Hooray for Halloween!!

Hello folks! Luis here!

I had the absolute privilege to work on Target's Halloween collection in 2010 and lead the development in 2011 and 2012. This year was by far my most ambitious to date. I lead the cross-functional and cross-departmental teams in a number of brainstorm sessions to identify white-space opportunities in our assortment, merchandising and general product ideas. Developing a collection of this magnitude is a huge undertaking and takes a large number of people, but it's fun and has been the most rewarding project I've had to work on because it is so big, and heck, it's Halloween!!

As I mentioned, it's definitely a group effort that combined the talents of many people and departments. Aside from having to develop the trends, I personally oversaw (and pitched in on) the development of the artwork/style guide. I also dabbled in some of the product designs and/or art directed our business partners. To me, the most exciting part is co-developing the strategy with the merchant teams. In 2011, we saw an opportunity to make pumpkin decorating bigger and more fun, and we expanded it for 2012. Usually the design team pitches in to help develop merchandising solutions, but by that time I had already left and opened the doors to Idea Monster. Below are just a few photos of some of the assortment in all of their glory. Enjoy!!

Just a snap shot of our home decor offerings.

A wreath I developed. I don't know why, but I really love this guy.

New for us in 2012 was adding real pumpkins to our pumpkin decorating statement. I wish I could take credit for that one :(.

I wanted our animated decor to feel as cohesive as possible so we tied it all together with materials, color and finishes.

  

Who doesn't love a party? Aside from developing the "Spookier" artwork, I also designed these shaped plates. My favorite to this day.

 

After an observational "field trip" to my buyer's son's school Halloween party, we identified the need for some school or group games/activities. While I developed the basic look and concepts, a talented designer and friend did the actual designing and saw it through to production.