# does your haunt have a logo?



## EverydayisHalloween311

Any of you got logos for your haunt? Heres what i came up with for mine


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## Hairazor

Nicely creepy!


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## QueenRuby2002

Hey that is great. I want a logo but can't draw so ours is still up in the air what it'll be.


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## EverydayisHalloween311

Whats your haunt called i could conjure you up something


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## killer20

wow that looks great


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## Troll Wizard

So is the Lurkin in the Dark going to be in red, so it looks like blood dripping from the letters? Pretty Cool though, Pretty Cool!!!!


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## Headless

Nice!


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## fontgeek

The red part is great as long as you are printing in color (for shirts, flyers, posters, etc.), but it makes your printing costs jump a whole lot for anything you want to do, and your logo has to be huge to keep it readable. I like the pumpkin man, but I can see practical issues with using this. If you go to print this in shades of gray/grey, that blood will look like mud or something worse.
I kind of thought you'd do something with white letters on a black background with evil looking eyes stuck in various places in and around the lettering.


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## EverydayisHalloween311

If i make shirts ill probably lose the blood. Fontgeek what issues do you have with the pumpkin man? Suggestions always welcome


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## RoxyBlue

Keep Pumpkin Man! He's wonderfully evil looking in a slightly charming way


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## fontgeek

As I said in my first post, I like the pumpkin man. I guess my only issue with him specifically is that the name of your haunt tells us that there is something lurking in the dark. The not knowing what it is that's lurking is, at least to me, part of the charm or mystery, so as soon as you show me a character with the logo it kind of takes that mystery away. Hope that made sense. 
If you had your pumpkin man was looking a bit worried or scared of what might be out there, and then place eyes peering out of the dark he'd be fine, or if your haunt had a different name. I definitely wouldn't throw the character away, he just seems to be in a bit of a conflict with the haunt name.


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## fontgeek

Attached was more along the lines of what I was thinking. While you could still use the pumpkin man, I thought the evil, disembodied eyes kept a bit more of the mystery, but I did a version with the pumpkin man too, though my version of him is a true black and white image. Screen printing and photo copiers don't do well with grays. in fact, screen printers don't really see grays unless it is a gray ink you are using. For them, there's a hole in the screen where ink gets through or their isn't.


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## EverydayisHalloween311

Fontgeek that is a rad idea. I might tweak it a bit but i think i am going to go with something of that nature for my T shirt design. KUDOS!


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## fontgeek

Just changing the shape, type, or number of eyes can change the look pretty radically.
The ones I used were a bit on the cartoonish side, but as I said, you could change the look or feel quite easily. I made the mention of it being a yard haunt more of a feature or subtitle rather than an after-thought.
Please show us what you end up doing, and don't lose your pumpkin man, he has a future.


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## EverydayisHalloween311

My computer is freaking out so i'm on mobile. Hey if ya get bored or just wanna be super awesome and cool could you make me a more scarier logo in that style? I'll give ya full credit as designer. I also was thinking of using the "october crow" font that Chad savage gives away for free on his sinistervisions website. I've always loved that font. Anyway again thanks that does look cool. Good idea!

Oh and the pumpkin man is gonna be like the "spokesperson" of the haunt. Ill have him featured in some various news updates or something but as far as the logo i like something in the style you came up with. Plus it would be easier to get printed on things ie..shirts, cards, banners etc.


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## fontgeek

Here are a pair of versions of the logo done with October Crow. One uses a small caps version, the other the standard version.
I made one pair of the eyes bloodshot, and both pairs of eyes have reptilian pupils rather than round/human pupils


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## EverydayisHalloween311

FONTGEEK FTW! Very cool man, very cool!... I think i'm gonna try to figure out how to make the resolution better. My problem with windows paint is everything always had a slight blur when zooming in BUT with your permission i think this design will be turned into a shirt and used as a logo/banner. What size shirt do you wear? I'll send you one free on the (haunted) house. Hehe
BTW are we Facebook friends? Hit me up at facebook.com/frankwallace311


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## fontgeek

Sorry, I don't do facebook, I've seen too many people have way too many problems because of it.
I just dropped you a PM with my email address.
I'm old I guess, I don't know what FTW means, and my imagination comes up with way too many possibilities as to what it could mean.


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## Dixie

fontgeek said:


> Sorry, I don't do facebook, I've seen too many people have way too many problems because of it.
> I just dropped you a PM with my email address.
> I'm old I guess, I don't know what FTW means, and my imagination comes up with way too many possibilities as to what it could mean.


 For The Win

Nice work by the way, FG


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## typoagain

I spent a lot of years working in the printing industry. When desktop publishing came along a lot of people learned to use the software and immediately thought that made them a "Professional Graphic Artist." For a lot of them nothing could be further from the truth.

Whenever I look at a logo the very first thing I look for is how easy is it to read. A lot of fonts look really cool but are hard to read. I want to know how easy it is to read when the image is small and when the image is large. Can I read it if I only have a short glimpse of it?

I you decided to put out some bandit signs around the neighborhood to promote your haunt and I saw one driving past, could I read it and fully understand it?

The Pumpkin Man has too much fine detail to make a good logo. The image is just too busy. It is a great image to use in place of pictures in promo material, but I do not like it as a logo. It draws your eye away form the words, and the words tell the message-not the Pumpkin Man

FontGeek's first design gooks great, but the type is a little bit hard to read. 

I also think the second ones are great. They use a stylized font that is still fairly easy to read. The only thing would do different is use the term "Haunted Yard" rather than "A Yard Haunt." FontGeek used your words, but I would suggest rethinking them. I think that the term yard haunt is something you just do not hear much outside of the haunt community. I feel that a Logo for a yard haunt needs to be designed keeping the general public in mind instead of the haunt community. If I were designing a logo for a place that caters specifically for the Haunt enthusiast, I would go the other way. 

You can play with the eyes if you wanted, that would be personel preferance. I also like the bottom one of the two better. It puts more emphasis on the name. Plus it just looks better to me!

All in all I love the second one's FontGeek did. All in all, I have to say that Fontgeek has a good eye, far better than most people.

As for the choice of color-no one says you can't have 2 logos. Most businesses actually do. They normally have one that is designed to be black and white, and a color version. You will find that you will use the color version for a lot of things. If you order items from companies like Vista Print or Café Press you pay the same price for black and white as you do color. At the same time, single color printing for 1,000 flyers is hundreds of dollars less for black and white than it is for color.

Whenever we did a logo design, the design had to get past at least three people in our office before the customer ever saw it. Everyone looked at it and had different ideas and opinions. Just about every design I came up with someone found a flaw. But because we worked as a group, we turned out some very nice work.

Anyway, that's my free advice. Just remember a lot of folks think that it is worth just what you paid for it!


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## EverydayisHalloween311

My wife just read this and she now likes "haunted yard" way better than "yard haunt" or "a yard haunt" And yes fontgeek ftw just means "for the win", as in you did an amazing job. You have been so much help and i really am so thankful. My current problem as i've said to fontgeek is when i try to upload a picture to use as a banner on my haunted yards facebook page it looks really pixelated around the edges and low quality. I'm at a loss on how to correct this. My computer is being fixed and at the moment i am using an older windows xp computer and my only editing software is windows paint lol! (That might be my problem right there i don't know) but yea i think what i would like is something along the lines of this only with it saying "Haunted yard"









And if not green maybe a pumpkin orange blended into a brown sorta an autumn feel to it.


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## Pumpkin5

:jol:So very cool Everyday! I love the whole idea and I loved your pumpkin man as well. I agree with your wife.....smart lady!


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## Headless

Love that - and I would stick with this color - there is something nice and toxic looking about it.


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## EverydayisHalloween311

Thanks. The color is me. Everything else is credited to Fontgeek! Very creative individual


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## Hairazor

Typoagain says:

"Whenever I look at a logo the very first thing I look for is how easy is it to read. A lot of fonts look really cool but are hard to read. I want to know how easy it is to read when the image is small and when the image is large. Can I read it if I only have a short glimpse of it?

I you decided to put out some bandit signs around the neighborhood to promote your haunt and I saw one driving past, could I read it and fully understand it?"


I so agree with this point. If I go past a sign and can't read it from my car, you can bet if you don't care enough to make sure I can read it, I won't stop to see what it is. That said, I love your sign design and your pumpkin man.


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## fontgeek

The problems with the pixelated edges are caused by a few things.
The resolution of the file, the actual dimensions of the artwork, the typeface you chose, and the contrast in colors between the logo and the background.
With the artwork fairly small, and the low resolution added to the typeface and color contrast, your software doesn't have much room or capacity to dither/feather the edges. The typeface you chose is also constructed with a ragged edge rather than smooth curves or straight lines, so your software has to try to dither the foreground to the background with some extreme limitations (resolution, dimensions, etc.).
Try enlarging the the image size and the resolution in a new file. Enlarging this file will just make those tiny squares huge squares.


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## EverydayisHalloween311

Thanks again fontgeek for all your amazing advice and creations. A true haunt friend!


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## fontgeek

To get close to the look you have without printing in full color, I'd print the flyers on Ultrabrite Green paper. You won't get the gradation of yellow into the acid green, but that bright acid green of the Ultrabrite paper will still pack a big punch. The down side to printing like this, the big black background with the white/paper color lettering, is that unless it's done on a good printer, you will get streaky black backgrounds. Ideally, I'd eather have the flyers done on an offset press, or printed on a good desktop printer at OfficeMax, Office Depot, etc. Printing from the digital file rather than a photocopy will help keep the quality up, and also help avoid misalignment of the paper original screwing up your whole job. Hope that made sense.
I wouldn't do the green on anything but a black or close to black background. We, humans, recognize lettering by it's shapes, and are able to read or define it by the contrast in colors, If you use the green on white or light colored paper, the lettering will need a black outline, and or shadow to help many people read it, and by the time you add the outlines and such, the delicacy of the lettering will be gone.
For business cards, there is a 10 second rule, if people can't read and understand your card in that time, then you've wasted your time, money, and paper. For flyers for drive by traffic, you have less than a second to capture the driver's attention, even at residential speeds (25 MPH). The lettering has to be big enough and easily defined enough for someone to read it at traffic speed. October Crow is neat, but it just barely makes it on the legibility end of things, at least on a letter sized flyer.
I think your pumpkin man would do well in a comic book style poster or flyers for pedestrian traffic, and for website graphics.

Typoagain, can you do your text in white? Red text is a strain on the eyes, and harder to read.


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## EverydayisHalloween311

Solid advice my friend and I thank you!


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## typoagain

I love the logo in color. It looks like a lot of folks here have mad design skills.


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## EverydayisHalloween311

Thank you FONTGEEK for all your help and advice and designs.. I'll pm you to get an address so i can send you a shirt sir! I tweaked it slightly but here is the end result. Time to go to print. Again thank you!


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## fontgeek

I sent you the address with the first batch of artwork.
A question and a thought. I see you changed out the "Haunted Yard" font, any particular reason? While I like October Crow, keeping a good contrast between the haunt name and the subtext (haunted yard) keeps each part, the title and the subtext, separate but gives each part it's own value. If you do all of the text so that it looks the same, or close to the same, it becomes more difficult for the reader to understand where the actual name of the haunt ends, and where the subtext begins. If they, the readers, can't, or don't, see them as separate parts, then they see it as one long name or sentence, and it makes your logo look like you jammed the last bit of your name in as an afterthought rather than as an intended part of the design. If you want to use something different than what was originally supplied, then you might find something that has a contrast in style to the haunt name but still fits within your size constraints/requirements.


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## EverydayisHalloween311

Yea that was a font my wife really liked and i like the october crow. So we just compromised while still keeping your main design with the eyes and lurking font. Honestly we are just a haunted yard in a small town. About the only place this will appear on is our facebook page and IF we pass out flyers. I think if we ever up the anty and go pro then we will for sure keep that in mind about the contrasting of fonts. I will go back and be sure to write down your address to send the shirts when i get them made. Probably late September. That is of course if the change makes you NOT wanna have the T shirt haha. Your help and guidance with the logo is more appreciated then you know and much respect to you. Thank you


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## EverydayisHalloween311

I also have to say that for a flyer i had the idea of a bunch of eyes (in a similar style to whats in the logo) placed all over a dark black background with the pumpkin man character kinda creeping out behind a scary shadowed tree... Then with a comic book type wording bubble above his head saying " In this haunted yard...You never know what's LURKING IN THE DARK".


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## CoolDJTV

here is mine. It needs replacing though, I'm going to make a new one next year 

http://www.hauntforum.com/album.php?albumid=1055&pictureid=12328


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## fontgeek

The thing about the contrasting font applies whether it is in print, or on the internet. It's how people read and interpret what they are seeing, and hopefully reading.
But the choice, in the end, is yours.

The Anders Cemetery would work okay for a page on a website, but it wouldn't leave you much room for anything else on a flyer, and the flyer would need to be in full color for the reader to get the impact, but it's a good starting point.


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## EverydayisHalloween311

Well if i could find a font close enough to that one i would choose it. Have any in mind? I personally don't feel it's hard to read. I notice it right away but i'm not a pro and i don't have a background in any of this type of stuff. I figured the markings would make it clear what i mean by that is the "- Haunted yard - " the spacer lines i guess you would call it.


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## fontgeek

The hyphens can help, but put the logo at the size it would actually be seen at on a web page, facebook etc., for the casual viewer and keep in mind that this would only be viewed for a second or two.
If you are happy with the font you've chosen, then use it. The font I used for the haunt name itself is a small caps version of October Crow I created. The last set of artwork I sent you had the "Haunted yard" text in a couple of the versions.
Again, it's your call, I just try to make people understand what they should look for or consider for title artwork and logos.
If you are going to add other eyes, I'd keep them a whole lot smaller and a bit more subtle. If not, then they start competing with the logotext/title itself for the viewers attention. By the time you get your pumpkin man up on a page with all the rest of the stuff you would need or want, he'd be fairly small, and the text or thought bubble would be a whole lot smaller than that. If people are going to try to read your page from their phone, or a small tablet, then you need to keep your graphics and message pretty simple, or, like business cards, people will just blow on past because your stuff is too hard to read, and now more than ever, the lack of patience or time spent on reading will prove tiny or "busy" graphics to have been a waste of your time and labor.


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## EverydayisHalloween311

Good sound advice. I will take it to heart and use that when working on it. Thanks fontgeek


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## austenandrews

We're making a real sign this year, as an improvement over last year's last-minute thrown-together business.


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## EverydayisHalloween311

Cool can't wait to see your sign


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## typoagain

Well, I need a new sign this year myself. 

I was just going to tack the letering on some stock graphics and go from there. Now you guys are making me fell guilty for being lazy. What is another item on my to-do list anyway.


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## EverydayisHalloween311

True. I got so much to do and so much I'd still like to buy!


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## Headless

Here is something I threw together the other night after reading this thread. Boorongarook is a play on the area we live in which is Barongarook. It's lame I know but we said it as a joke last year and when I wanted to change it this year I got hounded down by everyone. So it stays I guess. The eyes are from the logo of our media gig - Eyes of Fire Media.


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## fontgeek

headless, the logo looks okay as long as you aren't trying to read it fast. If you have to race though it like people typically do for flyers and such, then it will be a problem.
Besides the hard to read text, the use of color would make printed stuff expensive to reproduce. The odd name may be hard for many to remember correctly, and without knowing what it means it's kind of hard to relate the eyes to it in any relevant way.
A good rule of thumb is to always look at your stuff the way an outsider (someone who doesn't know you or your business) would in relation to the text, the time they would take to read it, the legibility, etc.


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## Headless

LOL Thanks for the feedback fontgeek but I'm not planning on doing anything other than putting it on the header of the Facebook page. I just have a party that personal friends attend - it's not really anything other than that. Certainly not a business. I just thought it would be fun to have something other than a photo on the Facebook header.


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## fontgeek

I quite agree. It's amazing what a difference having a recognizable symbol or icon can make to events, it gives the event staff/planners/party throwers and guests a focal point, and helps build anticipation. It can also clarify a particular look or theme idea for things like parties, concerts, or fairs.


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## debbie5

What about Baron Ga's Rook?? An old creepy castle....


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## Headless

As nice as that sounds - I can only imagine the work that would be involved in turning what I have into a castle!


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## EverydayisHalloween311

Fontgeek for the "haunted yard" part of the logo you made me whats your opinion on this font for the haunted yard part? I like this one too


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## fontgeek

EverydayisHalloween311 said:


> Fontgeek for the "haunted yard" part of the logo you made me whats your opinion on this font for the haunted yard part? I like this one too


This definitely works better than your previous choice. There is enough contrast between the lettering styles so that the viewer doesn't see the "haunted yard" as part of the formal name. It's also much more legible.
If I could, I'd also lower the hyphens at each end of the "haunted yard", and flip (on a vertical axis) one of the two.


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## EverydayisHalloween311

Good idea. And if i might ask for one more piece of advice. When sending this off to print, if i get it on black shirts. What do you think would be the best color? I was thinking a green or orange.. I'd like others input too


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## fontgeek

White will be the easiest to read, but I think I'd like the acid/electric lime green better, with a bright orange coming in second, but you can go to customink.com and upload your artwork and see what it would look like in any color and on any color shirt, on the front, the back, or even on the sleeve. But they need it in, preferably, a vector PDF format. I know what I gave you originally would work, but I don't know how you did your alterations, or what format you have it in now.
What typeface(s) did you use for your bottom line of text and ornaments?


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## EverydayisHalloween311

I used the "ghoulish" font from sinister visions and I centered the haunted yard wording. It cut a little off the D in dark but I rather have that centered underneath lurking in the dark


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## drzeus

I've been toying with a name for our yard haunt since I saw this port some time ago.
We live (in town) on North Hazel Street, and we cater to the young TOTs (try not to be too scary yet not cartoonish.
I'd kinda like to incorporate the "Hazel' aspect into the name, cause I think of Witch Hazel.
Does anyone have any suggestions for us?
Maybe "Hazel Street Hallow"
Thanx!!


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## fontgeek

drzeus said:


> I've been toying with a name for our yard haunt since I saw this port some time ago.
> We live (in town) on North Hazel Street, and we cater to the young TOTs (try not to be too scary yet not cartoonish.
> I'd kinda like to incorporate the "Hazel' aspect into the name, cause I think of Witch Hazel.
> Does anyone have any suggestions for us?
> Maybe "Hazel Street Hallow"
> Thanx!!


This sounds more like you are looking for a name than a logo.

What is your haunt setup like?
Maybe if you made it like the kitchen or sweets shop for your friendly witch, you could go with something like "Witch Hazels Splendiferous Sweets" and make an old fashioned looking sign, but again, so much depends upon what your display is like.
Figure out your haunt's name before you worry about a logo. Decide how your logo would be used, if it was going to remain the same year after year, then your haunt's name needs to be flexible enough to work with the variations you may have in your haunt from year to year.


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## drzeus

Thanks for the input fontgeek.
I think we have come up with a name- "House of Wacks"- referring to the craz people that live here and do this haunt each halloween.
We have a relatively small haunt but we attract about 300 kids. that number seems to grow about 100 each year for the last few years.
it is pretty kid centric and we like to stay away from the gore. We prefer to scare the kids more with suggestion rather than direct terror.
Here's a video to give you some idea......






any ideas?

Thanx!!


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## diablodeebo

I have named mine "Widows Walk" on the sign coming into the yard (can't post the picture yet). Says that across a board with two women figures on each side on top of a couple of pillars.


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## fontgeek

drzeus, that's quite a mix you have there!
Is there any particular feel or look you were going for or leaning towards?
How would the logo be used? e.g. website, flyers, screen printed, news paper ads. Also, would it be used in color black and white, or both.
Would this be used for multiple years or just for this Halloween?
The more feedback the easier it is to come up with something that will suit your needs and desires. 
You can drop me a PM with an email address so that I have some place to send something.


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## drzeus

Fontgeek, I can't believe that you would be willing to do something like this! Thats very, very gracious of you.
If I had the creativity and knowledge like you, I would probably enjoy doing it, but with my current graphics capabilities, it would probably take weeks to come up with a mediocre design.
I'm at a total loss as far as the artistic end goes fontgeek (Im not very creative in that respect). maybe a somewhat scary pumpkin melting as if it is made of wax. a drippy kinda font (lotsa times those are kinda hard to read aren't they). wax candles?
The "wacks" is obviously a play on the word "wax", suggesting a Wax Museum.
I would probably use it principally on the website (houseofwacks.com (undeveloped currently), and boospace.com (under constryction)), but a tshirt or sweatshirt would be cool too.
On the website, there is a good chance that the height of the logo would be resized to 100 pixels or so (so it will fit in the header frame), so wide but short would probably be best for the site.
I would lean towards a color logo. I could try to convert to grey-scale if needed.
Each year we add 2-3 lifesize mannequins, like something you might see in a wax museum. If I had photos of the faces of the lifesizes, wold it be possible to make them look like they were made of wax?
As you can see in the video, the graveyard is up close and predominant in the haunt.
We kinda just mix it up. LAst year we projected Old Horror movies on the garage door and we will continue that tradition as it was a big hit with the TOTs. We had a mock theater setup too.
A "Hazel Street" street sign incorporated somehow? 
I would use the logo year after year I suspect.
I really appreciate your help. Anything I can do, please, please just let me know.
I will PM my email.

Thanx FONTGEEK!!!!


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## fontgeek

Drzeus, did you get your signs, etc., done?
What did you decide on?


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## Ramonadona

Very Nice!


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## SuperCreep31

I'm a student graphic designer and would love to do some of your haunt logos if you'd like! PM me and I'll try to whip you up something before Halloween


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## fontgeek

Pick some haunts names and themes from the various threads/posts and design away.
But keep in mind how the designs will be used. Creating the Mona Lisa is great if that's what they need and can use, but if they need something for basic flyers and such then you need to think in terms of black and white, or maybe grayscale and small enough to get used (and be readable) on things like business cards, haunt tickets, etc. The limitations are a great part of the challenge, and making something that fits the haunt's theme or feel has to be part of the formula too.
Once you have designed something of your own you can show it to the haunt owner, or post it in a thread to help attract more business for you in the future.
It's a bit late for this year's haunts, but this is a year round obsession for many of us so it's not too early to work on stuff for next year's haunts right now.


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## Turbophanx

Here is my yard haunt logo....


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## SuperCreep31

yeah, a logo is generally something that is readable and appealing to the eye in both color and black and white/grayscale for that very reason. That's why you very rarely see a logo with all types of colors and special effects. I actually prefer simplicity over that and that's definitely the way the world is heading in my opinion.


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## fontgeek

Supercreep, that's a lesson that a lot of art and graphics students (as well as haunters) don't learn or have a hard time learning.
I don't know where you are in your education, but some of the typical assignments I had to go through (a few decades back) were to create logos, menus, ads, etc. for business's and shy of copying the actual text from an existing menu, we had to create all of those things, as well as ad campaigns and present them to panels of profs and other students as though we were making a pitch to real life customers. We had to explain and defend our choices, and then we got grilled as to usability in real life situations (business cards, Black and white reproduction, screen printing and embroidery, printed ads for newspapers, and color ads (both small and large) for color magazines, etc. Tough groups and questions to face, but necessary for work in the real world.
If you haven't faced these challenges, it's time to get ready for them.
Doing logos for haunts, banners, etc., for the digital world will be a help.


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## Lord Homicide

Answering the thread question: No it doesn't but if this happened to my haunt http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=33436. I guarantee you my logo would be a big middle finger made of JOLs stacked or something.


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