Have you heard about this? Currently on the app TikTok, user @emilyzugay has been using her degree in graphic design to redesign logos for well known brands. This is an often practice or assignment for art students. Well… boy has Emily been getting some practice in! And people on TikTok are eating this series!
Take a look for yourself:
So.. what do you think?
Satire? Serious? or Seriously annoying?
These seem to be the three overall reactions to Emily’s logo redesigns.
Some of my initial thoughts:
I like that her videos add humor or pokes fun at the idea of designers taking themselves really seriously and thinking that their redesign could be superior to these multi-million dollar brand identities and logos. The design industry has been known to take itself too seriously sometimes. Another person that pokes fun at the design industry and its snootiness is @elliotisacoolguy. Particularly his videos poking fun at designers that “judge a book by its cover” or that can’t go out to eat without critiquing the menu.
Now knowing Emily and her other content this is just her being her, she makes satire videos giving wildly wrong information all the time and loves the reactions she gets from them. Her videos make some people mad and give others a good laugh.
I get a kick reading the comments of offended watchers that don’t get that she is purposefully making awful design decisions.
Well this series caught the eye of many, including those of the brands she redesigned for…
Take a look at some of their reactions:
I love seeing a designer having fun and creating a bit of an inside joke for the audience on TikTok. The way that these big brands are playing along and going “off brand” to participate feels so light hearted and refreshing.
I can see why so many brands would want to jump on this trend. Not just for the publicity, added visibility, and free marketing but for the brand affinity. Buyers feel a stronger connection and more loyalty to a brand when they feel like they are on the inside of a joke or “in the know”.
An article from Ebrandvalue.com list their top five strategies for boosting brand affinity:
Though Emily broke every rule of design and made some cringe worthy logos, she still accomplished the intent of a good design. She connected with a target audience, created a huge marketing campaign, made multiple headlines, and got people talking. The majority of the brands she redesigned logos for have since swapped their profile pictures on TikTok from their official logos to her redesign. These profile pictures are clearly simple screenshots of her TikTok videos with her forehead being featured in many of the profile pictures, and she even swapped her profile picture for the one made for her by the NFL.
Overall between her followers, and those of each of these brands this little inside joke has reached around 74 million people on TikTok. With each of these videos getting between 5-24 million views. So as annoying, crazy, and cringe worthy as these logos may be, they made for quite a success.