover go beyond simply small and mighty, but this is a useful mantra to keep in mind while you are designing. Read on to explore podcast branding design and podcast cover art trends in more detail, picking up creative techniques and inspiration along the way.
We’ll look at the following 10 tips:
- Study Your Competitors
- Size It Right
- Convey Your Podcast’s Message
- Brand Your Podcast
- Don’t Be Wordy
- Create a Podcast “Celebrity“
- Avoid Anything Explicit
- Use Simple and Striking Color
- Use High Resolution Images
- Create Multiple Test Covers
This collage uses images via Roman Samborskyi and ViDI Studio.
Tip #1: Study Your Competitors
A memorable podcast cover design can’t be created in a vacuum. Before you begin work on your podcast cover artwork, take the time to research your competitors.
How do podcasts within the same genre, such as true crime or lifestyle, approach thumbnail design, from the imagery to the color palettes to the typography? Use this time to source some creative inspiration, learn about who you’re up against, and see who’s dominating different categories.
The best way to approach competition research is to scroll through specific genres, whether it’s education, health, or business. Make a note of the most popular podcasts in your genre, and try to spot common design features across the cover artwork used by these podcasts.
Perhaps a particular color combination is used frequently. Maybe the typographic style and placement have things in common with other podcast covers. Write down what it is that speaks to you and apply it to your own podcast cover design.
Podcast cover artwork for Home Cooking with Samin and Hrishri, My Favorite Murder, and Back Issue.
Tip #2: Size It Right
The size of your design truly does matter. For your podcast cover to be viewable across multiple platforms, the cover design needs to follow specific image guidelines and dimensions.
The best place to start is to ensure your podcast cover design fits within the parameters set by the streaming platform. For Apple Podcasts, the images uploaded must adhere to a minimum dimension of 1400 x 1400 pixels or a maximum of 3000 x 3000 pixels. Podcast art should always be designed in a 1:1 (or square) format.
For perfect podcast thumbnail optimization, set the export to a screen resolution of 72 DPI. File formats should be PNG or JPG for best image compression displays.
Design your podcast cover art in a square format, ideally in a variety of sizes ranging from 1400 px to 3000 px, for Apple Podcasts.
Tip #3: Convey Your Podcast’s Message
A good podcast cover design should encapsulate the entire theme or topics discussed on the podcast with the help of graphics, color, and typography.
For example, if your podcast goes into detail about the health industry, that message should be immediately apparent in the design of your podcast cover. Choose colors that reflect the medical theme (think healing green), imagery that features health professionals, equipment, or settings, and a font that mimics the typography favored in the health sector.
This message-centric approach to designing podcast covers ensures that clicking customers won’t be misled or disappointed by the content of your podcast.
The cover graphics for Short History Of…, The Witch Trials of J. K. Rowling, and The Girl in the Blue Mustang have clear messaging incorporated into the artwork.
Tip #4: Brand Your Podcast
Although podcasts started out as an alt-culture medium, today the podcasting industry means business. Some successful podcast creators go on to create multiple podcast series, websites, books, and large social media followings.
With this in mind, it’s important to treat your podcast cover artwork as an opportunity for creating a cohesive brand identity, which could also be extended to podcast banner designs and podcast social media graphics.
Focus on podcast logo creation to forge a strong visual identity from the outset, and stick to a simple color palette and only one or two fonts to promote a consistent brand style that can be applied to a range of media imagery.
Unsure where to begin with designing a standout podcast logo? Online logo generators can help you to easily create podcast logos, or make a start with a vector graphic (just avoid the over-used microphone logo!).
The cover designs for podcasts Normal Gossip, Will Be Wild, and Ripple all have a strong branded style, with carefully chosen typography and professional graphics or illustrations.
This collage uses images via Roman Samborskyi and Natalya Gregory.
Tip #5: Don’t Be Wordy
Podcast cover art trends might come and go, but what remains consistent is the need to keep it simple. On a podcast streaming platform, a potential listener will browse a huge number of cover images all at once, and cover designs that are too text-heavy quickly fall by the wayside in favor of punchier, simpler designs.
Entice more clicks by avoiding the use of too many words on your podcast cover artwork. You’ll notice that most podcasts have single-word names or, at most, three or four words in the title. The same rule applies when designing a standout podcast logo.
Drop any unnecessary text, however tempting it is to include additional reviews, quotes, or subtitles. You’ll boost your click-rate, and your potential for word-of-mouth sharing, as well.
After all, there’s nothing worse than not being able to remember the long name of that podcast you love . . .
Podcast covers with short and simple text are more effective than their wordier counterparts. Podcast cover images via Serial, Modern Love, and Morbid.
Tip #6: Create a Podcast “Celebrity”
Some of the most popular podcasts are personality-driven, using existing or aspiring celebrities prominently in the podcast cover artwork. By placing the host at the center of your podcast branding, you can give your podcast more clout and clickability.
Not a celebrity yet? No problem! Simply fake it until you make it.
Make steps towards podcast stardom by situating yourself front and center when promoting your podcast, and use professional portrait photography to make a starry impression.
Boost your chances of clicks with zoomed-in portraits, plenty of eye contact, and remember to smile!
The podcast cover artwork for High Low with EmRata, Huberman Lab, and Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus focus on the profile and personality of the podcast host.
Tip #7: Avoid Anything Explicit
Sure, you don’t need to be told, but it’s worth keeping in mind that any nudity or depictions of illegal activity will be blurred out or removed by the streaming platform, and could result in the podcast being banned from the site.
So, don’t do it!
Podcast covers with explicit or disallowed content will simply be blurred out or removed by streaming services . . . so don’t do it!
Tip #8: Use Simple and Striking Color
The secrets of color psychology lie behind some of the most successful podcasts, and it’s interesting to note that two of the most popular 2024 podcasts—The Daily and This American Life—opt for simple, striking color in lieu of busy imagery.
If your podcast is themed on current affairs, politics, or news, a minimal podcast cover design that champions simple type and color will set the right tone. You can harness the power of color psychology by selecting colors or color combinations that will quickly convey the theme of your podcast and directly appeal to your target audience.
Bold red has a strong, dominant energy that suits podcasts themed on politics, for example, while earth colors have a calming, solid mood that makes these natural hues well-suited to podcasts themed on the environment or holistic lifestyle.
Two of the most streamed podcasts of 2024, The Daily and This American Life, have extremely minimal cover designs with simple and striking use of color.
Tip #9: Use High Resolution Images
Even though your cover art design is likely to be viewed at a small size, it’s still well worth selecting the best quality imagery you can for using on your podcast thumbnail images.
This will ensure that your podcast photography really pops on high-definition screens, and can be translated to promotional materials for social media or print without compromising on quality.
Look for high-resolution photos that allow portraits to leap from the screen, or landscape shots to really immerse the viewer in the podcast setting. You’ll be amazed how much difference a high-definition photo makes to the immersive quality of your podcast cover art.
Even though a podcast cover will be viewed at small-scale, a high-resolution photograph will make all the difference to the impact of your cover.
This collage uses images via Roman Samborskyi and Natalya Gregory.
Tip #10: Create Multiple Test Covers
If you’re launching your podcast across several streaming channels, it can be worth experimenting with different “test” cover designs.
A marketing strategy often used by web designers or advertisers, creating different designs to target different audiences can be a great way to figure out which platform or audience you should be directing your energies into.
Begin by creating two or three variations of your podcast cover, experimenting with subtly different choices in color, typography, and/or image style, before uploading these onto different platforms or changing the cover designs after a set period of time.
You might find that one cover entices more clicks on a particular platform, or that an illustrated image as opposed to a photograph gives your podcast more appeal for a particular demographic.
Over time, you should get a strong sense of which stylistic traits are proving to be more popular with your target audience.
Three different cover design variations for popular podcast Call Her Daddy, featuring different type and photography styles.
The Secret to Great Podcast Cover Art?
The huge variety of podcasts on the streaming market are now matched by a mind-blowing diversity of podcast cover designs. But, that’s not to say that the most successful covers don’t have things in common that we can learn from.
From sidestepping overly wordy designs to using simple, bold color and personality-driven photography, there are plenty of design strategies that you can use to stand out in the crowded podcast market.
Catch and hold your listeners’ attention with these 10 useful tips for creating stand-out podcast episode artwork, and make sure to look at your podcast cover designs as an opportunity for brand-building. You never know where your podcast adventures will take you!
For awesome podcast design and sound effects freebies, look no further:
License the images from this collage cover via Roman Samborskyi and Natalya Gregory.
Recently viewed
${excerpt}