Monster Election Campaign
Problem
An iconic monster needs a visual identity for an upcoming mock election. Deliverables must be a poster to hang up as well as some other promotional signage and tools.
Class: Brand Identity Software: Adobe Illustrator
Solution
I gave The Cenobite from Hellraiser a visual Identity that combined the architecture of the puzzle box, as well as election branding elements.
Research
01. Hellraiser Franchise
Beginning my research I looked at a list of icons and chose to do The Chatterer from Clive Barker’s Hellraiser. I took this time to refresh myself on the story by watching the first two movies (Hellraiser and Hellraiser II) and then the Hulu remake by the same name.
02. Election Campaign Refrence
My next step was to research past election campaigns with strong visual identities. I started by looking at the past presidential election campaign in 2020. I took a look at Hillary and Trump’s campaign and analyzed what made them stand out. Furthermore, I took a look at local campaigns in Norfolk to see if there was a difference In the way they are presented.
Designing The Campaign
01. Logo
When first creating the logo, I thought about different elements that made The Chatterer and Hellraiser unique. The two things that I thought of were the Puzzle Box and teeth. My first interaction tried to mimic the puzzle boxes 3D nature, but I found that it was not working because of legibility when it became smaller. Therefore, I simplified it and turned it into just two sides with the letter “C” and “B” for Cenobite.
02. Colors
For my color palette, I wanted to keep them muted to represent the horror sid,e but still utilize red, blue, and white to keep on theme of the election. An Idea that I had was to take a still from the movie and take my colors from there to keep the muted colors that the movie had at times. From there I decided to tweak the colors so that I had a working brand color identity.
03. Typography
When looking for typography for the campaign, I was looking for something more grungy because I find that most “horror” fonts are too cheesy and would not fit with the tone of the campaign. The font that I ended up going with is (Insert Name) for a header. Since the header font has so much personality, I wanted a simple sans serif font that wouldn’t take away attention and wouldn’t be too much for the viewer.
04. Campaign Assests
Takeaway
During the Fright Night event, the teacher set up a voting system where people could vote for their top 3 candidates. The Cenobite ended up being the top 5 out of 27 candidates. Overall, people had a good reaction to it when I was talking to people in the area and got some compliments on my poster. I think that there could be some improvements in the illustration of the cenobite. Furthermore, this helped me learn how to create an identity around something that is already well-known.