A TikTok creator’s low-quality redesigns of corporate logos are being used by TikTok, Nascar, Tinder, Tampax and other major brand accounts on the platform. When TikTok user Emily Zugay jokingly shared attempts at redesigning iconic logos, it racked up millions of views, and caught the attention of some of the US largest companies.
Zugay, a 24-year-old pet portrait artist from Wisconsin used Adobe Illustrator to make “repulsive but believable designs” and shared them on her TikTok account. She redesigned Starbucks’ famous green logo as two pastel stars overlapping on a purple circle with coffee spelled wrong. H&R Block ironically became a circle logo instead and Apple’s logo became a green square with the word “apple.”
The video racked up 12 million views and requests for more, prompting a second video in which Zugay remakes the logos of Target, TikTok and NASA. Companies flooded Zugay’s comments with requests to attempt their logos next. Zugay said she was “in utter disbelief” when she found out that major brands were discovering her posts, but NASCAR, Tampax, The Washington Post and Tinder all became subject to her design skills.
Despite misspellings of names, and mismatched shapes and colors, the brands loved their new logos, and many replaced their TikTok profile pictures with them to show that they were in on the joke. Viewers can expect more to come, with brands including Amazon, Disney Channel and Fenty Beauty requesting to be made over next.
