I have never been a fan of parody design. It is often a lazy, uninspired, and ham-fisted crutch used by bad designers, pandering to tasteless audiences. The two elements being parodied rarely ever have a shred of connective tissue, and it is nothing more than a shortcut used by the uninitiated in an attempt to seem interesting. It's almost never the answer to the question, “What should this design be?”

THAT BEING SAID, I made a whole bunch of parody designs! I was tasked with creating some merch for a YouTube channel that specializes in content focused on comic book and genre movies. Since they don't have licensing agreements with the studios, this is actually the perfect use case for parody design. How do you allude to these properties without just putting a big red and yellow 'S' on a T-shirt? Don’t want to get sued? Parody design to the rescue!

This was a great opportunity for me to put my money where my mouth is and see if I can deliver where I feel so many fall short. I had one simple rule for myself: DON'T FORCE IT. If it fits, it fits. If it doesn't, don't try to shoehorn two elements together for no reason. Look for logical and/or organic connections. I found that the key to my success was the tagline – that much-needed special sauce. The all-important third element that connects the first two and makes it all make sense! The result was a wide variety of different types of parody designs: some brand parodies, some design style parodies, some wordplay, and even some parallel pop culture parodies. A pretty inspired bunch, if I do say so myself.

Also, the company didn’t end up using any of them, so they are all for sale!

- Cody