Final Project

All Hallows Evenings  is an entertainment company that creates different themed haunted houses and masquerade parties on select nights through out the month of October.  Our competitors are Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights and Busch Gardens Howl O' Scream.  Our target audience is teenagers and older.  I used the same colors as the logo for the business card, letter head, and brochure to keep them all consistent.  The black swirl design was done in adobe illustrator using the twirl tool which is the same way I created the logo.

Brochure sketch

Letter Head Sketches

Business Card Sketches

Corporate Identity Questionare

1)   What is your business?

We host parties as well as create haunted houses.

Ex: We make shoes.

Why is this important: It’s important to know what the company officially does. That might sound obvious, but sometimes it’s good to have it laid out there.

2)   Describe your business in one sentence

 We host Halloween masquerade parties and Haunted House events with different themes every year.

Ex: We make quality skates for professional and casual skaters.

Why is this important: This helps to get us closer to the nature of your business, and may also help inspire your slogan.

3)   Who is your target audience?

Ages 14 and up for the Haunted houses, 21 and up for the Halloween masquerade parties.

Ex: Skaters.  Professional skaters.  Families.  Teenagers.  Casual skaters. Athletes.  Men.  Women.

Why is this important:  You need to know whom your brand is talking to.  If you’re talking to children, it would require a completely different visual language than if you’re talking to mothers, teenagers, athletes, bankers, corporate officials, doctors or handymen.

4)   Who are your competitors?

Busch Gardens and Universal Studios.

Ex: Skaters Choice Skate Shop, SPoT Skate Shop, Skate America

Why is this important:  It’s vital to know your competition. You need to know who they are, how they run their business and what makes them successful.  If your company is no different than your competition, what would make anyone leave them to come to you?  Especially if they’re established and you’re new.

5)   What makes them better/worse than your product/service?

They have a built up reputation and have been doing their events for over 20 years.

Ex: Skaters Choice Skate Shop site doesn’t work right now.  SPoT Skate Shop sells shoes, clothes and skateboards, nothing for regular skates.  Skate America’s site is currently being redone so all you can do is sign up for their email listing.  None of these are ideal for buying skates, skate parts or customizing skates online.

Why is this important:  You need to know what your company is and is not, what you have in common with your competitors and what do you have that is unique?  If you see a weakness in their corporate design (such as an ugly website), this is also a place where you can make yourself look better.  Also, is their target audience any different than yours?

6)   Do you currently have an identity? 

 (This is more for companies that are already established and you’re just revamping the logo/corporate identity.  If you have a new company or product, skip this question.)

Why is this important:  If you’re an established company with a well-known logo, you may not want to deviate too extremely from it.

7)   (If your answer to #6 is no, skip this question)  What do you like about it and what don’t you like about it?

Why is this important?  Even if you plan to change the logo entirely, it’s good to keep an inventory about what specifically worked and didn’t work about your previous design in order to inform the new one.

These following questions might seem silly, but their purpose is to help generate ideas.

1)   How do you want your image to be seen in two years?

We want this company to have acquired a fan base and be in the same high status category as Busch Gardens' "Howl O Scream" and Universal Studios' "Halloween Horror Nights".

Ex: We want this company to be seen as a place you can trust for high quality, custom skate parts.

Why is this important?  This is something that you will have to portray in your corporate identity.

2)   If your company was an animal, what animal would it be and why?

It would be a chamellion, always changing into something new.

Ex: A cheetah, because our skates are fast, dynamic, and exciting.

Why is this important?  Your company may or may not benefit from a mascot.  If it’s for children, a mascot character might be something to consider.  But even if it’s for adults, the answer to this question might help generate ideas.

3)   If your company/brand was a person, who would it be and why?

If "All Hallows Eve" were a person, it would be Dracula. Dracula is a very classy, scary, and well known Halloween character and the company would be known for throwing classy Halloween parties as well as scary haunted house events.

Ex: Apolo Ohno, because he is a famous, record-breaking Olympic speed skater who’s also young, fun and trend setting.

Why is this important?  A brand is perceived by consumers almost like a person who is representing your company.  You trust them, communicate with them through advertisements and purchase, you can be disappointed in them, etc.  The corporate identity is the face of that person.

4)   If your company/brand was an object, what would it be?

A masquerade mask.

Ex: A pair of fancy speed skates.

Why is this important:  Might give you ideas. 

5)   If your customer was a cartoon character, who would it be?

Jack Skellington, he is a skeleton who lives and breathes Halloween.

Ex: Streex, from Street Sharks.  He’s constantly wearing rollerblades, enjoys extreme sports and is the token ‘cool’ guy.

Why is this important?  Cartoon characters have exaggerated characteristics. Identifying the general stereotype of your customers might help give you ideas.

Lyrical Collage

For my lyrical collage project I decided to do a landscape from the song titled "What's this?".  This song comes from the movie, Nightmare before Christmas. 

Lyrics:
"What's this? What's this?
There's color everywhere
What's this?
There's white things in the air"

I chose a mountain winter background for the landscape, then sought out different Christmas items to add color since the movie shows him entering "Christmas Town" while singing this song. I added the smaller snowflakes with the brush tool.

Assignment: Custom Graphic