2. The First Thumbnails
3. The Second Logo Drafts
4. The Third Logo Iterations
5. The Final Logos
6. Animating the Logo
7. The Animations and Mockups
8. The Vinyl
YUCK! is a personal side project I completed to translate one of my favorite songs (“Yuck” by Charli XCX) into a visual logo format. I sought out to capture the retro aesthetic of the song, along with the cheery pop sound coupled with the “Yuck!” tagline. The ultimate goal was to create a versatile, yet punchy logo that could be incorporated into branding and promotional content on social media platforms.
The Inspiration
Inspired by singer Charli XCX, I wanted to combine the chorus and sound landscape of her 2022 song “Yuck” with the visual aesthetic of her 2024 album “BRAT.” I utilized a solid green backdrop similar to the “BRAT” album cover, with a similar low-res visual style.
The First Thumbnails
I began by sketching out rows of logo concepts - one column incorporated sharper edges, while the second colum utilized softer, more rounded edges.I was inspired by combining the funkiness of early 2000s graphic design with the cleaner, more modern look of today.
The Second Logo Drafts
With the next iteration of logos, I expanded upon my first logo spread with some alterations, most notably a consistent palette. The green took inspiration from Charli XCX’s most recent aesthetic, as well as its association with disgust (hence the tagline “Yuck!”).
The Third Logo Iterations
For the third iteration of logos, I took a more silhouette-inspired approach. Borrowing from the shape of some of the first and second iterations of logos, I devised a more cohesive logo with easily interchangeable colors.I also experimented with adding simple shape backgrounds for this logo iteration, which I would continue in my final iteration.
The Final Logos
Building off of the color palette and incorporation of the shaped backgrounds from the previous logo iterations, I decided to take a more 2.5D approach this time.The final logo result was a bold, punchy visual that matched the early 2000s sound and musical aesthetic of “Yuck”.
Animating the Logo
Keeping the early 2000s aesthetic going, I wanted to take the logo a step further and design a simple animation. I utilized the final logo iteration to frame the logo as a looping error message within a retro computer UI.
The Mockups
and Animations
The final animations are reminiscent of early 2000s cartoons, retro PC interfaces, and modern pop music.
I was inspired by the way modern musicians utilize short-form content and music videos to promote upcoming songs through subtle “clues” sprinkled throughout the video.
The result is two short-and-sweet animated loops that would fit well into the context of modern social media platforms such as Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts.