Halloween Special Edition: Haunted Mansion

Welcome back to Designerland. I hope you all had a swell weekend. This week's post was supposed to be a new typography case study, but as I'm not through with all my research and font-finding, I will instead present the Haunted Mansion Halloween Costumes!

Like many of you, I was part of the boxed costume generation. I remember going to the store and seeing the shelves lined with boxes of various monsters, cartoon characters and movie stars peering at me through their cellophane die-cut windows. Picking the right costume was important because you wanted to make sure no other kid showed up to school in the same one. I can remember that tense moment when the teacher told us to go put on our costumes. We'd all run to the closet, each of us grabbing up our boxed costumes, the cellophane crackling as we opened our boxes, and we would each scan the room to see if we matched with anyone else. Luckily, I was always the odd kid out. While most kids wanted G. I. Joe or Hulk Hogan, I was Yoda or some obscure glowing skeleton creature.

The most popular vinyl box costume producer was Ben Cooper, followed closely by Collegeville. I was always drawn to Ben Cooper’s line of costumes due to the quality of design and selection of characters. Since the plastic masks and vinyl “aprons” were the Halloween uniforms for so many of us, I wanted to pay homage to Ben Cooper by retheming some of his classic costume box designs to align with Designerland & Disney Theme Park merchandise. I recreated the mask designs, using existing Disney art and are FPO.

Well that about does it for this week’s post. We'll be honoring the Halloween season all month long here at Designerland, so stay tuned for more frighteningly fun posts. As for the next Case Study, that'll have to wait until next month. As always, thanks for stopping by and see you all next week.

Retro 71

This week’s Retro 71 shirt design is based on 1980's Walt Disney World Resort branding. This branding was used mainly on gift store boxes and bags within the Magic Kingdom.

At a certain point in time it was a Terpstra tradition to search the shops of Main Street U.S.A. to find the perfect souvenir for my grandmother. As I recall, my mother had one particular shop she enjoyed, the name of which eludes me. I never shopped with my mother when I was little – I would probably have been found across the street with my dad in the Magic Shop. But each year it seems my mom would purchase these delicately hand-painted Italian porcelain flowers for my grandmother. These object d'art sit in my grandma’s formal living room to this day with WDW price tags still fixed to the bottom.

It wasn't until I was older and rummaging around my grandma's closets that I came across the package that one of those flowers came in. I remember picking up the box in amazement – not only did it bring back memories of those early trips to the kingdom, but now, as a student with an interest in design, the pattern blew me away! The color palette was shocking and vibrant with its bright yellows, pepto-bismol pinks, warm oranges and cool purples. The design was vacation-driven with images of what all Walt Disney World Resort had to offer; a hula dancer from the Polynesian Village, the majestic tower of the Contemporary Resort, Cinderella’s Castle, a Space Mountain vehicle rocketing through the air, the iconic architecture details of one the shops from Lake Buena Vista Village, Dumbo taking flight, the Monorail, and of course Mickey Mouse.

The layout and composition of the collage makes me think of all my past vacations – small venues of magic and happiness.

Well that about does it for today. See you all back here on Friday for a new Disney Typography case study. As always thanks for stopping by.