Brand accounts have been posting crude MS Paint style promos, saying that their "graphic designer is on vacation." The gag pairs hand-drawn artwork or simple preset graphics with a wink and a nod, alluding to the key role the absent designer typically plays in their social media campaigns

The stunt riffs on the Graphic Design Is My Passion aesthetic and uses deliberate amateurism to stand out in a market saturated with glitzy high-production visuals, often resulting in higher engagement. But the meme didn't start this year. It traces back to at least 2019 and then threaded through Facebook, Instagram, and X as brands and gimmick accounts copied the formula. Here's a quick history of where the Graphic Designer on Leave joke came from and how it picked up real momentum in 2025.

What's The Origin Of The 'Our Graphic Designer Is On Leave' Trend?

The earliest flagged example appeared on May 31, 2019, when a Facebook user named Carlene Jackson reposted a billboard advertising JAJA tequila near the Lincoln Tunnel. The ad showed a Post-it note about how the team was pressed for time on the billboard, alongside a hand-written font that read, "Buy JAJA Tequila" with arrows pointing to the bottle, and a message that read, "Sorry our designer was on vacation."

Early iterations like this advert used simplistic art but still looked more polished than today’s intentionally crude MS Paint variants, and even convinced unassuming Facebook users like Carlene Jackson. From there, the template moved from real-life billboards into brand social media feeds, where marketers learned to weaponize shoddy visuals for attention.

How Did The 'Our Designer Is On Leave' Trend Go Viral In 2025?

After 2020, the template spread steadily through small accounts and niche brands. On August 29, 2022, Fitment Industries posted on Facebook: "Sorry guys, our graphic designer is on Vacation. Rate this sick car from 0-100. 🔥"

On June 27, 2023, Instagram account @faecrate promoted new books with a crude MS Paint graphic and wrote, "POV: Your graphic designer is on vacation, but you have to announce low stock warnings. It’s still convincing, right? Please say you’re convinced 😂." That post gathered over 2,700 likes in two years.

On September 30th, 2023, the X account for the Turkish soccer team Galatasaray S.K. (@Galatasaray) tweeted a written list of their players' names and jersey numbers, gathering over 26,000 likes in two years on a post titled, "Our designer is on leave today. 🙃"

The joke reached visible velocity in late summer 2025. On August 23, 2025, GarnierUK posted a crudely drawn miscellar water bottle with the caption, “our content creator is on leave, this is what the rest of the team came up with,” and pulled in over 10,000 likes in a month.

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For the full history of the Our Graphic Designer Is On Leave trend, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.