Woman's Viral Mock Redesigns for Iconic Logos Are Actually Used by Brands

A woman has created what is potentially TikTok's biggest "in-joke" after redesigning some of the U.S.'s most iconic logos, and the big brands have even got in on the action.

When TikTok user Emily Zugay jokingly shared attempts at redesigning instantly recognisable logos, it racked up millions of views, and caught the attention of some of the country's largest companies, who requested their own logos become victim to her art.

Now, the makeshift logos can be seen boasting as the profile pictures of many of the brand's official TikTok accounts, showing just how companies can do TikTok right in 2021.

"I had been making 'spoof' style videos for a few months. I normally would choose an everyday task and make it harder or inefficient. The idea popped into my head while I was brainstorming one day. I actually do have a degree in design so, meshing the two world together sounded really funny to me," Zugay told Newsweek.

On September 8, Zugay took to her TikTok with the original video, telling her viewers: "I graduated college with a degree in design and I redesigned some popular logos I think we can all agree are ugly."

"I don't like anything about it," she said about Starbucks' famous green logo. "I hate this green color. I don't even know who this is," she joked.

Zugay redesigned it with Adobe Illustrator to two pastel stars overlapped on a purple circle with coffee spelled wrong, and ultimately looking like it was made on Microsoft Paint.

H&R Block ironically became a circle logo instead, because Zugay, "just hate[s] the block," and Apple's logo became an orange square with the word "apple" in an awful font.

"I just try to take all of the good aspects about the original logo design and portray the exact opposite. For example, if a logo is intended to look dainty or feminine, I want to make it chunky and heavy. It's fun to pick apart famous logos and see how awful I can make them," she said.

The video racked up 12 million views, with a mixture of those who dubbed it "comedy genius" and those whose heads the joke went straight over. Those who were in on the joke, however, requested more, prompting a second video that gained over 10 million views and saw Zugay remake the logos of Target, TikTok and Nasa.

It wasn't long until the companies wanted in too, as they flooded Zugay's comments with requests to attempt their logos next. "After going through the comments, a lot of large brands reached out to me for new logos, so I said yes," she said in a September 16 video, with a deadpan tone.

Nascar, Tampax, The Washington Post and Tinder all became subject to her design skills, with The Washington Post's logo being replaced with an image of President George Washington with stars around him.

Despite misspellings of names, and mismatched shapes and colors, the brands loved their new logos, and even replaced their TikTok profile pictures with them. The Washington Post, Tinder, Nascar, Tampax, the Detroit Lions and even TikTok's official accounts now display Zugay's redesign proudly.

The TikToker-cum-graphic designer shared her reaction to TikTok's new profile picture on her account. "What have I done?" said the text-to-speech generator, as she gasped and covered her mouth while showing TikTok's account, with her logo in use.

Viewers can expect more to come, with brands including Amazon, Disney Channel and Fenty Beauty all still requesting they be made over next in Zugay's comments.

"I've had a growing list of companies contacting me through DMs and email asking to be a part of the next few videos and to make logos for them. I know it's all a joke and it's developed into a hot marketing trend, but I'm still honored to be a part of it," she said.

Update 10/11/21 at 3:21 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include comment from Zugay.