Halloween isn’t all TP’ing houses and scary movies, right kiddies? Terrifying design can often be some of the most creative. In this week’s “Cool Designs,” we slap a grin on our Jack O’Lanternesque faces with the home version of a sinister origami series, get the heebie-jeebies from a creepy film label identity suite, and rejoice in a colorful, paper-cut look at beloved monsters of yesteryear. (Previous Cool Designs of the Week can be found here.)
Horrorgami: The Book Design
We fell in love with London artist Marc Hagan-Guirey’s stylishly creepy “horrorgami” creations when we first saw them back in 2012. His ability to recreate beloved horror film scenes with little paper folding and cutting techniques and mood lighting blew us away. Now he’s gone and published a book that shows you how to create your own creepy scenes – you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve with a bit of determination and attention to detail.
Film Label Identity Design
Mexico’s Anagrama has become one of those design studios that you find yourself watching because you’re never quite sure what they’re going to do next – you just know that it’s going to be interesting. This identity suite for Hong Kong horror/thriller film label Making Horror is a good example of what they do best. We’ll let them explain it:
“The brand tells a story portrayed through a forensic detective’s eyes, implicitly presenting elements of terror and mystery through the use of crime scene components.
The logo portrays the fine line between order and madness by creating a structured typeface that is then inconsistently distorted. The distortions create logo variations that are then used throughout the brand’s print and video media. Incorporating the characteristic elements of horror and thriller films the brand adopted a psychotic personality made present through the stationery by repeating lines and typos.”
Boosting it all from simple job to inspired identity is the use of glow-in-the dark ink to mimic the luminescent splatter we’ve come to recognize from endless reruns of “CSI” et al., from handprints to “blood” (we hope it’s “blood”). Extra points for the evidence bag!
3D Paper Cut Monsters
Halloween always strikes us as a time to look back on the classics. You know, the Little Rascals of horror: Dracula, The Wolf Man, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, etc. Which is why we were really blown away to see how British artist Eelus revived those beloved-but-boring monsters of the ’30s and ’40s with a series of brilliant 3D paper portraits. Paper tricks equal paper treats here.
