SERIAL Podcast logo

07/30/2018

Logo title for a very popular podcast from the creators of NPR's This American Life. It established the true crime documentary genre on podcasts, which had never existed before. Season 1 was about a man who was arrested for the murder of a high school student in Baltimore in 1999 and is currently in prison awaiting a retrial, and the actual interviews and background on the case unfolded like reading a mystery or true crime story, creating a suspenseful impression that opened up a genre that had never existed before.The branding for a single podcast, including the theme song, logo, and website, greatly influenced the creation of subsequent podcast content. The font used is Sackers Heavy Gothic, and the logo focuses on the investigative approach and weekly updates of the episodes, rather than symbolizing the case itself, out of respect for the victims' family. The logo was designed to symbolize the investigative journalism roots of the 1950s radio programs.

Typeface

Sackers Gothic is part of the larger Sackers series, a collection of fonts drawn from templates for producing engraved stationery and social cards by Gary Sackers, a Charlotte, North Carolina intaglio printer. Many typefaces were made from similar sources, including Monotype’s Engravers series, as well as Jim Spiece’s ITC Blair, and Mark van Bronkhorst’s Sweet Sans. Sackers’ typefaces, which were initially made into photo-set type, were digitized by Compugraphic and released in the late 1980s. Sackers Gothic has since become a popular choice for conveying sincere and plainspoken language on dust jackets, posters, and of course, in stationery. The face pairs well with display faces of a disparate nature, and serves as a ready foil for anything requiring an air of typographic sophistication.