Høly creates a cinematic brand for oral history podcast platform Istorima

Athens-based design studio Høly has collaborated with local podcast platform Istorima to create a new brand for its growing business. Founded in 2019, its mission is to “record and amplify the human voice of history” by capturing and saving thousands of oral stories told by people in Greece and beyond. The team at Istorima originally reached out to Høly back in 2022, seeking the creation of a digital archive that could hold the stories. After this project was finished, the pair immediately began discussing the need for a captivating platform that could provide access to the content, and do justice to the brilliant storytelling it contains.

Which is how Høly came to create a beautiful new brand and online presence for Istorima, launched recently. Inspired by the art of storytelling, the importance of preserving oral history, and the connection this can create between people, Istorima’s identity is a fitting vessel for its mission. “The quality content of Istorima’s team got us digging for hours into the new episodes, getting inspired by people’s unique truths and immersing ourselves into the charms of storytelling in order to devise a unique language that could capture the totality of its power,” says Odysseas Galinos Paparounis, founder and CEO of Høly. “The ride was full of inspiration and it was quite moving how the whole team, from project managers to designers, developers and copywriters, experienced their own journey throughout the overall task.”

At the heart of the new identity is an eye-catching logotype, made using Helvetica Neue, which nods to both the unique characteristics of sound, and the power of sharing stories. Featuring a ‘rising volume’ form, with type that increases in size, it goes straight to the core of the content and serves as a clever signpost for the platform. An animated version of the logotype sees the letterforms undergo a subtle weight change as they move to the left and at the same time expand to the right. Odysseas explains that this discreet animation is not just nice to witness, but also references the way in which the sharing of stories offers new perspectives, but also promotes resolution and harmony.

Elsewhere across the brand, the influence of storytelling remains evident. Istorima’s seven content categories – Crime, Culture, History, Nature, Relations, Society and Tradition – each feature a different display typeface that corresponds with the respective genres, drawing on “the theme and general feeling of the stories [being told]”. Attention has also been paid to the brand imagery, with much of it featuring cinematic qualities like film grain and film-style colour grading.

Speaking of colour, the last piece of the puzzle for Høly to figure out was the colour palette for the platform. Once again, the design team looked to the content for inspiration, settling on a rich palette of dark, neutral and fluorescent tones, “systemised in a way that creates high contrast and reflects the stories’ disruptive character”. Moody in certain places and punchy in others, the overall palette complements the design and imagery. Its subtle slickness is reminiscent of other podcast and film platforms like Mubi and Letterboxd, conveying professionalism and maturity for Istorima’s emerging brand.