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A spooky flashback to last Halloween and 7 brand design jump scares

10/13/2023

1 Comment

 
Halloween is right around the corner, and I’m celebrating a personal win. Join me on a journey back in time to last year, when I dressed up as a stressed-out single mom:

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As you can see, I was making light of the situation in my caption but in all honesty, that was a bit of a tough time for me and for Lennon. 

But this year, I’m doing things differently. This year, I’m prioritizing fun.

I ordered a wig and some stuffed cats and I made myself a “Crazy Cat Lady” costume. 😸😸😸 Instead of taking the easy way out and ordering the costume already made, I got a little bit crafty and I made it 100% my own. It’s been a while since I felt like I had the bandwidth to take on a project like this and it feels good to see my lighthearted side come out to play again!

Of course, I also stocked up on all the fun-size Heath Bars (my fave!) and I made Lennon re-watch Coco with me! I’ve sat through enough Roblox YouTube videos this year to earn a “Mom’s Choice” movie night. 😆 And, we made this spooky house together!
​
Picture

As you can see, I get very into Halloween. I love spooky season! I love going to Trader Joe's and buying all of the cute “scary” items and I love having fun with Lennon.


But since this is a brand design blog, I want to talk about something that’s not cute OR fun…

Scary branding. 👻

First off, I just want to say that I have nothing against people DIYing their brand design. That’s not what this blog post is about. What I’m talking about is branding that isn’t serving you *OR* your target audience. Branding that undermines your mission, talents, and really great ideas.

I recently read that 60% of consumers will avoid companies with unappealing (aka scary) logos — even if that company has good reviews. It might seem like a random thing to care about, but clearly, we care a lot about how a brand looks!

Here are a few examples of what I mean by scary branding:

🕸  The font is illegible or hard to read
​🦇 The brand contains too many fonts
🎃 The colors clash with each other
🕷 The design is complex or cluttered
☠️ There’s no brand style guide
🪦 The design is meaningless or worse, plagiarized
🧟 There’s no consistency (it feels “Frankenstein-ed” together)

If your current brand contains one or more of these jump scares, don’t panic. Instead, I would love to chat with you about creating a 👻 boo-tiful brand identity 👻 you can feel proud of! Click here to send me a message and we can talk about your ideas and I can give you some options!

Before you go, I want to know what YOU are dressing up as this year for Halloween! Even if you don’t have time to make a costume (trust me, I’ve been there), I still want to hear what you’re doing to have fun. I hope you’re not dressing up as a party pooper like I did last year! 😁

1 Comment
Stockton-on-Tees GFE link
6/8/2025 10:01:13 pm

I love that the author is prioritizing fun with their 'Crazy Cat Lady' costume.

Reply



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    AUTHOR

    Karla Pámanes is an award-winning designer, branding expert, and mentor who helps businesses elevate their brands through strategic and impactful impactful visual design. Based in San Antonio, TX, she lives with her son, Lennon, and their two quirky cats, Teodoro and Paquito.

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