I hate spiders.
Not in a casual, “I’d rather not have one crawling across the ceiling” kind of way. I genuinely do not like them. If I spot one in the house, suddenly that spider has my complete attention and every other responsibility I had for the day becomes secondary.
At the same time, I’m strangely fascinated by them.
They’re creepy, incredibly detailed, almost alien-looking creatures. The way they move, build webs, hunt, and somehow appear in places where you are absolutely certain there wasn’t a spider five minutes ago is both horrifying and impressive.
My brother has always told me, “It’s important to know your enemy.”
So, apparently, studying spiders is just good strategy.
That combination of fear and fascination is what inspired this Arachnophobia poster. I wanted to take something that genuinely creeps me out and turn it into something visually interesting—something that feels unsettling without becoming overly gruesome or realistic.
For the artwork, I went with a huge spider crawling directly toward the viewer. I wanted it to feel like it was coming out of the poster rather than simply sitting inside the composition. The oversized legs breaking through the border help exaggerate that feeling and make the spider almost impossible to ignore—which, unfortunately, is pretty accurate to how I react when I see one in real life.
The color palette became one of my favorite parts of the design. Instead of using the typical black, gray, and red horror colors, I leaned into deep purple, orange, acid green, cream, and black. It gives the poster a vintage Halloween feel while still making it colorful enough to work as wall art.
I also wanted the illustration to feel handmade and slightly imperfect. The rough textures, simplified shapes, web patterns, moon, forest, and oversized typography give it the feeling of an old screen-printed concert poster or vintage horror advertisement. Even though the spider is obviously the centerpiece, there are smaller details tucked throughout the artwork that reward you for looking a little longer.
Of course, looking closely at a giant spider is exactly the opposite of what I normally want to do.
The typography was another big part of the design. ARACHNOPHOBIA needed to feel intimidating on its own, so I pushed the letters into these long, sharp, almost fang-like forms. I wanted the word itself to feel like it belonged to the creature underneath it.
There’s something I really enjoy about designing around subjects that create such an immediate emotional response. You don’t need much explanation when you see a giant spider crawling toward you. Your brain pretty quickly decides how it feels about the situation.
Mine says run.
But apparently the designer part of my brain says, make it into a poster first.
Maybe my brother is right. Know your enemy.
Just preferably from a safe distance.
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