Objective
Create a logo for use online for a horror news and review site. The logo should be representative of horror and tie into the inspiration for the namesake, the Ghastly Grinner.
Solution
Ghastly Grinning is a horror news and review site dedicated to bringing positivity to horror journalism. Their name is a spin-off of the character Ghastly Grinner from an episode of the television show Are You Afraid of the Dark?
I approached the design by thinking of ways to abstractly tie into the Ghastly Grinner. I wanted to focus on his mouth and in particular the blue that would ooze from it. I decided to make the entire logo, just the smile of the grinner himself. It allows for abstraction while still tying into the original character and the tagline of the site itself, to make horror happy.
So often horror-related brands use dark colors and red but I wanted Ghastly Grinning to stand out from that. With the message of happiness in mind, I decided to stay with the original color scheme of the character and use yellow and blue. To create tension I made both the colors brighter and more neon.
To contrast with the clean logo and bright colors, I used a graphic and edgy font to create the logotype.
The logo is flexible for multiple mediums. Because the site is presented online and on social media, I provided variations of the logo to give the brand consistency on all platforms while still having interesting, diverse options.