This week, the popular podcast and radio show This American Life (TAL) announced their new logo and website. If you’re not familiar with the show, TAL releases hour-long episodes weekly, each of which feature several short stories (referred to as “acts”) that loosely connect a theme of the week. The stories range from light-hearted and funny to deep and heart-wrenching, but all work to highlight the depth of American life and human complexity. The show, which began production in 1995, is raw, personal, has won countless major awards, and is often included in debates as a contender for “the best podcast ever created.” TAL is listened to by roughly 5 million people each week.
Now, let’s get to the discussion of that new logo and website!
The Website
From what I’ve seen, the public response to this change has been a mixed bag… Though I never used the old website, I read online that it was badly in need of an update from a usability standpoint. Listeners were stating that they were having trouble searching for their favorite episodes in the TAL archive, something that the new site works to resolve. On this point, I can say with sincerity “What a great idea!”
From a branding standpoint, however, the new website and logo don’t seem to be all that exciting or even on message for the show’s vibe. This is a show that for nearly 25 years has worked to drag the most intensely personal and often rarely discussed complexities of human life into the light. The producers of TAL have worked to discuss everything from police brutality, to tough breakups, to the warm nostalgia of Christmas, all with gentleness and compassion for the broad range of American opinions on these topics… yet the new site is boring and cold.
The two main colors of the site are navy blue, which composes the header and footer, and white, which composes the background. Tiny flecks of red also grace various areas of the site for some sub-headlines and links. The site is extremely simple. Now, don’t get me wrong… I can appreciate simplicity and use of negative space in web design. We’ve probably all had that experience in which we’ve clicked on a website in search of something specific, only to find an influx of buttons, images, links, and headlines that make us want to leave the site immediately. Minimalism is beautiful and, to be frank, very trendy in the field of web design right now.
That being said, I’m just not sure the new TAL website utilizes the principles of simplicity and negative space well. To utilize these tactics effectively, web designers must strike a careful balance between minimalistic and boring, a task which can be very challenging. One of my favorite web themes that I think beautifully fits into that happy medium is Envato Market’s Smoothly, specifically the version of the theme called Marco Polo. I encourage you to check it out.
How beautiful is that web demo? The site doesn’t utilize any images besides those found in the portfolio, and it utilizes very few colors… yet it’s so very unique, visually interesting, and memorable. This is the happy medium between minimalistic and boring that TAL missed the mark on completely when it comes to their web design.
The Logo
The new logo, too, seems to miss the mark on connecting with the show’s vibe. One version of the logo features a white American Flag merged with a quote bubble on a red background with “This American Life” written in boring serif font. This distaste for TAL’s new branding seems to be the consensus online as well; the comment section of this very brief article written by someone that actually likes the update really helps to highlight the overwhelming public dislike for the change. Comments such as this one from a user named afc on the article stand out: “Seems cheap and easy to me. And very evocative of a third-rate university or a right-wing “news” site. Technically ok but visually very boring. It has none of the texture or warmth of the show.”
Joseph Fink, The host of another popular podcast, “Welcome to Nightvale,” posted on twitter about the new logo’s design, stating, “a big congratulations to This American Life for being I guess a bank now?” a joke which got over 1,200 likes. He’s correct that the new logo does look like it could be used for a bank, specifically bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Santander bank logo. This, I guess, highlights the importance of ensuring that when you design a logo, it doesn’t look too much like a logo that already exists.
But hey, TAL team, don’t get too down on yourselves. Instead take the inspirational advice of your own producer, Ira Glass, who once remarked on designers who try and fail…
“All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work.”
Excellent advice! Maybe consider trying again?
