Design Prompt 19: October

Happy October and happy Halloween season to all who celebrate! This month’s design prompt is based on the 1931 vampire film Dracula, the first sound film based on Bram Stoker’s novel. I thought about doing a prompt based on the original Halloween, since Michael Myers ’ house is a short 12 minutes from my house! Or perhaps Casper, because I saw a sequel coming out, but it turns out it was a fake AI post. Why would someone do that to our fragile millennial hearts? I settled on Dracula because I think there’s a lot of opportunities to mix analog methods with digital design here! Think ink dip pens! Scientific test tubes! Tags! Clay crucifixes!

Here’s a quick synopsis before we dive into the props and design prompts!

Synopsis:

Real estate agent Renfield visits Transylvania and ends up at Count Dracula’s castle. Dracula infects Renfield, and they sail off to London together to hunt for new victims. Dracula sets his eyes on a woman named Mina. A local professor, Dr. Van Helsing, recognizes the signs of vampirism and teams up with Mina’s fiancé, John Harker, to track down Dracula and drive a wooden stake through his heart, freeing Mina.

Let’s dive into the props!

I found the original script via the Internet Archive here. Starting at the top of the script, I pulled a few pieces I thought would be fun to design! You can design just one thing, or dive into the script yourself and see what graphic props you need to create a full portfolio set.

🏷️ Aboard the Ship, Vesta: the ship that carries Count Dracula and his servant Renfield to England

1. Prop: Wooden Coffin Luggage Label: Count Dracula, Carfax Abbey, Whitby, England.”

Check out that label shape. It looks a lot like this!