The May 3rd season premier of Showtime’s Penny Dreadful is rapidly approaching, and the series has found a perfect licensing partner, Hot Topic. The goth-centric retailer is launching a fantastic and phantasmagoric new line of Penny Dreadful products, a line inspired directly from a style guide by your very own StyleWorks Creative. It was a pleasure to work with CBS Consumer Products on the project. Liz Kalodner, Executive Vice President and General Manager, and her licensing team have been doing an amazing job finding and developing a wide range of product with their partners.
The Penny Dreadful style guide was one of our favorite projects from last year, and to see Hot Topic doing such a great job with it is a thrill. In addition to the designs created by StyleWorks, we delivered a unique toolbox of icons, borders, and character art, stripping the guide down to its essential elements for partners to create original designs all on their own. The goal is to facilitate a consistent view of the brand between the client and its licensees, and Hot Topic is doing a wonderful job. Not only are they using the tools we gave them, and using them well, they’re finding inspiration in the style guide to create new designs in step with the overall brand vision. We couldn’t ask for more.
The creative process began with the development of inspirational montages. Drawing from classic Victorian art, as well as steam punk and modern interpretations of Gothic themes, we pulled imagery directly from the show’s key art and then paired it with photographic elements from the image library, along with authentic etching illustrations. The process allowed us to create a number of new design directions which employ the use of high contrast talent images and other iconic Penny Dreadful moments.
So congratulations to Penny Dreadful on the kickoff of their second season, and congratulations as well to Hot Topic on the launch of their new product line. We’ll be sure to tune in on Sunday, and maybe even hit the local mall for some new Penny Dreadful gear.
Be sure to check out some of the other Penny Dreadful licensed products on sho.com. Also debuting this spring are Penny Dreadful accessories, games, and more from partners like Museum of Robots, Cryptozoic, Just Funky, Bif Bang Pow!, Tonner Dolls, and Rizzoli.
We would love to hear what everyone else thinks about the show and new product!
