Podcast backgrounds: video podcast sets and audiograms

A podcast background has to work in three places: behind your hosts on camera, around remote guests when you record online, and behind the short clips that promote each episode. Choose one colour family and one mood for all three. Keep the background darker and calmer than the faces in front of it, and leave a quiet area for captions on every clip, because that is where most new listeners will meet the show.

Video podcast formats and sizes

One recording becomes many files. Plan the background for every shape before you build anything, so the important part of it sits where each format will show it.

Designing a physical podcast set

If you record in a room, the background is whatever the camera sees behind you. It does not need to be expensive. It needs depth, a little colour and nothing distracting at head height.

• Create depth. Sit at least a metre or two from the back wall so it falls slightly out of focus and you separate from it.
• Light the background separately. A coloured light washing the wall behind you gives the set its colour and keeps faces clean.
• Use a screen as a window. A TV or monitor behind the hosts playing a slow, dark loop adds motion and brand colour. Keep it dimmer than the hosts.
• Keep head height clear. Shelves, plants and logos belong low or to the side, never sprouting out of someone's head.
• Show the logo once. A small sign or the screen loop is enough; the show name will be on every thumbnail anyway.

Avoid colours that sit close to skin tones, such as beige and pale orange, directly behind faces. A cooler or deeper wall makes people look healthier on camera. Talking head video covers framing and light in more depth.

Backgrounds for remote podcast recordings

When hosts and guests record from home, every square in the frame looks different: a kitchen, a bookshelf, a white wall. A shared designed background around those squares pulls them into one show.

How to make an audiogram background

An audiogram turns an audio moment into a video for social: a background, the episode title, captions and often the cover art. With no face on screen, the background does all the visual work, so it can carry a little more motion than a set would.

1. 1

   Pick the moment

   30 to 60 seconds that make sense on their own: a strong opinion, a story with an ending, a surprising fact from the guest.

2. 2

   Set the background

   Use the show's background at 1080×1920. Keep the middle third calm, because captions go there.

3. 3

   Add the title and show name

   Episode title near the top, show name near the bottom, both well inside the safe zones.

4. 4

   Add captions

   Large, short lines in the show's typeface, timed to the speech. Video captions covers style and size.

5. 5

   Export each shape

   Make the 1080×1350 and 1080×1080 versions from the same design rather than cropping the vertical one.

One look across the whole show

The strongest podcast brands repeat one look everywhere: the wall colour on set matches the cover, the clips use the same background as the episode frame, and the captions always look the same. Listeners scroll past dozens of clips a day; the ones they recognise are the ones they stop for. For the posts around each episode, see podcast social media.

Gradiently can hold that look together. Start from a template on a moving Mark; with Pro you can record a voice or camera clip in the Studio, add captions and music on the timeline, and resize the design to the episode frame, the clip sizes and the cover in one step. The Mark keeps its calmest region behind your captions at every size, so the show looks the same wherever a listener finds it.