The Apprentice’s Terrible Logo Challenges

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With Series 18 of the Apprentice coming to a close, it has reminded me of how not to design a logo.
While I do enjoy the show (sometimes), branding and logo challenges are very hard to watch when you see so many awful decisions being made before your eyes. Such as the cringe adverts, good ideas being botched by non-designers, and colour schemes that ruin otherwise good ideas.
Also, I’ve realised just how of these designs are from series 16. I don’t know why that series had an overabundance of bad logo and branding tasks. But maybe re-watching it made my blood boil a little too often.
Music
Where To by Birocratic
Take It Easy by Bad Snacks
Who Do You Think I Think You Are by Mini Vandals

[@ronoc9]

I don't want to ever gatekeep creativity or brainstorming, but if there's ever proof that marketing/business people just have a completely wrong approach to design, it's The Apprentice.

[@S4NSE]

That makes no sense whatsoever, marketing design is very successful like.. what? These people feel like they never had proper education in this area of subject so I don't know how you can generalize something so heavily based on these individuals.

[@partytimeninja3139]

@@S4NSE I forget the number but its something like 90% of marketing is ignored.

[@S4NSE]

@@partytimeninja3139 What do you mean?

[@curtisjones9372]

​@S4NSE one was literally a marketing director, that was her day to day job irl.

[@S4NSE]

@@curtisjones9372 that's insane I thought all of them just started to learn design but also the original commenter sounded like he meant design in general

[@PythonPlusPlus]

3 men with 3 hours is not 9 man-hours when you are collaborating on 1 thing at the same time. It’s logic like that which creates impossible deadlines.

[@britchin]

agreed, i could probably do better but idk if i could do a design i’d be proud of in 3 hours.

[@emselurniak]

Three hours is a ridiculously short amount of time.

[@MrSqurk]

We had to read the ‘Mythical Man-Month’ for this very reason.

[@LukeH689]

In this case, no - as they aren't all on a salary to do the work. However, in a real working office environment, if it takes 3 people 3 hours to do the same job together, then it's 9 hours man-time that is being paid for.

[@britchin]

@@LukeH689 obviously we all understand that you think that, but the implication of that statement is they should be 3x productive if there are 3 of them, that’s not how productivity works though. Most of the time, collaborating on actual graphic design work is wayyy less efficient than splitting up. if it wasn’t, design teams wouldn’t function the way they do.

[@petergedd9330]

As a retired commercial artist I can honestly say that a logo is one of the most challenging and hardest things to create.

[@blakearius]

The last logo I made went through 20 iterations to match the complex brief and still look aesthetically pleasing and balanced. But I made some stinkers in my early years trying to be to cool or edgy at the cost of print-ability or scaling.

[@lao-ce8982]

I second that. At the beginning of my career, I made pretty awful logos. But to be honest, I've never sunk as low as these ppl, lol. Logo design is one of the hardest if not the hardest subcategory of visual design.

[@Gambit771]

​@@lao-ce8982Did you only have a few hours to create your logos?

[@tarinvernon7007]

I agree but I keep learning and improving all my life.

[@aidanm5578]

yeah no kidding, that's why I stuck to web design lol.

[@TheThursty100]

The poop to vomit wave is incredible!

[@blindtraveler844]

sums up a cruise perfectly tho XD

[@ed61730]

@@blindtraveler844 xD you won best post of the day! So true.

[@Aurora_Animates]

@@blindtraveler844HAHA :) :)

[@megbx]

i mean i always expect the logos to be terrible on the apprentice but the zip zap one was just so shocking because she said she studied design??? like how on earth did she study design and then come up with that and she thought it was good… i dont know how they look at the logos they create and seem to always be happy with it, most of the time you dont need to be an artist or designer to understand that they’re bad logos

[@huzaifaprod]

she's human we all make mistakes

[@veronicapatino1532]

​@@huzaifaprodbro that's not a mistake, that's a crime scene she commited 💀

[@funkyfranx]

@@veronicapatino1532You can’t help but assume they lied on their CV. The number of people who say they have a background in design, only to produce something a toddler would make

[@veronicapatino1532]

@@funkyfranx I know!!!!

[@megbx]

@@funkyfranx yeah that’s probably right

[@paulwilson6357]

As a graphic designer myself I do try to give them a bit of leeway on the designs, but good god they're terrible. I used to have a client who would come in to 'polish up' my designs for him and it would always be, "right, now move that bit down there. And make it blue. Now, down a bit more. Bigger." and I'd be getting smaller and smaller in my seat as my design turned to cringe. Love your channel by the way!

[@paulwilson6357]

Also, could clients also stop saying 'make it pop'. It means nothing to us!!

[@deusex9731]

yeah its absolutely valid to request things, but the type of people that take over your design are exacly the ones that believe they can do it better and therefore not able to really be communicated with

[@paulwilson6357]

@@deusex9731 I always make sure the client gets what they asked for in the end, but I do wish some of them would remember why they employed a designer to begin with!

[@koiloylo]

i always love watching the designers reactions when they make logos on this show. they either look like they’re about to piss themselves laughing or cry that their talent is going to such waste

[@paulwilson6357]

@@koiloylo It's a horrifying trainwreck based on a very real thing!

[@gnowra]

That wave one was such an odd mistake but if they’d just made it a generic blue water gradient it wouldn’t have been bad by the apprentice standards at all. Woulda coulda shoulda

[@KarmaCifer]

I need a full day of constant communication with the client to create a logo, and that is only if they don't want sudden changes in color or design. I can't imagine 3 hours to do all branding and product design

[@TiffanyRedGreen]

It's like the people making the challenges aren't designers either; they're sadists looking to set people up for failure so they can laugh at them for television.

[@MaxBeech]

I’m convinced they ask the designers to design poorly. The designers are given enough slack that they could make way better design choices without going against any of the advice of the contestants. Instead they use atrocious looking clipart and never choose colours which compliment each other.

[@thejagman22]

Thing is the candidates are absolutely clueless, but I don't think they get any help from the 'designers'.. Even as bad as some of the things they're requesting are, the designers in some instances seem to be truly terrible in terms of their technical ability. I find myself shouting at the screen, "Why would you do it like that? What's wrong with you?". Example: in the 2024 series, Arctic Crunch (as seen in the vid). For the word 'crunch' the designer decided to freestyle the lettering in a kind of lightning pattern, literally clicking along in Illustrator trying to form the letters. That's just not how any designer with half a brain would EVER do it. You'd at minimum put a font down underneath first to trace over - I mean the candidate's sketch was better 😂 The Apprentice makes designers look like they're just there to take orders and push buttons - it's the worst possible depiction of our industry.

[@royareyzabal823]

honestly, what decent designer would agree to participate in a show like this??? it's terrible

[@thejagman22]

@@royareyzabal823 Having watched the show, I'd say a decent one wouldn't 😉

[@koiloylo]

to be fair to the designers, i think they’re on a very short time crunch maybe only 1 hour or so. but yeah i often think they’re just random people pulled off the street because that is not how you use these programmes???

[@onwardsandupwards547]

That could be true. In the case of the jukebox episode from series 1, the designer was working at a huge agency called Publicis. Maybe he was a junior, or not a great designer, but I'm under the impression he phoned it in. My theory always comes back to what would be good for TV, so was he given some direction to not try when making the poster. And yes, it is the worst possible depiction of being a designer. No sane designer would agree to use brown and green for a cruise ship logo. But they have absolutely no say in the colour choice. As for the cereal logo, it was truly insane to draw that out using a mouse.

[@thejagman22]

@@onwardsandupwards547 LOL 😂 Oh, no, I actually work for Publicis! It all makes too much sense now! 😂🤣🤣

[@PriNcEoFSpAcE009]

ok.... as hilariously bad as these logos are, what is the actual point? obviously if you get someone who have zero clue or education in graphic design, you're going to get shit designs - that is why you hire a graphic designer to do stuff like this. so unless these guys are actually in apprenticeship as graphic designers why is this part of their task or a criteria for judging?

[@partytimeninja3139]

TV. If you think that any aspect of the Apprentice is true to life I have a bridge to sell you!

[@MrPhil1503]

Same as the tasks where they have to prepare food or do catering...it always goes wrong, because in reality you would get actual professionals doing it

[@keirgomcginlay2044]

Hypothetically to impress on them how much they need to rely on others and see if their arrogance will get in their way. But... ehhhh...

[@4TheWinQuinn]

The apprentice over the last 10 years has just been about hiring airheads to create DRAMA not actually succeed in challenges.

[@HF-sj9lm]

as ridiculous as they are, the teams are given strict perameters about the colours and names that they are allowed to use which doesnt help

[@VOIDMW]

As logo designer, you can't rush perfection, it's like trying to build a car from scratch in a day

[@vinickman]

This is why i always say that i will never be in a tv reality show. I'm a designer and illustrator and If someone tells me that i have to create a branding in like 3 hours, without researching or anything, i would simply just say "you want me to do what? Pull it out of my fucking ass??" And leave the show

[@TobyStan]

Right?!?! Most artists (including me) will put together a board of references and ideas to work off of. Let alone the time it takes to make multiple instances of off a very broad idea. Rawdogging it without being able to do any research whatsoever is like telling construction workers to work without the architects blueprint. What was even the point of that constraint? Were they afraid theyre gonna steal someones design? Were not reinventing the wheel, everything artistic has been done before, its about inspiration and doing creating in ones own way.

[@TheGreatCalsby]

When I was a graphic designer, designing logos was one of the most stressful things to do. Its genuinely like reinventing the wheel sometimes

[@Foervraengd]

This all really resemble the way America's Next Top Model have challenges that, just like in this video, limits the contestants options or put them in scenarios that simply would not even be a thing in an actual modeling job.

[@stuart2151]

I think the anti-venom bottle's shape was amazing and perfect for the target audience. With what people said, it stood out as something different

[@RacingSlow]

I feel like they only get 20 minutes to do it, no way it can always be that bad otherwise

[@chrisdunst]

the turd yoga will forever be embedded in my brain. kudos for a memorable logo

[@sergiohalaby]

As a graphic designer for nearly 16 years, my soul left my body several times in this video... I've never felt so triggered lol. I cannot imagine what those poor designers were feeling while working on those abominations, especially Polar Crunch... Holy hell...

[@joelpww]

All of those logos were absolutely awful but those judges or mentors or whatever are REACHING with their critiques

[@ThijsBaltes]

half of the actual logos are not logos, but word marks and some standard shape elements. The cereal logo / mascot of Captain Squawk is very much the same a Dutch mascot for kids cookies, called Kapitein Koek ("Captain Cooky")

[@rorrt]

This video demonstrates why I haven't watched the last series and a half of The Apprentice... I asked a businessman, on an average day. How many times do you have to run to and from a Chrysler Voyager, in and out of a corner shop in Sutton. To buy a jar of chilli jam? He said "ummmmm. never?" Showing how irrelevant any of the tasks are in The Apprentice...

[@T7ZSRS]

those useless gradients hurt my eyes

[@APFC95]

if anyone ever wondered what designer's nightmares are about... this is it

[@ImCurrentlyNaked]

Wouldn't it be more realistic to simply have them actually work with the designer, and communicate with them, to get the best design? Why does it matter what their own actual design skills are? Still funny though.

[@the98themperoroftheholybri33]

Zip Zap reminds me of a schoolchild's powerpoint presentation introduction

[@richardhousham8948]

I often say that the apprentice is just a really bad competition. One moment your doing the product design, pitching the product, developing the product or even some dealing or treasure hunt. Your just not going to find someone who can do all those jobs! This somehow is meant to give us the best person at the end. Heck half of it is luck! Will the other team be slightly better and so you get the pleasure of told off by Lord Sugar at the end!

[@splintmeow4723]

These deadlines are insane haha no one has a chance.

[@stuff31]

Just found your channel, it's so great. So much polish to every video! Keep it up dude, you deserve so many subs.

[@jlwest899]

It'd be cool if a KZbin graphic designer took the concepts and recreated them professionally!

[@joes661]

Off camera the producers often tell them to include a certain colour theme or logo...so its not always entirely the contestants fault.

[@buffoonery4649]

I remember watching the poop wave episode in class, was an amazing example of what not to do, everyone was ripping it to shreds.

[@blockidol7866]

In their defence, it’s established that offscreen they are given parameters with shapes/colours by the production team

[@phumelelampungose2774]

💪🏾Much love, all the way from South Africa ❤

[@josephhughes1498]

What I never get about it are the orders from companies, like are all these companies going to really buy 4000 of one of these slapped together products even when they aren’t super enthusiastic?

[@Gazooki69]

Way back when, I got a shitty job offer and part of the interview process was having to do this kind of bollocks.

[@marsmellon]

6:49 man, I had that toy as a kid. I had totally forgotten it existed. You had to scan barcodes to look for monsters hidden inside of them. Sadly it was really difficult to find ones but anyway.. they tried something different.

[@BenRangel]

They can't communicate with the other team-half digitally. They can't spell-check or change things after leaving the design room. They have a couple hours to come up with name, logo, box graphics etc. I knew it! there had to be rules that intentionally made tasks more prone to mistakes to keep the show being fun cringe-TV

[@BadgerOfTheSea]

The problem with The Apprentice is that every single contestant is so delusional about their abilities that there is never one of them capable of taking a slight step back and just going "huh... looks shit"

[@Krilium]

marketing people really are the least creative breed

[@chiwo_os]

My first day as a media student at college, we got shown these logos as things not to do 😭

[@thecrispymaster]

My favourite part about that first logo is that the following week the teams were tasked with producing a children's electric toothbrush, and the boys went with THE SAME COLOUR SCHEME. I know they don't have much time and are basically set up to lose on these tasks, but at the very least if they could make different mistakes, it might show a degree of learning 😂

[@abs7469]

These always annoyed me, there’s a reason why businesspeople HIRE and work with ENTIRE TEAMS of designers and graphic designers to create marketing material. The whole show is ridiculous and makes them complete so many challenges people like this would never have to actually do when they get the job.

[@bmc_]

7:50 XD, this is like when the client is making those 'slight improvements' and you can't anything.

[@tverdyznaqs]

Damn, these business school types really don't be having no "eye for design" huh. I always thought that pretty much anyone can slap together something halfway descent in an hour or two since modern design tools are like trivially easy to use but I guess some things like creative restraint and sense of taste can only come from experience. Still, most of these blunders can definitely be pinned on the whole designer 1-way communication thing. Oh and the producers definitely sat that up that way on purpose!

[@Gambit771]

Why don't you try doing that then. It is harder than you think.

[@bezoekers]

8:00 This did catch on, but maybe just not that specific product? CD players that could hold multiple CDs were very popular in the 1990s and early 2000s. You could put ten of your favorite CDs in there, put it on shuffle and basically get a huge playlist. And that was before the iPod era.

[@blindtraveler844]

Poop and vomit wave.. you have to admit! it sums up a cruise perfectly tho XD

[@jackh7889]

I have to be honest...production knows what it is doing

[@royareyzabal823]

no encore?? that was a cold and abrupt ending of a video jaja please, at least some say a few words of goodbye to close the video, it's always needed

[@Alex-cw3rz]

Great vid

[@brandonheim]

I give them slack because we cant expect them to make actual high quality work, but my problem is that it feels so disrespectful to people who have studied and spent years honing their craft to expect people with no skills or experience to make something good. It gives the "anybody can do it" vibe.

[@devanman7920]

The poop wave is just fantastic 😂

[@commie563]

This is torture for designers Why Yt algorithm did this to me 😭

[@onwardsandupwards547]

Try watching this show for 19 years. That is true torture

[@vexil9706]

This really shows the value of designers. It doesnt matter how great the product is or the months of business meetings these people have over marketing a single product. No one will touch it with a 10 foot pole if it doesn't look well designed.

[@thatguynitram]

someone make a video on recreating the logos

[@Itzskimpy]

If you remove the reality TV antics and the stupid rules about not communicating or going back to the graphic designer I think this is such a great insight into what it’s like for designers dealing with clients who have no creativity at all lmao. Like it’s simply the difference between your left and right side of your brain. Some people are wired differently. These guys are great with business and logistical tasks, but just aren’t creative. And that’s fine, as long as you know to leave that part to the creative people it results in two sides with different strengths working in tandem

[@freemansteinslab]

"The product was basically a CD player that could hold ten discs instead of one. Unsurprisingly, this never caught on" Cries in 90s 😢

[@themidwife1624]

My biggest gripe with the Apprentice over the last few years is that the scripting on the show has become so utterly obvious to the point that some of the showrunners' decisions are as if they were made by a team of apprentice candidates making a tv show for a task. It's gotten so much worse, every little comment/reaction from the public, every weird 'reaction' cut just reeks of BTEC drama. There is no way that crappy cruise logo was not a plant by the showrunners, I refuse to believe it.

[@halflink]

Oh, Alana's actual logo looks not that dissimilar to the show's one (minus the cake stand and a font). They kept the words and the colour scheme.

[@hyunjinsanity]

You can literally just use a sans serif font with a mix of generic shapes and... boom, you've got basically every tech or well-being company from the past 5 years. This is a clear indicator that its so easy to make a logo that doesn't look awful, yet these people somehow still manage it. Obviously, its not that simple in real business ventures, as you have to remake a logo so many times, but just making one that looks decent isnt that hard!!

[@veronicapatino1532]

As a designer this is a crime, my eyes hurt like wtf 🫥

[@infographie]

Excellent.

[@keenanwhitham4920]

Got to admit, VENOM would make a good energy drink, tattoo, or band logo if executed well.

[@HarishBabuM]

Which episode is this?

[@SoSo-li6dn]

First Time Dies - lol - and on the jar it looks even worse.

[@CJWproductions]

Big shocker, reality show is specifically organized to generate spectacle lol

[@TobyStan]

7:22 This poor f-ing lad 😂😂😂😂😂

[@Thera_7]

So Lord Sugar created a show that produces a Jack of all Trades, Master of None by the end of it.

[@npcimknot958]

Some of hte stuff they design makes me forget this isn’t a show from the 90s😂😂😂 but their ideas and designs are so dated and bad

[@loomonda18]

...are these people even trying?

[@glassowlie]

The other one's after this series was boring.

[@jonsmith6331]

The Apprentice UK is simply an embarrassment all together. At least season one the producers of the show were making some kind of effort. The show found its style and quickly devolved into finding a dozen mid-wits and depriving them of any chance to succeed in a challenge. On top of all of that the show has THE WORST editing in any reality tv show I've ever seen. As an American, i'm a big fan of UK versions of reality TV shows, but this show had degenerated into the worst of the worst formulaic cringe fest and is in no way entertaining. I keep forgetting how bad it is and trying to watch new seasons before giving up. From the very outset of every challenge they will edit everyone talking over each other in a way that that obviously didn't happen, only so they can cut away to Lord Sugar's assistants making a sickened face. Give me the raw footage and let me make a half decent show.

[@hananeqorar2510]

I feel I easily can be a graphic designer

[@HasnainTariq-zb6cb]

seems like a scripted to get more TRP

[@relrond6111]

It is, many contestants has spoken out how they were made to create ridiculous designs for better TV

[@Hushey]

if they were perfect, no one would watch it. its entertainment

[@npcimknot958]

Most of the designs are so bad it’s the funniest part of this show.. is how proud and their egos and then someone telling then’ uhh it looks liek 💩’ lol Even the graphic artist working on it you can tell they’re trying not to laugh LOL

[@fumikato]

"woman doing yoga get shotgun-ed" 😂

[@npcimknot958]

1:28 they could have just made it.. blue 😂😂😂😂

[@mudkng]

I HAVE NEVER WATCHED THE APPRENTICE BUT HOLY SHIT FIRST TIME DIES HAHAHHAHAHA

[@curtisjones9372]

It's simple readable text at the bottom simplified image representing either the product or brand at the top. honestly graphic designers are paid way too much for the amount of boring corporate logos they've ejaculated all over the world

[@georgevanderriet2474]

What a terribly f*cking dumb show

[@fumikato]

Is this a scripted show he's talking about?

[@relrond6111]

It is 🤦🏻‍♂️

[@fumikato]

@@relrond6111 bro re-creating the thumbnail

[@herobrine1847]

@@fumikato🌊🦗

[@PhantomFilmAustralia]

Being "boring" isn't a good philosophy for playing it safe. "Play it simple" can be a million miles away from playing it boring while still erring on the side of caution and safety. The logo can be catchy, clever; with just a few lines or colours can capture and represent the essence of the product being sold. Nearly everywhere in the world, people instantly recognise what "The Golden Arches" represents.

[@Gambit771]

07:30 is why I stopped watching the apprentice. The men would be called sexist over the slightest thing and especially by Karen but the women could use sexist terms and insult the men in a gendered way and that was fine. It was empowering.

[@AbiSaysThings]

of all the reasons to stop watching such a god-awful show this is definitely one of the worst 😂 nothing said there was a gendered attack, you are weird.

[@IgnusVermaak]

bwahahahahahaha, thanks for the lol

[@Birthold]

a country 90% white and more than half the contestents are coloured people...thanks bbc

[@appolity]

Imagine if there was an episode where they use ai to do it……. 🫠