Printable Halloween Templates Plus Design Inspiration

It’s that time of the year again to carve some pumpkins and get creative about what Halloween costume to wear. Or watch some creepy films on Netflix!

Halloween is also a great excuse to create unique visuals to decorate your home, send out as party invites, or share them on social media.

Make your Halloween celebrations, promos, and parties more fun and stress-free with downloadable and printable Halloween templates – from Halloween flyers to spooky posters.

We’ve also gathered several Halloween design inspiration for your next Halloween-themed decorations and digital media assets.

Check them out… if you dare!

Bring on the Halloween invitations, spooky stencils and ghost cutouts with the following Halloween-themed templates by Piktochart.

Prepare for the spooky season by picking one (or two!) of the Halloween design ideas below.

Just like when 80’s mom jeans got their deserved comeback last season, graphic design is constantly witnessing trend resurrections. Modern retro style has been making its way back to the product, print, and web design.

We’re starting to see more design patterns reminiscent of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s that give us that a big dose of nostalgia, regardless whether we grew up during those decades or just got a feel of them through iconic TV shows and music. Stranger Things, anyone?

Thick geometric shapes, combinations of different custom typefaces, rich color palettes, and neon style elements showcased above others – these are some characteristics of the modern retro style that you can apply to your Halloween (and other fall-themed) posters.

Deep orange, pitch black, gloomy green, and putrid purple are colors you typically see used in Halloween decorations, costumes, and poster design.

But if you’re looking to capture more attention with your blog images, social media visuals, or event posters, try to put a new spin on things. Don’t be afraid to introduce a new color to the mix and catch your audience by surprise. It brings a fresh and unique vibe to your creation that people won’t easily forget.

When you think of Halloween, the color beige wouldn’t necessary be your first choice. However, in the example below, it helped harmonize and enhance the orange in the color palette.

Blue tones compliment orange ones well. There are multiple tones of blue in the example below, yet it doesn’t overshadow the orange.

A good tip to keep in mind when using various tones is to distribute and apply them evenly to ensure that they don’t get cluttered into one area of the visual. This doesn’t really apply if you’re going for a gradient effect, though!

Texture brings dynamics and depth to your designs.

There are many types of textures to choose from, depending on the mood and style you’re aiming for. For example, let’s look at this visual by Zach Graham. He uses a spatter texture effect for a grunge look and feel.

You could also approach texture in a more subtle manner, like in this design by Christopher Lee:

When we think of powerful illustrations, it doesn’t necessarily mean pulling out all of your magic design tricks at once.

A strong story concept makes a powerful illustration. Based on your concept, you could put emphasis on a certain element of a story and translate it into the visual.

Some people might say that a minimalist approach to Halloween design would work against a scary theme. However, working with negative space could bring a new perspective to your design.

Less is more. It’s all about stripping down what you know and working with the space to emphasize and enhance the features. It’s a clever approach to expressing your ideas. Feeding subtle visuals to the viewers adds to the mystery.

Spice up your design by giving it a humorous twist!

By adding a funny context to the scary Halloween theme, your design has the opportunity to reach a wider audience. After all, everyone enjoys a good laugh, even (or especially) on Halloween.

Movies are a spectacular source of inspiration for Halloween design. After all, it’s where most of our ideas for halloween costumes come from.

Incorporating a movie theme into your Halloween design is a great combination. The concept and a scare factor should already be instilled in the viewer’s mind. That is, of course, if they are familiar with the film. Sounds like a great excuse for a Halloween movie night!

A good tip to keep in mind while using pop culture references in your design is to make sure you’re targeting the relevant audience with the appropriate references.

We hope you enjoyed our Halloween templates and design inspiration!

Check out the rest of our template library to help you get started. We also have tons of spooky icons that you can mix and match.

Happy Halloween!

Editor’s note: This blog post was originally published on October 26, 2016 and updated on October 5, 2022 for relevance and comprehensiveness.