Crime World (Mediahuis) visual identity

Mark Porter Associates has created a visual identity for news and crime podcast brand: Crime World.

The Crime World name was originally applied to a spinoff podcast fronted by investigative journalist Nicola Tallant, making the most of her contacts in the world of organised crime. The new Crime World brand has replaced the existing Sunday World website and united the podcast and SW’s crime coverage under one banner. The podcast stands apart from most true crime content, emphasising expert-led news coverage and investigative journalism. 

The existing visual language of crime is a collection of overused tropes: police tape, evidence boards, ransom notes and typewriter fonts. Our first priority was to ensure that we avoided the clichés. Crime World is serious, analytical, authentic, and human. Our design reflects these qualities, prioritising impact, drama, and urgency, while remaining clear & accessible. 

The primary typeface is Interference Bold from Kurrpa Hosk, chosen for its geometrical monospaced character shapes, which evoke the timestamps on CCTV camera footage. Interference’s robust fixed-width letterforms facilitate gridded, tightly-spaced typographic constructions for wordmarks and headlines. The supporting typeface is Inter from Google Fonts, selected for its legibility. Inter brings a more traditional, newsy quality to longer headlines and text.

We also wanted to break away from the conventional reds, yellows, and greys of most crime visuals. We found a fresh take in the work of Life magazine photographer and civil rights advocate Gordon Parks, who documented the policing and criminalisation of marginalised communities in 1950s America. Parks’ photographs of night scenes and street life lit by neon and fluorescents inspired us to take some late-night walks around Dublin, and the images we collected became the drivers of a colour palette of dark blues and purples, neons and golds.