Y2K logos are a hot trend at the moment.
They're reinterpretations of the style of logo design from around the year 2000.
Imagine abstract fonts, star graphics and bold outlines.
I'll show you how to easily create your own Y2K logo with the help of Kittl.
If you browse the current trending templates you'll some great examples of Y2K logo that
have been created by the community.
Dig down further into the Y2K tag to get even more inspiration.
With Kittl you can edit and customise any of these templates for free, but we're going
to create our own from scratch.
Head over to kittl.com and create a free account to get started, then create a new project.
Under the settings icon, let's widen the canvas slightly to give ourselves space to create
a handful of Y2K logos in various styles.
Choose Add Headline from the Add Text tool menu, then find a suitable font.
Kittl has loads of font styles available, including plenty that are perfect for Y2K
logos.
I'm using this cool Draco font.
Bold drop shadows and outlines are a key aesthetic of the Y2K style.
These are super easy to create in Kittl.
Under the Effects tab choose Block Shadow and configure the offset to around 20.
Alter the colour and choose a bright blue.
We'll reuse this colour later but you don't need to remember to values, it's automatically
saved in the document palette.
Bump up the Outline Width to add a slight stroke around the text.
Back in the main text settings alter the fill of the text to an off-white.
With the blue outline the text is still easily visible against the white background.
Hold the ALT key and drag the text to make a duplicate, then edit the wording.
Reposition the text underneath so the two overlap slightly, making the blue outlines
blend together but so the white words are close, but still separated.
To fill some of those gaps between the text, a simple shape can be positioned underneath
using the same blue colour.
Scale it to fit, then you can find the exact blue colour from the document palette.
Right click and choose To Back to place this fill shape at the bottom of the object stack.
Under the Add Elements section, browse the Y2K shapes library to find some great stars,
swooshes and blob graphics that perfectly suit the Y2K aesthetic.
I'm using this globe element.
Right click and send it to the back then give it the same blue colour fill.
With so many ready-made graphics to pick and choose from you can easily build layouts without
having to spend time constructing each individual element.
Let's take a look at some other techniques to create another Y2K style logo.
This time we're going to create a more puffy style logo effect.
This font named Rondune Display is the perfect base.
Use the same block shadow effect to add similar blocky shading, this time with a hot pink
colour scheme.
Under the Decoration section there are some great effects that can be applied in one-click.
Some of these text styles would take considerable work to create manually using Illustrator
or Photoshop, but you can apply and adjust the settings with ease in Kittl.
This colour cut effect is great for vintage logos to replicate an engraved look, but also
ideal for futuristic sci-fi styles too!
Duplicate the text and change the wording, then find a bunch of suitable elements from
the Y2K library to decorate the logo with some additional graphics.
For this one some hearts give it a cute power puff girls inspired look.
Another useful technique you can employ is to place a large graphic behind your text.
Not only does this help to fill in the gaps like we did with the basic rectangle, the
blending of the outlines and shapes when they all have the same colour produces a really
cool effect.
Group all the elements together to finish off this logo, then let's play around with
another Y2K style layout.
For this one I'm going for more of a techy vibe with a font named Blocky, set in a neon
green colour.
Play around with the text effects to create a similar bold drop shadow, but this time
leave the fill black to contrast against the green.
As well as the outline width in the effects tab, you can also add a border in the main
text settings, which acts as a kind of inner-stroke.
Using a slightly lighter green it produces a subtle shading effect.
The awkward little gap between the last two letters can be quickly filled in with a basic
shape, filled with black and sent to the back.
Then let's find a cool graphic to decorate this logo and tie it in with the same colour
scheme.
It is possible to stretch shapes if necessary.
Hold the Shift key while adjusting the handles to warp an element disproportionately.
This little piece will act as a background for a small text element using Orbitron, another
techno-style font that is available in a few different weights.
You're probably familiar with the formula for creating cool Y2K style logos now, find
a suitable display font, add plenty of drop shadow and outline effects, apply two contrasting
colours, then find some nice graphics and elements to construct an interesting layout.
Using this library of fonts and graphics you can create endless logo variations.
In Kittl you can share these designs as templates for others to edit and customise, as well
as find other ready-made designs to build upon yourself.
Let's finish off this collection of logos by neatly arranging them onto the canvas and
apply a subtle texture.
In the textures library, find a creased paper texture.
It will automatically be applied in the Color Burn mode which interacts with the design
colours to create a more realistic texturing effect.
One more useful feature of Kitte is the Project Colors in the bottom right of the screen.
You can edit all the colours used in your design at once by adjusting these master swatches.
Everywhere that same colour is used will be automatically updated too.
Once you've created and customised your design, you can export the final result in PNG and
JPG formats, and even vector PDF or SVG.
Of course you can choose whether or not to share your design with the Kittl community
for others to work with.
If you want to play around with any of these Y2K logos, follow the link in the description
to the project, where you can edit the wording or deconstruct them to turn them into your
own brand from the millennium.