VTuber Logo Trend Continues to Uplift a Specific Japanese Typeface

Branding is among the several things that VTubers need to take note of to build a good impression to their audience and future collaborators.

Several designers—some of them are VTubers as well—have shared their points-of-view on the platform. Kota Kotonya said a few days ago that we should not compare VTuber logos against corporate ones for a good reason:

"Comparing VTuber logos to industry-level logos is like comparing apple to oranges. Industry logos are meant to be simple and recognizable while VTuber logos are meant to show personality and be eye-catching."

What goes into the creation of a VTuber Logo?

We reached out to Kota to know more about his process in creating logos for VTubers. "The time it takes for me to complete a logo from start to finish varies depending on the style that my client is wanting."

Kota adds that on average, it takes him around 3 hours to complete a logo, not counting the time it takes in between communication and possible revisions.

Aisu Asai, who created the logo for Mint Fantôme and Matara Kan's Summer Special podcast, was inspired by the discussion and dropped a logo study which will bring more fun ideas to the table: What if the Pizza Hut logo was done VTuber-style?

The study which now has 11.6 million views, reposted 4 thousand times, and was liked by 34 thousand users on X/Twitter, also got the attention of companies such as Razer, ASUS Republic of Gamers North America and iBuyPower's sister brand Hyte.

Aisu released a plethora of logo studies, so we asked her how long does it take to produce each logo: "For the brand logo, each one takes me about 5-10 minutes, they're pretty simply so I can get them done really quickly, especially since I'm using the same font for all of them."

She even flipped the script and did logo studies for Amelia Watson and Kureiji Ollie.

Another graphic artist, Orihime, shared her ideas too, such as the VTuber-style study of the Opera GX browser, whose VTuber named GX Aura had her logo also done by the said artist.

"These brands I've chosen to do so far are already known for very specific things, so it takes less than 15 minutes for the actual study, then a max of 30 minutes for the logo itself since it is without client feedback! The longest part is just figuring out where certain pieces go to give it a cohesive finish!"

She's also open to flip the script just like Aisu: "I am very open to industry logos out of VTuber logos! I find all styles of logo branding to be insanely fun and intriguing based on which audience it wants to connect to."

What's the Common Font for VTuber Logos?

For the record, popular music mashup producer TripleQ shared his take on the common denominator of VTuber logos last year: Get the font called Yuruka UB and play along with it.

Yuruka UB is a paid font which can be purchased at FontWorks. The Monotype-affiliated service also has case studies on how their fonts were applied through various forms of media.

We asked the three artists to express in their own words why the Japanese font is preferred to be used for VTuber logos.

Kota and Aisu trace back to the time when illustrator Gogon popularized its usage. Gogon, as Aisu states, made a lot of logos for hololive production talents.

Aisu uses the font mostly for her works: "It's a great font for VTuber logos since it has a lot of energy already, not needing much editing to make it look good."

For Kota, who recognize Gogon as the one responsible for creating 80% of logos for hololive English -Myth-, understands the font's versatility

"He based Yuruka UB as the base font for all 4 logos, but manipulated the font in a way to create 4 different styles that all have core cohesion. I think that it showed how versatile the font can be, and that it can be used in a professional environment."

Orihime on the other hand appreciates its eye-catching vibe. "Yuruka seems to be the base foundation for a lot of Japanese livers and designers. It’s a cute and bubbly type font that attracts viewers attentions and immediately gives off the aura of ‘this is meant to represent a cute/outgoing OC’.

"It’s a very loved type font and very popular amongst VTubers now because of its legibility and flexibility! It’s also a very forgiving font for designers who like to add to the font or decorate around it."

FontWorks describe Yuruka UB as a "loose" typeface with a playful and relaxed feel. While each letter in its glyph has an unstable and unique design, it is ideal for expressing the warmth, gentleness, and simplicity of hand-drawn typefaces.

There's still a lot of logo studies to explore, and the floodgate of ideas continues to be open for more quirky ones.

Maybe one day, a logo study can convince a company to have its own brand VTuber the way GX Aura convince Heinz UK to do something as quirky as those VTuber logos.

Sidenote: Before sharing your logo study on X/Twitter...

There has to be some safeguards before sharing a logo study online, specially on X/Twitter, just like any piece of art which are made by hand.

During the process of making this story this story, we realized that Aisu's logo study for Pizza Hut has been taken by bad actors which scrape content and use the graphic for their automated online t-shirt stores.

"It definitely sucks, but in the current age it's pretty inevitable for others to try to leech of of people's creativity when they lack any of their own, especially when it's been viewed by so many people."

The said study being scraped would mean different for Aisu if it was an actual commission.

Stock image services would add watermarks as a deterrent for bots, while some would resort to playing their game and using good bait to deter people from buying from these bad actors.