Halloween Blog Banner
Now it’s October, I guess its time to get into the Halloween festivities!
Any time of the year when you get the opportunity to go all out with the decorations, I’m right there and embracing it! Over the past few years in the UK, Halloween has become one of those ocassions where shops start the hype much earlier, and stock up all of the beautiful tat in record time.
Now I am not a HUGE fan of the colours associated with autumn, but I am partial to the odd pumpkin around this time of year. I really wanted to include a range of pumpkins behind the text in my blog banner. To me, pumpkins embody Halloween. From appearing on the poster for the John Carpenter 1978 classic 'Halloween’ to making a mass appearance in EVERY supermarket across the country. Around this time of year, there is no escaping its Halloween as soon as you see the pumpkins. I saw a few pumpkin-themed items in a local Home Bargains; one of my faves was a little wax burner pumpkin ceramic stand……… I bought 3 because they were only £1.49, and totally essential! They came with a ‘Spiced Pumpkin’ wax melt which smelled INCREDIBLE. Even though I have 3 of them (and I am sure I will buy more) I am so precious over actually melting the wax LOL. You cannot beat the classic, cheeky little jack-o-lantern face cut out too.
I wanted the font on my festive banner to emulate a poster for a 1950’s budget horror flick, something that instantly screams SCARY MOVIE! I went for typical Halloween colours; orange, green, and purple. Not only are they three colours that I love, but they also clash very nicely. I wanted to look at classic horror movie posters for inspiration and I loved the fonts used on:
Dracula, 1931
The Wolf Man, 1941
Cat people, 1942
Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, 1956
A Nightmare On Elm Street, 1984
The Company Of Wolves, 1984
The fonts on these movie posters were all different but all had a similar overall look; an outline and/or dripping letters. I loved the outline of the font used on the Dracula poster and the dripping style font used on the A Nightmare On Elm Street poster. I searched and searched and managed to find these two fonts on www.1001fonts.com. I used Creeper and Mr. Monster. I also went for classic Halloween colours with a bright green and deep purple. I used Photoshop and made the writing 3D, I felt that it gave the text a little more depth and created a shadow which gave it a more ‘spooky’. I went for Mr. Monster for the ‘Cartier"‘ as it had a little more presence with the outline and thought it packed a little bit more of a punch than Creeper did when turned 3D.
I have been ready for Halloween since mid-August and was ready to change the logo banner as soon as I had done it. I was strong-willed and decided to hold back a few weeks before, as I’m sure this is what would be done…………. right?
As soon as Halloween is over we all have the big one to look forward to…….. CHRISTMAS!!!!!!