Halloween is my favorite holiday, as my penchant for the macabre never fleeted as I transitioned from engrossing myself in the “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” books of my childhood to the Stephen King and Dean Koontz novels of my adolescence and beyond. If you’re a graphic designer and you share my hankering for horror, you know that there’s plenty of witchy work to be had in this design genre year-round.
You could design horror book jackets or movie posters and play an integral role in promoting cutting-edge fiction and media. You could work as an animator for scary cartoons and video games. And you’ve probably at least considered doing special effects for horror movies.
Every Halloween television is inundated with clever commercials with supporting print promotional materials, so you could put your horror design skills to the test in this medium. Many companies launch magazine and newspaper advertising campaigns with a Halloween theme, so if you have background in eye-catching artwork you could land one of these jobs.
I think the most exciting work would be designing Halloween costumes and haunted houses, whether horrifying or humorous, because the artwork has such an immediate and dramatic effect. These mediums tug on the bindings of human emotion and make us lower our guard for easy screams and laughter.
So where do you find Halloween graphic design jobs? Depending on your chosen medium, you should seek out companies that already do such work and inquire about employment or freelance opportunities. You can also contact book publishers, movie studios and costume companies directly. For marketing art work, check out the usual online job boards to land Halloween advertisements and direct-marketing promos.
Have you crafted terrifying (or funny) Halloween art? I’d love to see it – share it with me here!
Image use Creative Commons license via Flickr.
