Unus Annus Logo PNG
The Unus Annus logo takes the user to an ancient, magical world. The emblem indicates the transfer of unique information from channel owners to users. The signs hint at a time limit. The entire body of knowledge is placed within a certain time frame.
Unus Annus began on November 13, 2019, when Mark Fischbach, known as Markiplier, and Ethan Nestor-Darling, known as CrankGameplays, launched a YouTube channel built to disappear. The Latin name meant “one year.” Mark used white branding, Ethan used black, and both announced that the project would end exactly one year later.
The concept was strict: one video every day for 365 days, then total deletion. No official archive, no backup channel, no relaunch. The motto was Memento Mori. Mark played Annus in white, Ethan played Unus in black, and each episode carried a countdown. The idea came from Mark’s view that not all online work needs to last forever, and that some experiences gain value because they end.
The content moved far from standard gaming YouTube. Instead of walkthroughs, the channel leaned into absurd experiments, physical challenges, strange cooking, discomfort, and surreal comedy. Early videos included “Cooking with Sex Toys,” slapping a chicken, simulated labor pains, and spending a night near a real bear. The channel ignored normal algorithm logic because deletion was part of the format.
The pace never broke. Mark and Ethan filmed 132 videos together, then produced 86 remotely when in-person filming stopped. In its final week, the channel reached 31 million weekly views and had about 4.35 million subscribers. On November 13, 2020, a 12-hour farewell stream ended with Mark deleting the channel live, while related social accounts went private. In December 2021, Unus Annus won a Streamy Award for Best Collaboration.
Meaning and History
The project originated as a concept about burnout. The two founders had previously been involved in gaming videos and literally over-saturated in them, exhausted professionally. They wanted to find something more creative that would shake them up and the users, reminding them of the inevitability of the end of any endeavor. So they decided to form a creative alliance called Unus Annus, with Ethan as Unus, Mark as Annus.
The day before the channel’s launch, they changed the photos on their profiles in social networks to the same type of picture: the first to black, the second to white. The two of them showed an explanatory video titled “This Will End in One Year.” They announced in identical monotone voices that their collaboration would be released on YouTube shortly. In doing so, each host wore a suit that matched their color.
The project’s aim was an experiment, an attempt to combine the Internet and profound philosophical categories, to show that not everything is eternal and that it is necessary to remember death at every moment. Video clips with emotions, personal experiences, and daily self-expression were used as basic content. With them, the hosts wanted to demonstrate that, in fact, the digital space is as fragile and impermanent as real life, that what is lost is never returned, and that by pushing a button, users control the destinies of real people. Hence, the channel’s unusual name: Unus Annus translates from Latin as “one year.” The video began with a slow build-up of distorted voices saying the project’s name.
In fact, it turned out to be a full-fledged program with conceptual content, despite some interruption due to the coronavirus pandemic. Ethan and Mark used two opposing color spectra to emphasize the atmosphere of philosophical overtones and to show how important fleeting, unique moments are to humans. They embodied them in everything – the images, the clothing, the logo, and the background image.
The creators chose an hourglass superimposed over a black screen for the visual identity. They counted down the time left to remind us: nothing is forever, and neither is the channel, which will close after the allotted period. A fitting slogan was “memento mori. The project had such a strong influence on its creators that they began to associate themselves with the “murdered” characters, dividing the world into two halves: black and white.
Since the theme of Unus Annus centered around radically opposing concepts, the logo was appropriate. The presenters focused on two colors: black and white. And to emphasize the original idea of the YouTube channel, they used the image of an hourglass. Inside each closed cavity, a skull was depicted. The upper one flowed with thin streams of sand into the lower one, continuing the cycle. The division into two parts of the whole was seen in almost every detail: in the number of supporting legs on the edges of the hourglass, in the carved decoration (two on each side), and in the skulls.
Font and Colors
The emblem was made in small black strokes on a white surface. They were single or merged to emphasize shadows, gloom, and depth. At the same time, the image was highlighted with a bold outline to prevent it from blending into the uniform background on which the clock was set.
The Unus Annus logo lacked any verbal information, with the main focus on visual imagery. The official palette corresponded to the channel’s original idea, so it consisted of black and white.