HPE Tech talk podcast

I led the design for HPE’s Tech Talk podcast logo and supporting social collateral. The podcast, which highlights HPE’s latest news, tech insights, and innovations through interviews with industry leaders, targets senior IT professionals and decision-makers from both Enterprise and SMB companies, as well as industry stakeholders like press and analysts. To create a visual identity that resonated with this tech-savvy audience, I immersed myself in the HPE industry, uncovering insights that informed the design direction. I particularly enjoyed finding opportunities for visual play, such as shaping the negative space between two "T" letters to resemble talking mouths, reinforcing the podcast’s focus on tech dialogue.

In an effort to streamline the project, I reduced scope by utilizing an Audiogram app to generate audio visuals, instead of commissioning a custom animation. Throughout the process, I presented the design to key HPE stakeholders, earning glowing feedback, including from the C-suite. One HPE Executive even remarked, “This looks like something that should be hanging in MoMA.”

Design Direction and Design: Emma Dowling.

LOGO IDEATION 

From left to right:

1. Inspired by coding brackets, and altered to be the two “T’s” in “Tech Talk.” Speaks to senior IT podcast audience.

2. The two “T’s” in “Tech Talk” are altered quotations, that halo back to the spoken word of the podcast.

3. Using an altered hashtag shape to speak to the digital nature of today’s work environment, and to reference the two “T’s” in “Tech Talk.”

4. Detailed microphone icon that uses the two “T’s” in “Tech Talk.”

5. Lowercase “hpe” letterforms halo back to punctuation, and the spoken word of podcasts.

6. Simplified microphone icon that uses the two “T’s” in “Tech Talk,” while also giving feelings of movement and connectivity.