Vize’s Adam Colp and James Oddy discuss crafting creepy creative…

Why do we love horror in licensing?

Maybe it’s the 80s nostalgia, the iconic monsters or just that memory of watching a great horror movie – possibly underage! – in our youth. We all have massive brand awareness of characters from these movies. A lot of people have probably never seen the original Hammer horror Dracula movies, but everyone recognises the Fangsome villain.

Could it be that horror movies are the ultimate popcorn style films? We don’t always see them for a great storyline or a thought-provoking twist… We watch them for the thrill ride they send us on – the jumps, the chills, the suspense, the gore, the craziness and, of course, the unstoppable villain.

The sign of a great horror movie is cult fandom and, more importantly a sinister, memorable and charismatic villain. We’ve had the privilege of working on some fun creative for some great horror themed titles.

One of our chunkiest jobs was illustrating new assets for all the original Universal Monsters titles – The Wolfman, Dracula, Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Creature from The Black Lagoon and The Mummy. A lot of these titles were really old, with the only reference being the monochromatic movies and fan art sculptures.

We used these as a starting point. That – combined with some Vize artistic license – made some really fun and nostalgic art which Universal created an amazing apparel range, in partnership with Dolls Kill.

We also had an unexpected surprise to see the art also being used as a photo op at BLE this year!

Another gory project that we have mentioned here before was American Psycho; it’s just a dream project for us! Check out the apparel range on dumbgood.com it’s insane! The Pierce and Pierce Frosted Anorak is so much fun.

We also turned our hand drawing typography skills to the already cult classic 80s- themed series, Stranger Things! We created a really fun and interchangeable asset pack. The illustrations and editorial were very scratchy. The assets certainly came to life when we started placing them onto really trend-driven apparel shapes… We love the randomness of this and the style guide is bursting with storytelling!

There was so much we wanted to share with you on this topic, but we have to keep some projects up our sleeve…

Chills, thrills, monsters, frights and gore – who doesn’t love a good horror movie?
Well, we certainly do. We even created a fun and spooky sizzle of some of our favourite work to showcase for Halloween. You can check it out below: