Reintarnation
For a while I have been thinking over the idea of making some designs with a western, cowboy type of look. In terms of actual historic or cultural accuracy, I've done absolutely no research. It's very much a contemporary and personal take on a western style, with influences taken from the classic western films depicting the wild west in the 1860s, a hundred years on, right through to the Dukes of Hazzard. Playing at cowboys and Indians and watching the Dukes of Hazzard as a child didn't really have any direct connection, but looking back, it seems they have left a ingrained aesthetic sensibiity.
So I had been thinking for a while that I wanted to design something with a western feel, but needed some sort of direction for the project. Nothing was immediately forthcoming, so I decided to do a mock-rebrand of Mekonta. After the failed efforts of my 50's Sci-Fi redesign at Christmas, I'm not planning to follow through on this re-branding any time soon. It has however been fun to do - and in the three designs I've finished so far you can see a subtle development in the visual language being used. The core imagery and text is essentially the same in each design - but each design has a distinctly different take on the western theme. The first has a very 'red white and blue' colour scheme and combined with the stars is very American. And while the style I'm actively replicating is American, this particular design shows too much of contemporary America screaming out 'yee-haa! look at our history, ain't it great!' - I'm after something a bit more subtle. In making this design, I realised I needed to find a way of making it a less-alien style for an English web designer. I touch on making this reference with the 'Authentic South Western Design, since 1978' text, which I'm quite pleased with, but this on its own isn't enough. So the second design uses a simpler, sepia colour palette, gets rid of most of the stars and the two panel, framed images give a suggestion that these are cowboys and horses being seen through a window, or on TV, so is making a conscious admission that it's a mock-western, that it's about making entertainment, not trying to actually be a cowboy.
And the third design is looking like a modern object that has actually been left out in Hazzard County for a few years and taken on that sun bleached, scuffed look that I like. Plus the format suggests it could be a label on a bottle of moonshine. In this design I changed the text from 'Authentic...design', to 'Original...design'. Because lets be honest, what I'm designing here is anything but authentic - but maybe it is original.
In working through these three designs, what I do feel I have gained is the beginnings of a graphical language with this 'western style'. And perhaps someday I actually will relaunch my site with a western look. But more than that I will be fascinated to see to what extent I can develop the work so that it has the western feel I like, but remains sufficiently removed or tongue in cheek, that it doesn't become just a ridiculous effort of a graduate Englishman trying to pass himself off as a cowboy.
