Nathan Fetherston Design
On Practice As A Way of Being
Book Cover
I first worked on a quick e-book cover (just a cover image) for the late Peter B. Vaill's final book: On Practice As a Way of Being. The book is a collection of 32 conjectures on Peter's philosophies on work, life, career and legacy. All of this surrounds what he calls "the dark matter of the behavioral sciences" - Practice.
Practice? Podcast
Brand Design
After the cover, I worked with Dave Fearon Sr. on branding the podcast that he and Peter started shortly after the book's writing. The podcast was the crux of social media brand strategy for selling the book and ideas behind it.
I decided to tie the visual brand to the ebook, whose cover image I had recently designed. This coincided with social media branding for the book, taking place on Dave Fearon's social media accounts and groups surrounding the book and Vaill's teachings.
Listen to the podcast on Apple Music or most anywhere podcast are enjoyed.
If you're curious about what I sound like, I appeared on Episode 193.
The Brand in Context
Screenshots are important to understand the context of some of the design solutions. For a very small client and an advertising budget of zero, the most important thing for the brand is consistency and presence. A vibrant but strictly narrow color scheme, bold type and the careful treatment of photos (expect for the special photos of Dave and Peter, seen in the banner images as the only touch of black-and-white in the brand), and a twice-a-week post strategy provide a consistent and easily-sustainable rhythm, allowing the brand to enter the daily lives of social media users that are interested in similar brands and topics.
The Brand's Future
The brand is quickly expanding to feature video content. Youtube is being utilized as a large, untapped avenue for audio content (with accompanying visuals, of course), and short-form video content is on the horizon. The brand's long term future hinges on Dave's dutiful hosting and the continued growth of a small, dedicated audience of curious thinkers, leaders, and practitioners.