Overview
Cooler Earth was born from conversations about how to communicate the climate crisis in a way that moves people to action. The look of the podcast had to reflect the optimism we aspired to foster in our audience. We wanted Cooler Earth to be a broad platform for reaching a wider audience than those already involved in the climate space. We also aimed to increase the accessibility of our content by creating multiple ways of interacting with each episode, from an engaging audio experience to a dynamic written transcript that includes resources for listeners looking to dive deeper in topics, and a landing page highlighting our archive of episodes.
Objectives
Curate a range of experiences for individuals looking to learn more about the climate crisis and the leaders working to solve it. From the sound design and cover art of episodes, to the layout of transcripts and the podcast landing page, we wanted to create an immersive experience for listeners of varying familiarity with the climate movement.
Process
I knew that the visual appearance of the podcast would be crucial in drawing listeners in. This initially took shape with the bright colors of our podcast thumbnail, subtly micicing a thermal temperature map of the globe in the O’s of its lettering. Creating illustrations depicting the theme or interviewee of each episode was a natural way to inject more color, life, and art into the podcast as well. When you visit the podcast’s landing page, you are greeted with playful imagery that evokes a sense of excitement and joy. Before even listening to an episode, you are immersed in an optimistic atmosphere, which frames the experience we want our audience to have with the project.
In Season 4 of the podcast, we explored how the coronavirus and calls for racial justice across the country have impacted the climate movement. I wanted to continue the theme of injecting hope into serious conversations surrounding issues directly impacting listeners as the season aired. I selected a theme song that balanced melancholy with hope and continued utilizing bright colors in each episode’s illustration, but focused on the interviewee instead of more abstract depictions of themes discussed.
The podcast’s landing page is packed with information, providing the thumbnail image, description, embedded player, and listening platform and transcript links for each episode. I wanted the bright colors of the illustrations to be the focus of the page so I kept the rest of the information in black and white.
Impact
Cooler Earth has amassed over 13,000 downloads since its launch.