Logo contest: History Behind News

What we do:

The History Behind News program is a free weekly podcast project, currently in its 3rd season with more than 120 episodes, in which distinguished guest scholars provide a better understanding of recent news and events through the perspective of history. We are committed to making in-depth history researched and written by scholars enjoyable and accessible to everyone. Our guests are scholars from prestigious institutions, such as Oxford, Yale, Harvard, MIT, Stanford (including Hoover), Princeton University, the Atlantic Council, Duke, Northwestern Law, US Naval War College, Air University, Marine Corps University, UVA, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, NYU, Rice, University of Chicago, UC Berkeley, UCSF, USC, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and many others. They include current and former senior reporters at the WSJ, former White House advisors and other high-ranking government officials. Many have testified in Congressional hearings and others frequently contribute to major media outlets and widely read publications, ranging from the BBC, NPR, PBS and CNN to the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Please note that we are not a history program. Meaning, we don’t discuss history for its own sake. Rather, we discuss history only as it informs current news. We call this peeling the history behind news. The histories we’ve uncovered range from U.S. politics and elections to race, immigration, climate, science and medicine, gun violence, war, China, Iran and Israel, Russia & Ukraine, the Caribbean, revolutions and royalty and many other developments in the news. We also receive advanced copies of scholarly books and discuss them in our program (in the context of current news).

Based on 3 years of running this program, we believe our target audience is 1) 60% male 2) largely between 35-60+ (43-59 a big portion) 3) majority listen on iPhone 4) majority listen to Apple podcasts 5) this is an elevated audience - people interested in intellectual endeavors. BUT, and this is important, they are NOT necessarily people who work in intellectual settings, meaning that our listeners are not only professors, lawyers, journalists, etc. Our listeners also include shop owners, electricians, and stay-at-home parents. 6) some of our audience (I don't know what proportion) read books - fiction and non-fiction 7) 80%+ are in the U.S., 2% in U.K., 2% in Canada & 2% in Australia 8) almost all of our audience is interested in learning more about the news... more than just headline news 9) some have leisure time to listen to podcasts, but most listen to our podcasts while doing something else, such as driving, doing the dishes, walking, etc. 10) most are middle to upper-middle class 11) most have been outside the United States 12) most are either at the center of the political spectrum or very slightly to the left.

This is a tough question. Up to this point, I have been using black, orange, white, red and purple for The History Behind News Podcast. Black for "The" Orange for "History" White for "Behind" Red for "News" Purple for "Podcast" I picked orange for history because it's a more sedate color (I had thought of brown before that). And I picked red for news because it's flashy, like breaking news. BUT, these colors come from my scrappy work and very limited experience in logo design. I am totally open to other shades and colors. Also, "The History Behind News Podcast" is not really a logo. It's just something that I use to describe our podcast.

I had this idea of history somehow being physically behind the news. But I don't know how to do this and, frankly, I am not even sure if it's the best idea. Then, I had another idea of somehow incorporating a scroll or a leatherbound, old-style book next to or behind a cell phone that shows news... like someone is scrolling through news headlines. Again, I couldn't put the idea together and, also, it becomes way too busy to use it on social media or as a logo on my website, favicon, etc. Please DO NOT make a logo based on my ideas. If my ideas inspire you, great. Otherwise, please, please, please - be original in your design.