For this week’s research, I am going to be putting in some primary research to discover different types of typefaces are used within the genre of horror, what effect they have and why are they are used. To do this I will be looking at a collection of horror covers and putting these into mood boards according to their visual and design qualities.

To carry out this research I decided the best place to gain an insight into a wide range of examples due to the genre of horror’s extensive sub genre’s will be to look at Pinterest boards containing covers for horror movies, series and books as this will give me the most extensive results involving what I am looking for. I am also going to be more specifically looking into boards based around Goosebumps and Point Horror due to the feedback I had received on my project proposal these will be very relevant and valuable resources.

The boards I am going to be using are:

"Goosebumps Cover Art". Pinterest. joelsmith756859., 2017. Web. 29 May 2017. "Horror Cover". Pinterest. egidioperez., 2017. Web. 29 May 2017. "HORROR COVERS". Pinterest. jackxparker., 2017. Web. 29 May 2017. "Horror MOVIE Covers❤ ". Pinterest. leylaboeitunii., 2017. Web. 29 May 2017. "Point Horror". Pinterest. hamposgrim., 2017. Web. 29 May 2017. "The Scariest Ghost Movies". Pinterest. armaanmohsin., 2017. Web. 29 May 2017.

Now after gathering a collection of covers from each board in order to create my own mood boards based on design style I noticed a few key things in regard to typeface. I have discovered that for the most part there are 3 main design styles when it comes to horror all of which have different purpose’s and these are bold sans-serif typefaces, serif typefaces and decorative typefaces and this has helped me discover spot similarities in why they are used.

Decorative Typefaces

What I have discovered when looking at these font style’s is more often than not they are used to communicate a genre of horror in a slightly softer light, so either horror aimed at younger audiences

I.e Goosebumps or Point Horror, or fantasy horror involving monsters and fictional beings. With these typefaces, they will often reference and communicate the fictional being involved within the

story or will communicate the emotion or genre of the horror it may be jagged to communicate fright or swiped style to communicate danger etc. but all clearly communicate the genre due to their

direct links to the genre.

Bold Sans-Serif Typefaces

When looking at this type I have found that the communication is quite easily picked up. These large bold typefaces are used to communicate power, you can see that these types of fonts are commonly used within movies, books or series that involve some kind of elaborate monster or a main character

weaker than their match and you can see within all the covers for these examples that either the focus character is scared, outnumbered or clearly less powerful and I think that this typeface is

definitely perfect for portraying this as obviously the association with the larger, the more powerful which can communicate fright within the consumer and with this fright the genre fairly evident.

Serif Typefaces

When looking at these typefaces it was clear to see almost instantly that these were associated with the subgenre of slasher and are very well at communicating this as of their likeness to knives and

weapons. First of all with the likeness to weapons such as knives it is clearly communicate that what the content involves is going to be very danger heavy and by communicating this the genre is picked up fairly easy and an example of the power of the communication that these typefaces is that more often than not the content doesn’t have to involve much which can be seen in the examples within

the mood board above. However, these typefaces don’t always rely on their pointy edges to communicate the genre and emotion, these typefaces, similarly to the previous are more often than

not quite large so communicate power and fright to the user which is effective in portraying the genre but also shows that they are not in control of the situation within the story which I believe

increases that level of fright.

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Another few key things I have found to do with typeface used within horror covers. First of all I have found that only the title, brand names and any text used within the design are stylised and I believe this is because most of the other text is irrelevant and this is to not distract from the main focus and impact of the designs.

I have also discovered that the sub-genre or type of typeface influences what is used in terms of colouring the text and this I quite noticeable within my mood boards. You can see that for the most part the Decorative typefaces are quite colourful and I believe that this is to communicate that these

are aren’t as terrifying as other horror sub-genre’s such as slasher etc. as it communicates them in almost a playful light but still communicates elements of fear and horror through their design. I have found for the bold and impactful typefaces that often they are left black or white as the intentions are communicate very clearly through this font and in combination with their cover designs. Lastly similarly to the bold typefaces, the Serif typefaces are also quite plain in terms colour the only change you will see here is sometimes these will be red to communicate blood involved within the slasher sub-genre and I have discovered that this does enhance the communications used within this typeface and does make it more impactful.

Through carrying out this research I have been able to get a great insight into a wide range of different horror designs and I have discovered techniques that I am going to be able to apply within my project in order to gain the best possible outcome in portraying what I am looking to achieve but obviously I also have a better understanding in typeface as a whole to apply within future projects.

By carrying out this research I have learnt that for my project I think that the best typeface style to use would be the Decorative Typefaces and I believe this because obviously through my findings it communicates genre in a softer light and is commonly used in combination with bright colours which I think would be extremely effective in targeting my young target audience as it is quite playful, a bit different and not extremely terrifying so with its brightness and stylistic qualities It can grab attention but through its stylistic qualities alone it can be quite intriguing. Through this I think that it is also important to note that within most of these designs and designs within horror series that it is important, as most branding goes, to keep this typeface the same throughout so it is important that this is impactful. Lastly for the findings on this is if I take the stylistic route within my branding it is important that I keep other fonts within the design quite minimal, they can still be stylised but are not the focus so not to take away from this.

Another couple of things to note when going forward with my project is simply Decorative Typefaces are used to communicate fantasy horror, Bold Typefaces are used to communicate power creating its fear through this and communicates the sub-genre of thriller and lastly Serif Typefaces are used to communicate primarily the slasher sub-genre and sometimes power. These are important to note in what kind of story I am going trying to communicate through my covers and what typeface I will need to use to communicate this effectively.