Sweeping list of Halloween’s visual symbols enriched with some fun facts to know. Icons, illustrations, and designs to get inspired.
Halloween season is coming! So be prepared to see tons of posts, emails, and landings with all kinds of pumpkins and zombies. In case you are also the one responsible for something like this, we gathered together a lot of Halloween-related graphics for your holiday designs. Complemented with interesting and useful facts about the main symbols of the upcoming event as a bonus.
All the assets in this article are clickable for you to grab them right away!
— Pumpkin
— Witches
— Candy
— Ghosts
— Walking dead
— Bats
— Black cats
— Day of the Dead
— Ready-made scenes
— Design inspirations
Here comes the queen of Halloween!
Fun fact: in the 1600s, the legend of Stingy Jack, who outwitted the devil, spread in Scotland and Ireland. Jack, cursed to roam Earth with a candle in a turnip, inspired jack-o’-lanterns to guide lost souls home.
In the 1800s, Irish immigrants in the U.S. adopted the tradition but switched to pumpkins, as turnips were scarce.
Witches are one of the very few living symbols of Halloween. Ever since ancient times, people believed that women had magic skills. And the term itself comes from the word “wicca”, meaning “craft of the Wise”.
Now thanks to witches in pop culture (Sabrina, Maleficent, The Wicked Witch of The West), it is one of the most iconic symbols of the celebration.
if you want to make your designs more lively, keep up with these characters as mascots.
Since witches are among the most prominent Halloween symbols, their magic tools are closely linked to the celebration as well. People use crystal balls, brooms, tarot cards, cauldrons, and potion vials as decorations or accessories for their Halloween outfits. These tiny symbols are as much a part of Halloween as the witches themselves.
Trick-or-treating used to be a more eerie part of the Halloween celebration than it is now. People believed that sweet offerings could keep them from being harmed by evil spirits. Later on, it became a fun Halloween activity for children who would go from house to house asking for candy on behalf of the souls of the dead.
If you want the most family-friendly Halloween design possible, candies are your symbol to-go.
Ghosts represent the spirits of the dead which are the key symbol of Halloween. People believed that lost souls wandered the world of the living up until All Saints’ Day.
As a visual symbol, ghosts are incredibly versatile, and you can adjust them to any aesthetic. You can easily make them as cute or creepy as you want.
While ghosts represent the souls, skeletons, vampires, and zombies refer to the physical image of the dead. Skeletons have the longest history of being a part of the Halloween celebration. In medieval art, you can find mentions of a ritual Death, summoning the dead from their graves to dance with the living.
Bats have been one of the key evil symbols since the Celtic pagan festival Samhain, the Halloween’s forbear. To keep the evil spirits away, the Celts built massive bonfires that attracted bats. The Celts believed bats were the spirits of the dead, and the sacred bonfires scared them away. Later on, Christianity did bats dirty by pronouncing them unclean animals. Depiction of Satan as a human-like creature with bat-like wings didn’t make bats any more lovable, so they officially became the symbol of the dark and evil.
While in some cultures, black cats bring good luck (ancient Egypt, Japanese folklore, Celtic culture), in others, they are a symbol of witchcraft and bring bad luck (Germany, the US). Because black cats happened to be many witches’ companions, black cats became the symbol of witchcraft and one of the main symbols of Halloween in the US.
Día de los Muertos is a Mexican celebration similar to Halloween. However, Día de los Muertos is mostly about reconnecting with friends and relatives who passed away. On this day, people create altars called ofrendas. They decorate ofrendas with marigold flowers and pictures of the deceased and bring their favorite food and drinks.
Unlike Halloween, which has a creepy, mysterious vibe, Día de los Muertos is vibrant and joyful.
You can combine our Illustrations in the collages and create the whole scene in Mega Creator by yourself. Together with that, here are some ready-made scenarios that are perfect for your banners, social media posts, landing hero blocks, emails, and UI graphics:
Need some inspo for your Halloween-themed design? Check out these projects from the Icons8 users to get an idea of how you can integrate our assets into your designs.
That’s all, folks! Hope you enjoy our spooky graphics and find some that suit your designs the best.
If you need more, don’t border yourself with the only picks above, see all the Halloween icons, illustrations, and photos that we have on our website. Happy Halloween!
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