Design and art direction for a newspaper about podcasting.
 
I established Good Tape's brand identity and have designed each issue from the ground up. Good Tape started with the rebelious notion that podcasting is an industry worth taking seriously, so I began by building a visual language based on 1970s alternative press. 

The broadsheet format and traditional newspaper grids are emphasized by the Victorian wood-type style of Paraiso by Lucas Descroix, used across the board for headlines. Grilli Type’s GT Zirkorn and Publico Text from Commercial type rounded out a type system both modern and playful, earning a ‘Staff Pick’ from Fonts in Use. 

Working closely with the editorial team, I have commissioned artists and illustrators to create original work for every feature. With each issue, it is our challenge to create engaging visuals that speak to the inherintly un-seen aspects of audio. I have also had the pleasure of commisioning photo essays, from Nairobi, Kenya to S-Town, Alabama, capturing the people and places behind the stories.  

Creative Direction Sami Wittwer 
Editorial Design Sami Wittwer 
Editor-in-Chief  Alana Hope Levinson, Becca James
Creative Producers Marie Kilaru, Kym Allen
Artists Kelly Belter, Able Emmanuel, Gabrie Babriel Garble, Victor Bizar Gómez, Megan Bell Habishi, Ethan Hickerson, Raven Jiang, Nicole Killian, Parsa Mostaghim, Brian Otieno, Alessandro Bianchi Sicioldr, Mel Haash, Casey Kauffmann, Chris Kindred, Michelle Kondrich, Conor Nolan, Rui Pu, Jerry Siegel, Austin Watts, Wenjing Yang, Jessie Clark, Lisa Haney, Madia Malik, Margret Flatley, María Medem, Natascha Baumgärtener, Pieter Van Eenoge, Savanna Ruedy, Tabitha Arnold, Vyolet Jin, Xinyue Chen  
Client Good Tape

Creating stand-out podcast coversthat function as a thumbnail, a billboard, and a brand all at once.

Over my time at Good Tape Studio, I've designed countless podcast covers: illustrating original artwork, commissioning photoshoots, and building custom identities for shows ranging from individual creators to international organizations including UNICEF, Microsoft, and Stanford. 

Each cover starts from the same question, how can we translate the tone of this show into a single image? I work closely with podcasters and production studios to understand what their show, their audience and their intent. From there I tailor my style to create an artwork that is both eye-catching and original.

Illustration, Art Direction & Design  Sami Wittwer
Select Clients UNICEF, Microsoft, Dentsu, Stanford, Superhuman AI,  The Professional Artist’s Association, CBC, Seattle University

I worked with Forever Dog Studios to refresh their brand as the studio stepped into a new chapter in LA's creator economy. 

After fifteen years in comedy and podcast production, Forever Dog Studios had developed a reputation for their loyalty, so I built the identity around it: a dog mascot at the heart of the system, carrying the studio's warmth and devotion to its creators, balanced by mid-century Italian motifs and an elegant palette that signal its maturity. 

The result is a modular system of wordmarks, a mascot, pattern and color built to move with the studio across show art, social, print, and production, while keeping Forever Dog unmistakably itself at every scale.

Creative Direction Sami Wittwer 
Illustration Sami Wittwer  
Client Forever Dog Studios

The Brooklyn Navy Yard approached me to announce The Market @77, its new food hall bringing an ever-growing roster of New York's favorite eateries under one roof. 

The identity had to pull off a balancing act: distinct enough to give the Market a personality of its own, while living comfortably inside the Navy Yard's established brand guidelines. Working within those constraints, I developed new treatments for type, pattern, illustration, and color, built as a flexible system that could keep pace as new vendors joined. The campaign launched across social, print, and out-of-home, giving The Market @77 a cohesive, colorful presence across the city.

Creative Direction Sami Wittwer 
Illustration Sami Wittwer 
Client Brooklyn Navy Yard

Simon Hill's podcast, The Proof, is all about the pursuit of knowledge, so when he came to Good Tape Studio looking for an elevated video set, I designed a space to match.

I created a modern study, with a wood paneling, inset lighting and a custom hexagonal table that would serve as a space for Simon to hold thoughtful conversations with experts across fields of healthcare, science and acedemia. 

Deep hues and clean lines created a space that felt appropriately masculine, while decor and furnishings were exclusively aquired from vintage and secondhand sources to add a lived in and collected feel. 

Working closely with a fabrication studio to build out Simon’s black-box studio in Los Angeles, I led the project from concept to construction alongside a small yet mighty team.

Creative Direction, Production Design Sami Wittwer
Set Decoration Adrianna Garza, Dane Cardiel
Fabrication Ghost House Creative
Production Kym Allen
Client Simon Hill, The Proof Podcast

The CBC approached me to help evolve the cover art for Uncover, their beloved, long-running true crime series.

Beginning with Sea of Lies, I developed a new title treatment and an illustration system built to capture the show's moody, evocative storytelling. My challenge was to create a cover that could evoke the mystery of a seaside con man's fall from grace, while supporting untold future stories from the Uncover team. The season earned an Apple Podcasts feature on day one. 

Eight seasons on, I'm still designing Uncover's covers, and the system has evolved with the show: each new investigation brings its own palette, imagery, and mood, while the underlying framework keeps the series unmistakable in a crowded podcast feed.

Creative Direction Sami Wittwer 
Illustration Sami Wittwer 
Project Managment Marie Kilaru
Client CBC

The Union Theological Seminary and the On Being Project brought me in to create an elegant identity for a multi-day gathering of civil rights elders and political leaders. 

"Is America Possible?" convened at The Riverside Church in celebration of Vincent Harding's life, on the anniversary of the speach he wrote alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, “Beyond Vietnam” 

I designed the full identity and event experience: program materials, three large-format typographic quote banners, and supporting ephemera, along with consulting on the broader event design. The identity stayed deliberately grounded — typographic, spare, and elegant, built to hold weight rather than call attention to itself. The banners hung in both the gathering hall and the church's main nave, letting the words of the gathered elders fill the room.


Producer Kym Allen
Client Union Theological Seminary
Design Sami Wittwer

Developed a first-of-it’s-kind  event celebrating Vimeo’s role in the OTT Streaming Industry alongside Virginia Mclure.

Vimeo has quietly provided the foundational technology for much of the streaming industry for years, and  we thought it was time to celebrate this. Alongside my creative partner Virginia, we developed a two-day live streaming event with a "retro-future" aesthetic that combined the golden era of broadcast television through today's optimistic maximalism anchored by a bold, animated wordmark and a vibrant system flexible enough to run across a multi-day, format. 
Working closely with our in-house events team, I built in moments of joy alongside the expert panels: quizzes, playlists, and short-film screenings woven through the broadcast as playful interstitials. The system scaled into hundreds of promotional assets across Vimeo’s social channels, and Streameo hit its attendance registration goal weeks ahead of the event.

Concept Sami Wittwer & Virginia McLure
Art Direction & Design Sami Wittwer
Company Vimeo
Animation Pep Rally, 
Designers Anil Duran, Danielle Hollander, Norah Stoner
Copywriter Virginia McLure