The Sports Logo Designer Whose Viral Videos Are Generating a Buzz

Emily Morgan has turned her TikTok account into a showcase for her inventive sports logo-redesign videos.

Before we get started: This article includes several embedded videos, so you’ll be better off reading the web version instead of the emailed version. If you’re reading this as an email, you can go to the web version by clicking on the headline at the top of the article (“The Sports Logo Designer…”). Enjoy! — Paul

Over the past couple of months, several people have pointed me toward the TikTok videos of a designer named Emily Morgan. The videos, some of which Morgan also posts on Twitter and YouTube, are short, clever animations in which she redesigns the logos for various sports teams. Some of the designs work better than others, but the videos have a consistently fun, breezy quality that makes it easy to see how Morgan incorporates various visual inspirations into a logo. The video for her Chicago Cubs redesign is a good example:

Now, personally, I don’t love that design — the mouth of the bear doesn’t feel right to me, and the ivy in the ears seems like a bit much — but I do love how Morgan uses the short-form video format to show us the basics of her creative process. Without any narration, it’s easy to see how she’s taken three iconic Chicago visual elements — the Cubs’ “W” flag, Wrigley’s Field’s ivy, and the famous “Bean” sculpture — and worked them into her logo. All in 23 seconds! And sometimes she doesn’t even need that long:

I’m not the only one who’s noticed. Several of Morgan’s videos have gone viral, and she’s also gotten shout-outs from several high-profile media outlets, including SportsCenter. Some of the response to the videos has been negative, but it’s still pretty remarkable for a young, unheralded designer to generate so much buzz. It’s also nice to see a woman getting some attention in the usually male-dominated world of sports design.

I was curious to learn more about the person behind the videos, so I recently contacted Morgan and asked to interview her. We spoke by Zoom a few weeks ago. Here’s the transcript, edited for length and clarity:

Uni Watch: Please tell me a little bit about yourself. How old are you, where do you live, and what do you do for a living? 

Emily Morgan: I’m 24. I’m originally from Illinois, which is why I’m a fan of Chicago sports teams, but now I live in Wisconsin, about 15 minutes outside of Milwaukee. I graduated from Marquette in 2021 and worked in marketing for a while, but I quit that a few months ago and now do freelance graphic design full-time.

Emily Morgan.