How to Create the Beetlejuice Logo

Have you ever seen a spookier movie logo than the Beetlejuice logo? The distressed spider theme is off-putting and creepy but serves as a symbol for the unsettling events that will take place in the movie. Various creepy animals like spiders, snakes, and rats are present as Beetlejuice pulls them out of his pocket, making it obvious that he is an unsavory character and that the Beetlejuice world is outrageous. Find out how to recreate the Beetlejuice logo in this tutorial.

If you don't have the time to learn how to make the Beetlejuice logo, you can always try Envato Elements, where you will find a large selection of logos, fonts, and graphics that are ready to be used in your projects.

What You'll Learn in This Tutorial

How to Make a New Document in Adobe Illustrator
How to Create the Distressed Spiders
How to Make the Textured Logo Background
How to Make the Beetlejuice Font
How to Make the 3D Glowing Extrusion

Tutorial Assets

You'll need the following resources to complete this project:

Ragfile Font

1. How to Make a New Document in Adobe Illustrator

Launch Illustrator and go to File > New to open the New Document window. There, type the name of the document and set up the dimensions as shown. Keep the Units set to Pixels and the Color Mode to RGB. Once you're done, hit Create Document.

In the image below, you can see the other settings that I use while working in Illustrator. You can access them by going to Edit > Preferences.

2. How to Create the Distressed Spiders

Step 1

Let's start the Beetlejuice logo by drawing the main shape with the Rectangle Tool (M). The size of the rectangle is 1277 x 400 px, and the fill color is purple. Switch to the Ellipse Tool (L) and draw a 135 x 205 px oval at the top, as shown in the image below (1). In the Align panel, activate Align to Artboard and then click on Horizontal Align Center while both shapes are selected.

Use the Pen Tool (P) to draw seven wavy paths on the right side, like spider legs. Once that's done, select all of them and go to Object > Transform > Reflect, check Vertical, and hit Copy. Move the reflected paths to the left side of the oval (2). Stroke only the two red paths with the Tapered – Round Art Brush that you can find in the Brush Libraries Menu > Artistic > Artistic_Ink category. Increase the Stroke Weight to 4 pt. Apply a large 55 pt Stroke to all the other paths and activate Bevel Join in the Stroke panel (3).

Step 2

Let's create a modified Tapered Stroke brush next. Go to Brush Libraries Menu > Artistic > Artistic_Ink, find the Tapered Stroke brush, and drag it onto your artboard.

Zoom in and use the Direct Selection Tool (A) to select and move the middle and left anchor points away from each other to make the brush thicker. Also, make the right and left end points a bit rounded using the Anchor Point Tool (Shift-C).

Once that's done, drag the new brush into the Brushes panel and choose New Art Brush. Name it Rounded Tapered Stroke, check Stretch to Fit Stroke Length, and set the Colorization Method to Tints. Hit OK.

Step 3

Copy and Paste in Front (Control-F) the seven paths from the right side and stroke them with the new Rounded Tapered Stroke brush. Set the color to white and the Stroke Weight to different values in the following order: 2 pt, 1.5 pt, 1 pt, 0.75 pt, 0.65 pt, 0.75 pt, and 0.5 pt. Repeat the same thing on the left side (1).

At this point, you can select all the red stroked paths from the back and go to Object > Expand Appearance followed by Object > Expand. Fill the shapes and the oval head with purple (2).

Step 4

Navigate to Brush Libraries Menu > Wacom 6D Brushes > 6d Art Pen Brushes and find the 6d Scatter Brush 1 there. Drag it onto your artboard, go to Object > Transform > Scale, and type 280% in the Scale Uniform field. Hit OK. Rotate the brush to a horizontal position; then duplicate it to make the brush longer.

The entire brush is quite small and it fits into a 59 x 13 px rectangle. Save it as a New Pattern Brush and name it Distressed Pattern Brush.

Step 5

Use the Pen Tool (P) or the Pencil Tool (N) to draw about seven paths over the white spider legs, as shown in the image below. Stroke them with the newly saved Distressed Pattern Brush and increase the Stroke Weight to 2 pt. Since the Colorization Method was set to Tints, choosing a purple stroke color means that the brush strokes will become purple as well.

To make the distressed texture even denser, Copy and Paste in Front (Control-F) the first set of paths and flip them horizontally from the drop-down menu of the Transform panel. Keep the same settings.

Step 6

Now, select the seven white legs from the right side and Copy and Paste in Place (Shift-Control-V) to make copies of them. Follow up with Object > Expand Appearance and Object > Compound Path > Make (1). Keep the newly obtained compound path selected, along with the two sets of distressed paths, and go to Object > Clipping Mask > Make (Control-7) (2).

Repeat the same process for the left side. First, make the two sets of distressed paths, and then mask them as explained earlier (3).

Step 7

We will continue with the creepy spider head/skull. Use the Pen Tool (P) or the Ellipse Tool (L) to draw an oval shape, but make it flat at the bottom. Position it on the purple oval, in the middle, and give it a white fill color (1). Next, draw two purple ellipses to form the eyes, followed by a bunch of short paths for the teeth (2) and a rounded path for the mouth (3). For the teeth and mouth, apply a 3 pt white Stroke.

Step 8

Draw two curved paths between the eyes, and give them a 1 pt Stroke using the Charcoal – Smooth Art Brush that you can find in the Brush Libraries Menu > Artistic > Artistic_ChalkCharcoalPencil category. Go to Object > Expand Appearance, and fill the resulting shapes with the same shade of purple (1).

To create the distressed appearance, use the Pen Tool (P) or the Pencil Tool (N) to draw a few random paths over the skull, as shown below. Apply a 3 pt purple Stroke using the Distressed Pattern Brush (2). Finally, select the skull shape and Copy and Paste in Place (Shift-Control-V) to make a copy of it in front of everything. Keep this copy selected, along with the stroked paths, and go to Object > Clipping Mask > Make (Control-7) (3).

Step 9

Select the entire spider—including the purple legs, white legs, and skull—and make a copy of it. Go to Object > Transform > Scale and type 65% in the Scale Uniform field. Place it next to the big spider (1). The six spiders in the original Beetlejuice logo are not identical, so to slightly change their appearance, we will make a few adjustments.

Select the first group of paths stroked with the Distressed Pattern Brush, and reduce the Stroke Weight from 2 pt to 1 pt. This will make the distressed texture smaller (1). Now, select the second group (flipped) and set the Stroke Weight to 1.5 pt (2). Do the same thing for the left side of the spider.

Next, select the stroked paths over the skull and increase the Stroke Weight from 3 pt to 4 pt (3). Also, select the mask shape and distort it at the bottom by dragging it downwards. This way, the distressed look will be visible on the teeth too (4).

Step 10

Duplicate the smaller spider and position it at the top of the logo, on the left side. Make adjustments to the stroked paths as explained in the previous step to get a slightly different distressed look (1).

Select all three top spiders and go to Object > Transform > Reflect. Check Horizontal and hit Copy. Move the reflected spiders to the bottom of the logo (2).