A podcast studio with a VIBE
Mike Coscarelli – self proclaimed “failed comedian turned big time podcast genius” – is the main man behind Slickback Studios. This Brooklyn-based podcast production company has a VIBE, with a comedian-heavy roster and phrases like “cigarettes” “degenerates” and “sh*t talking” gracing the various podcast descriptions.
He came to me wanting…
- A website to act as a lookbook of podcasts he’s produced.
- To capture his gritty NYC aesthetic.
How we captured the “look”
Slickback Studio’s aesthetic is 1980’s Times Square meets Studio 54 swirled in cigarette smoke.
I wanted the website to look like a dark alleyway illuminated by neon lights. We used dark backgrounds with gritty texture, custom coded neon text, and Slickback’s animated marquis logo to get there.
But there was a little problem – Slickback’s super cool animated logo was an accessibility issue. (Looping animations are a no-no.) To preserve the cool logo but make it accessibility-friendly, I created a version that only animated for 5 seconds, then paused.
And we topped it off with the perfect homepage image. After a few “mehs” and “not quites” I found THE image for only $12 on iStock: a salacious photograph of Times Square in 1979. Feel free to zoom in on the image above 😉
“…thank you for your hard work and patience…you did such a great job!”
-Mike
Easy-to-update podcast pages
Mike wanted each of his podcasts to have their own landing page. But there were a few issues to consider:
- Some podcasts had a lot of episodes, and embedding them all would slow down the site.
- Mike is BUSY, and keeping the episode listings updated sounded like a hassle.
- He needed a way to quickly add entirely new podcasts as his portfolio expands.
To pole vault over these issues I created a fill-in-the-blank podcast page template that Mike can copy anytime he needs to add a new podcast. And instead of listing all of the podcasts episodes, I embedded only one podcast player: the most recent episode, which updates automatically.
Now his podcast portfolio works like a charm – and looks fabulous, too!
