Social Media In Apocalypse Times

5 min readMar 31, 2020

During the COVID-19 pandemic many of us are relying on social and digital platforms more than ever. Here are some of those iconic brands re-imagined for the apocalypse.

The idea started by accident but turned into a fun (and gruesome) design set. It became a way to break some of the tension and anxiety of this pandemic in a playful way. I hope you enjoy.

Discord

This was actually the first one I had the idea for — inspired by the face paint that Black Metal bands are known for wearing. It also looks a bit like a floating ghost with black blood oozing out its eyes. It’s worth a nervous giggle.

I decided I had to try a few more. You know, for science…

Dropbox

This was one of the later ones in the series. The Dropbox logo just felt so ripe for doing something with. It was kind of tricky to make the helicopter concept work, but the end result makes me laugh by it’s absurdity.

This symbolizes how out-of-control many of us feel, our realities suddenly shifted and upended without warning.

Facebook

It took me a while to come up with a concept for this, the most important logo of all. I had the idea for incorporating an intravenous (IV) bag which was a bit of a challenge to pull it off.

Facebook is obviously a digital lifeblood for most of the world. Of course Facebook is unlikely to ever “run out”, but having the bag of life-sustaining fluid nearly empty fits the theme.

Instagram

This one was pretty easy, and occurred to me right away. I was trying not to have too much repetition of ideas, so I was glad that one of these was so ripe for including the biohazard symbol. Then I just changed the colour gradient to be very gross and garish. It reminds me of something out of Half-Life 2.

I often feel like social media is bad for my mental health, especially if I don’t carefully regulate my usage. Social media can also devolve into a toxic cesspool of argument and blame.

For those of you who love to read, or who have no problem passing long stretches of time without the aid of digital screens, you’re probably handling this better than the rest of us.

Ko-fi

I wasn’t very familiar with this brand, but I was looking for more simple logos that I could do in-theme renderings of. This one is quite simple, a broken black heart and a single blood droplet. Also the handle is cracked.

This represents how many independent artists (as well as non-creative freelancers) have experienced sudden and significant loss of income.

(PS — IF YOU CAN AFFORD TO DONATE TO SUPPORT YOUR FRIENDS’ ART, NOW IS A GREAT TIME TO DO THAT)

Netflix

Because this logo is already deep red, my first thought for a design was blood, but I’d already used blood prominently in another design, so I thought some more and then this idea occurred to me.

This symbolizes the sense that we’re trapped inside and many of us are a prisoner to streaming entertainment to pass the time. Also, how much harder it has become for me to watch dystopian-themed movies or TV shows. They hit way closer to home now.

Patreon

Another design that was inspired in part by Half-Life 2 (which is a great dystopian/post-apocalyptic game!). I immediately had the idea to turn the white circle into a saw blade, but wanted to do something with the blue bar as well, so I turned it into a torch to symbolize the “torches and pitchforks” idea, though a saw blade instead of a pitchfork.

This symbolizes the tensions and frustrations on many fronts — people ignoring social distancing protocols and putting others at risk, corporations price gouging or being jerks to their employees over sick leave, and politicians who are not taking the situation seriously and/or not doing enough.

Slack

This one was a little trickier. Slack’s logo is unusual and definitely not as iconic as many of the others. I wanted to incorporate the doctor/nurse mask into a design as these masks have become very ubiquitous overnight, fortunately the slack logo worked.

Unfortunately, those thin face masks are not always good enough and doctors and nurses are still getting sick while trying to help others. There are tutorials online for sewing custom masks at home (if you know how to sew), you can make and donate these masks. You can also 3D print PPE to donate to hospitals if you have access to a 3D printer.

Twitter

I asked myself “what can I do with a little blue bird?”

I didn’t want the bird to be the victim. It seemed funnier and definitely more fitting if the bird itself was… ravenous (pun intended). So I depicted it dive-bombing from one gory murder and heading for the next.

And that’s enough gruesome apocalypse art for now.