The Wire at 20 Podcast
Art Direction • Logo Design• Social Promo Design • Looping Video Design/Type Layout
Fans of The Wire are true FANS. It’s not uncommon to hear them tout the groundbreaking series as the greatest TV show of the 21st century. Originally released in 2002, the series long preceded my entry into HBO in October of 2018. I was thrilled and surprised to find out I would get to touch this show, and even more ecstatic when I found out it would be the first major design project that I would lead from start to finish.
The show had many considerations at play. Firstly, we had to find a way to evoke the nostalgia of the original show to bring back any past fans while illustrating that it’s content was often much more light-hearted than that of the original show. Second, we had to distinguish the podcast from multiple other podcasts about the series, a few of which had notable talent on the show as guests. Thirdly, we had maintain the gritty authenticity of the show that put it on the map in the first place.
shoutout from method man
used our art for the general anniversary
Social Promo
Each episode is accompanied by a social promo sized for twitter (1x1) and instagram story (9x16).
These assets promote the episode by bringing to life a clip from one of our guests.
After guiding the team through the creation of our main podcast art, we rolled out the design to various assets.
add more THE WIRE info
Looping Video Type Layout
Each episode is also accompanied by a looping video to play for YouTube listeners.
I created a type layout for these looping videos and handed them off for animation.
Using real coordinates from the various battles and locations in the show, we were able to invite viewers to deepen their curiosity about these events and call attention to the great distances covered by soldiers over the course of the war.
Thumbnail Design
A unique thumbnail was created for each episode of the show featuring the guest’s character or relevant imagery from the episodes discussed.
These multi-purpose images had to function as flags to draw in potential Youtube viewers, they had to fit into the larger HBO Max podcast aesthetic, and they had to connect to a textless equivalent to be shown on the HBO Max streaming site.
Our team chose to omit BTS imagery in favor of in-world candids wherever possible.
Rollout
To maintain cohesion across all assets, the thumbnail images need to function in a variety of situations.
Here you can see some of the considerations that must go into every thumbnail’s production.
YouTube
hbo.com
Textless
As a Streaming Thumb
With Text Overlay
(must work for all sizes: 16x9, 1x1, 2x3, tall crop, 3x4)