Castroller Identity Development

CastRoller is an online podcast subscription tool. Just add one personalized feed to your desktop application and let CastRoller do all of the work. When you want to subscribe to a new podcast, just add it to CastRoller. Your personalized feed will be updated to automatically contain the latest episodes from all of your favorite podcasts. I took on the project to give CastRoller a complete visual overhaul, and as usual I started with the identity.

The current logos feel and tone were a little too holistic, more like that of organic foods then of a media portal. The curves didn’t flow properly, nodes causing indents at harsh angles, and the R bothered me a lot. The mark in itself wasn’t a bad idea, but it was too reminiscent of other companies and suffered the same problems as the type. All of these issues are the result of the use of a free font found online, one that appears to have been hastily put together without much care, and it transferred into the logotype unfortunately.

Before sketching I decided I didn’t want to use cliches like iPods or other generic imagery associated with MP3 players. For one, as I mentioned, it’s cliche; two the site has video and audio content and MP3 players are still not associated with video on the same level as audio. The things I did want to use were the syndication nature (RSS) of the medium, I also wanted to incorporate some aspect of the original logos concept of rolling the feeds. Once I sketched out a couple of ideas I then took them into the computer.

Some of it worked, and most of it didn’t. After going through a few rounds of revisions we ended up selecting a concept to further develop. The RSS element was removed at the clients request, but the rolling of the R into the O remained the focal point of the logotype. The hardest part was getting the curve just right in combining the two, a process thanks to my nit picking took over 10 hours to come to something I was happy with. I also played with adding some interest to the Cast portion of the logotype, with a play button and modifying the st combination, in the end though it looked a bit forced.

The final solution is a pretty simple and lovely little logotype that I’m happy with. The colour selection hasn’t been finalized but I imagine it being two tone and a bit of flexibility in colour choices in use, though I do enjoy the plain black look to it. Once that is sorted out a brand guide will be compiled with collateral and usage information for the client as we proceed into re-designing the website.

Hope you enjoyed the walk through, and I’m more then happy to answer any questions.