Target’s product design team is made up of hundreds of team members who create our more than 45 owned brands. The team includes trend experts, researchers, food scientists, graphic designers, artists, aerospace engineers and more. We crept behind the scenes with senior product designers Chris S. and Adam H. — the duo that dreamed up Lewis & Friends — to find out how the Halloween magic happens at Target.
Chris, you’re the lead designer on animation, and Adam, you develop trends and artwork for Hyde and EEK! Boutique, Target’s Halloween brand. How do you approach your design work?
Adam: We both have multifaceted backgrounds in designing toys, kids’ products and party and entertaining finds — and now we just happen to be working in Halloween and are able to bring all that magic to it. We both have illustration backgrounds and I have some filmmaking experience, so we bring a lot of creativity to the table.
Chris: When Hyde and EEK! Boutique became a brand, we created a whole imaginary world and backstories to inform our designs. Now that Lewis has come around, he’s like the maitre’d of Halloween, introducing his new friends. So we are intentionally planning, behind the scenes, how this all fits together.
Where do you get your inspiration?
Chris: Adam and I both have families of our own, and our kids inspire us. We also get a lot of inspiration from music and TV from the ’80s and ’90s. [Check out a few examples of Chris and Adam’s early artwork above.]
Lewis was such a huge hit last year. How did you create him and his now-famous voice?
Chris: We’ve seen a lot of love for larger-than-life seasonal items and felt Halloween was ripe for something semi-scary and fun. We set out to build a large-format character that was not too scary for children, with a personality that conveys the Tarzhay magic and Halloween fun to consumers.
Adam: I felt we needed a character who brought swagger to the season. I wanted Lewis to be charming, and his sassy “my name is Lewis” line was added late in the game. We had no idea it would be so catchy! In the original script, we named him “Louis,” pronounced “loo-eese,” but the vocal talent read it as “Lewis” and after hearing it once, we loved it and decided to keep it.
What are some of the best, unexpected results of Lewis’s success?
Adam: Lewis has become a Halloween mascot for his fans, and it’s given us the chance to create a “Lewis & Friends” world with some really fun new things.
Chris: The magic of Lewis is he means something different to each person — they created their own stories about him which were exciting to see. It brought joy to so many people who came into the store to see Lewis, and then they left with milk or whatever they needed on their usual Target run.
Adam: There’s been a huge appetite for Lewis. Fan content, art and comments even inspired an animated “Lewis Lore” series on Target’s social media channels, giving fans a way to stay connected with Lewis all year. It’s been really fun — we would never have guessed Lewis could live outside of Halloween.
Tell us about Lewis’s new friends, Bruce The Skeleton Ghoul and Pumpkin Rocker Billy*.
Chris: Bruce and Pumpkin Rocker Billy were already in the works when everything took off with Lewis last year. We’ve never had an item of that size come back two years in a row, but there was a huge appetite for more Lewis, so this year we have two 8-foot characters — Lewis and Bruce — which is a first.
Adam: Gen Z has a really wonderful, unusual humor that just gravitated toward Lewis. With these young consumers in mind, specifically Gen Z, we saw an opportunity to be a little more out there with Bruce and Pumpkin Rocker Billy, and to add some more fun, surprise and delight.
How did you create Pumpkin Rocker Billy and his world?
Chris: Our Halloween assortment is always a mix of classic and trendy items. We were inspired by ’90s music when creating Billy and his sound.
Adam: We created this whole ecosystem of how people can decorate for Halloween with a centerpiece that’s a rocker, and you’ll see that in stores as well with Pumpkin Rocker Billy literally at center stage. We brought in a color palette of fun neon colors. We even created small, medium and large items — all meant to create an ecosystem that tells a story. Fun fact: The green colorization of Pumpkin Rocker Billy’s guitar* was inspired by the color of a coworker’s guitar that he made in high school.
Let’s talk about Bruce The Skeleton Ghoul.
Chris: Bruce was originally a very traditional skeleton ghoul, but we knew we had to have that Target “wink” and add more fun.
Adam: I was driving to a workout class and listening to some chill music. A cool mellow beat came on, and I just started rapping in the car. I texted Chris and said, “I think I’ve got it! I think I know what’s going to be weird and different that people aren’t going to expect.” I wrote the lyrics and sent him a version of it.
Chris: And we slowed it down, because Bruce is a ghoul — he’s dead, so he’s not as fast as a modern rapper so he had a little slower cadence to it. Between us, we found the sweet spot for the rap. Everyone who hears it kind of laughs and chuckles which is the whole idea.
What’s unique about Halloween at Target?
Adam: Target’s take on Halloween is already a little bit different than our competitors’. Big, creepy stuff is fun and has its place, but Target has a fun, family-focused approach to Halloween that skates that edge of what’s scary and what’s playful. That's where Target has given Chris and me a lot of room to play. As opposed to a giant scary pumpkin creature, we can make a sassy ghoul or a rapping grim reaper, and those aren’t things many other companies would go for. We’re having fun with it, and consumers are loving it, too.
What’s the best part of working at Target?
Chris: Working at Target teaches us to truly design for all, and that adds a little secret sauce to our work. We bring surprise and delight, we’re allowed to be bold, we have the freedom to be autonomous with our creativity and it’s been a success with all these strategies pulled together.
*The “Flying V” body shape of Billy’s guitar is used under license from Gibson, Inc.
