Most beautiful podcast covers

When someone recommends a podcast, you don't judge the podcast by its cover. You then have different reasons to give it a try — trust, promise, or curiosity.

But when you are in discovery mode on your own, the look and feel enters the game:

1. The most beautiful cover — beautiful in your, and only YOUR opinion — grabs your attention first.
2. The design excellence signals the overall quality of content before you give it a try. Of course, sometimes these signals can mislead you intentionally, which sabotages the common opinion about branding among developers.
3. People are more willing to share a quality thing that looks stylish rather than a quality thing that looks tacky.

It's Friday, so let me take you to a "design exhibition" of the most beautiful podcast covers, regardless of their topic, host or popularity.

Pods with custom episode art

In this group, every example follows the template:
Podcast name — reasons for adding them to the list + "One piece of advice that this podcast reminds us about".

Radiolab — for sophisticated collages, the integration of the brand shape and a stunning work with symmetry.
"Those who think collages are 'amateur' art miss the whole realm of opportunities."

↑ Design Matters — for the very personal feel and playful yet simple concept.
"You don't need to sweat over the layout design. Just spend a bit more time thinking about a better DIY concept."

↑ Animal — for creativity.
Same as above.

↑ A Change of Brand — for messy design that still preserves a space for the eye to breathe.
"Maximalism in design — or ordered chaos — always needs design curation and takes a lot more time to produce compared to minimalism."

↑ An Informed Life — a perfect example of no-design design that looks good and stands out among other podcasts.
"You can do it yourself."

↑ The Creative Boom Podcast — for a minimal yet playful layout.
"Keep it simple."

↑ The American West — for showing us how you can create a distinct vibe on just 240x240 pixels.
"Create vibes, not graphics."

↑ Scratching the Surface — for a very clean episode layout and a brilliant concept for a main cover.
"When nothing comes to mind, think about your episode cover as a guest profile UI."

↑ Private Views — for minimalism and a breathtaking use of type. (I had tears in my eyes when I first saw it.)
"Type-only designs can be more impressive than visuals."

Podcasts without custom episode art

The Viall Files shows us how you can create a fashionista-like and edgy feel with typography and photography. Did you notice the angles on every cover? You don't see them right away, but these are the "invisible" details that influence your perception.

The Ben Shapiro Show — for a very simple use of type. Notice how the font geometry matches Ben's facial geometry?

Who The F Did That? — for loud minimalism.

See how big a role typography plays in design?

Bonus:
Entangled Futures with Lucas Tauil

By mentioning the EF podcast, I'm breaking the rule of not listing my design work on Fridays. But the whole team behind the podcast did their best to make it look beautiful, and I believe it deserves a spot here. Check out the entire visual language — on Twitter, Bluesky and YouTube.

I hope you enjoyed today's "exhibition". See you next week, when we talk about design strategy for podcasts.

Yours,
Ira

P.S. When writing this issue, I decided to test AI's aesthetic taste and asked it to list the most beautifully designed podcasts. None of the above were mentioned ;)

All cover designs mentioned in this post belong to their respective owners and are used here for educational purposes only.