Rolling out Secret and Hidden audio series across England
A big part of my current role is to equip audio and radio teams across England with the tools they need to create and publish audio for digital audiences, especially for those using BBC Sounds.
We’ve been keen to explore the use of umbrella strands and feeds to put similar content into places that are easier to find.
For the past year or so, our audio teams have been publishing into a collection of over 40 audio series telling the secret histories and hidden aspects of their local area.
My main responsibility during the rollout of these series was to create an overall visual identity and also create individual artwork assets for each of the series.
It was a real learning curve for me as it was the first time I’d had to ideate on a visual identity, as well as learning how to use Adobe Photoshop as part of a production system (rather than one-off designs).
I wanted to create an easy(ish) workflow for creating the content artwork for new series we were opening, or even for sub-series that we might later publish into them.
This led me to learn how to use nested smart objects across different artboards which meant it was easy to recreate artwork in different sizes and for different formats.
It was useful to go through this process as it got me started on how to tackle the tougher challenges to come, such as producing the content artwork for the best part of a hundred-or-so audio series publishing football club updates from local sport teams across England, Wales and Scotland.