Boom shroom REVISITED

Boomshroom

Back in my college years, I wandered through classes like a nomad until I finally settled on a major: Graphic Design. As I started crafting logos, I found myself swaying to the beats of Japanese influences like Nintendo's Mario and the artistry of Takeshi Murakami. When assigned this project, my deep-seated hip-hop inspirations sprouted the design of the Boom Shroom character and without much thought, I embraced a feminine twist and street swagger in her makeup.

How my subconscious came to this is beyond me because it looks as though I would have created her after a psychedelic experience which at the time I had none. Then I read the tags I used to describe the logo on search engines and I realized I included terms like "mushroom cloud," "WW2," and "nuclear bombs." The Second World War will always be a fascinating discussion; however, the existence of nuclear bombs and my birth at the tail end of the Cold War left a lasting mark on me. Despite experiencing a series of global crises, including 9/11, financial meltdowns, Middle Eastern wars, climate change campaigns, and pandemics, nothing on a global scale has instilled a deeper fear in me than the specter of a nuclear war.

That fear intuitively emerged in my color choices of purple and green. However, upon further analysis of my interpretations, they also stood for a regeneration that surpassed what had been destroyed.

The colors resonated themes of decadence, danger, royalty, nature, and the delicate balance between decay and regeneration. Of course, I didn't think about this concept when I designed the Boom Shroom. It took 15 years to realize that the logo has become my personal exploration of life's dual nature, where beauty and toxicity intuitively coexist.

Shout out to Kenny Chung, who inspired my approach to her character design.