"The Future Looks Viral" is a weekly series where we profile the people behind an innovative, new online project, be it a parody Twitter account, web series or interesting Instagram profile. They all have one thing in common: the potential to go viral.
Obviously, Halloween is all about dressing up in costumes and being someone different from who you really are for the night. So why can't the alphabet get in on the masquerade, too?
That's exactly what illustrator Adam Osgood did when he created "Spooktacular," an animated alphabet fit for a scary good Halloween celebration. Now instead of just saying "Trick or treat," you can now spell it with this set of terrifying typography.
"Spooktacular" models each of the 26 letters of the English alphabet after weird, gross or nightmare-inducing adjectives that could only be lovingly used during this time of the year.
"I just went through a thesaurus for a couple hours to try and just figure out every scary adjective I could think of," Osgood said in an interview with T-Lounge over the phone. "Then I chose the best, most unique grouping of them."
Each letter is not only given the macabre treatment with some vivid illustrations by Osgood, but he also used Adobe After Effects and Photoshop to turn each letter into an animated GIF that really brings the alphabet to life. This is Halloween, after all, when it's possible for anything to go bump in the night.
The adjectives and illustrations range from your typical Halloween fare like "E is for Eerie," "M is for Mummified" and "Z is for Zombified" to ones that get a bit more gruesome like "L is for Lacerated," "P is for Putrid" and "W is for Writhing."
There's even some words in there that you have probably never heard of before in your life like "xanthodontous," which means "having yellow teeth." Whoever said Halloween couldn't be educational was seriously misinformed.
Osgood, a full-time faculty member in the illustration department of the Columbus College of Art & Design in Ohio, actually drew inspiration for the "Spooktacular" alphabet after teaching his students about transforming letters into other forms.
"It was just fun and funny, and I thought, 'Oh wow. This could be a whole project,'" Osgood said.
That was in early September of this year, and Osgood decided Halloween would be the perfect time to try a project like this. After spending one to three hours sketching and animating each of the 26 letters of the alphabet, he unveiled each letter, one at a time on social media, which culminated in a one-minute video featuring "Spooktacular" in its entirety posted on Vimeo on Oct. 27.
"Most of the work I've done previously was kind of pop culture-related, and this was something completely creative where everything came out of my head," Osgood said. "It seemed like a nice way to explore some new ideas and give my Tumblr followers something fresh to look at."
Head over to Osgood's Tumblr to see the full "Spooktacular" alphabet in action and let it help you incorporate more spells into your Halloween festivities this year.
Image: Courtesy of Adam Osgood
