JWS | Podcast Elevation Project
Programs: Premiere Pro, After Effects, Illustrator
Role: Art Director, Motion Designer, Graphic Designer
To align with Just Women’s Sports' (JWS) new style guide and elevate its brand across all platforms, the next focus was podcasts. JWS’ three flagship podcasts—Just Women’s Sports Podcast, Snacks, and NETLIFE—serve as major original content pieces and valuable sponsorship avenues. However, their online presence needed a refresh to maintain engagement and avoid creative stagnation.
Goals
Optimize podcast content for social-first platforms to drive engagement and visibility.
Create and differentiate each podcast’s visual identity while maintaining cohesion within the JWS brand.
Develop flexible templates for sponsored and non-sponsored content to streamline workflow.
JWS Podcast (later known as, The Players’ Pod)
Hosted by Kelley O'Hara, this podcast featured candid conversations with top female athletes. I was brought in to refresh the social media presence while staying true to JWS branding. The show later evolved from The Just Women's Sports Podcast into The Players' Pod, with my original designs and animations carrying through as the visual foundation for the rebrand.
What I Delivered
I developed a flexible social system for both sponsored and organic content across Instagram and YouTube, designed to accommodate a wide range of guests while maintaining a consistent visual identity.
One detail I intentionally carried throughout the animations and layouts was the subtle slant from the JWS logo. That angle became a recurring design motif, influencing motion transitions, graphic elements, and composition choices to create a stronger sense of cohesion across the brand.
As the JWS identity evolved, I adapted the templates to reflect the updated visual direction while keeping them easy for the team to scale across episodes, guest announcements, and promotional content.
Snacks
Hosted by Sam Mewis and Lynn Williams, Snacks was the go-to podcast for women's soccer, blending insight with humor. The show originally launched with its own graphics, and JWS brought me in to refresh the visual identity to feel more aligned with the evolving brand while preserving the show's casual, conversational tone.
What I Delivered
I wanted the visuals to reflect the personality of the show itself. The hosts brought a playful, fast-paced energy to their conversations, so I leaned into typography that felt dynamic and unpredictable rather than rigid and polished.
Type treatments stretched, compressed, and warped throughout the motion graphics to mirror the humor and spontaneity of the discussions. For guest announcement graphics, I designed the layouts so subjects intentionally broke outside the primary circular frame, creating a sense of movement and helping the artwork feel more engaging and less confined by a traditional template structure.
The result was a flexible social system that felt fun, energetic, and authentic to both the hosts and the soccer community they were speaking to.
Netlife
Hosted by Dawn Staley, this podcast brought together influential figures from sports, politics, and pop culture, including basketball icons like Lisa Leslie and Allen Iverson. JWS brought me in to build the show's entire design identity from scratch for this brand-new launch.
What I Delivered
I created the podcast branding, motion package, and supporting graphics system for social and long-form content. The visual identity combined elements of basketball culture with sports analysis. The intro animation was designed to feel quick, energetic, and constantly moving, using abstract shapes, flowing lines, and motion patterns inspired by the movement of a basketball across the court. As the sequence progressed, those elements transitioned into a chalkboard-inspired visual system influenced by coaches' play diagrams.
The resulting package included the logo, intro animation, lower thirds, and adaptable layouts capable of supporting both one-on-one interviews and multi-guest discussions.
Results & Impact
Boosted social engagement across JWS' podcast content, with at least two shows gaining a strong online presence and building a dedicated social media following.
Streamlined brand consistency while keeping each show visually distinct.
More efficient content creation with flexible templates adaptable for sponsorships.
Final Thought: By elevating JWS' podcast visuals, I helped solidify their status as a leading voice in women's sports media while making their content more shareable, engaging, and sponsor-friendly.
