Celebrating innovation and creativity matters to HAUNT Manchester. That is why the website and network has been the subject of study for a group of Creative Advertising Masters students at Manchester Metropolitan University – with this eye-catching logo being one of the recommendations to come from their extensive report.

The group of five students – Elisha Kane, Athanasia Sarli, Lucia Stefanovicova, Michal Mocko and Naveen Kirby – have studied HAUNT Manchester in depth: taking in everything from the origins of the network to how it is received in the contemporary. Their study then informed the wide-spanning 89-page report, pulling together perceptions and insight from HAUNT network members as well as making recommendations for HAUNT’s ongoing development. The logo is a key aspect of their ‘brand guidelines’ for the future.

As can be seen, the logo is eye-catching and distinct, with the students identifying the importance of portraying HAUNT’s pride and passion about Gothic culture in the region.  This significantly informed their choices in terms of typeface and colour palette. In turn, the use of black and white as primary shades aims to be depictive of themes such as mystery and sincerity – an essence of traditional Gothic semiotics. The bold design also ensures a modern twist and a direct allusion to the city of Manchester.

Elisha Kane reflects on the work of the group:

Haunt Logo Crop “Currently the five of us are completing our Master’s in Creative Advertising at Manchester Metropolitan University which involved us working on a live brief of our choice. This led to us selecting HAUNT for many reasons. For me personally, I was very unaware of the depth Gothic culture has and I was curious of where this project could take us. From completing this project, I can now say I have a newfound appreciation for Gothic and alternative culture and I know the rest of the group would agree with me.

“Designing the logo was a long process for us as we were all bursting with ideas. After many discussions on what was the best way to represent HAUNT, we all agreed we wanted to create a simplistic logo which was eye-catching. From there we must have created over a dozen variations of the H that you see today. However, once we reviewed all our options it was clear this logo was perfect for HAUNT.”

The report further demonstrates the students’ extensive research and insight into the HAUNT Manchester network, including a consideration of Goth subculture, how it is depicted in society and its wider inclusion in UK tourism. Considerable theoretical knowledge is also evident, with the report incorporating aspects such as Perceptual Mapping, Market Segmentation and Media Analysis – all contributing to an enhanced understanding of HAUNT Manchester.

The HAUNT Manchester team want to express their great gratitude to the group of Masters Students for their hard work, perceptive research and consequently eye-catching logo. It will now be used on HAUNT Manchester’s social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.