Here is the second mood board in my thematic archetype series—The Wild West. I'm finding that as I do these, some conventions are taking shape. The 'roofline' approach—here with a wooden shed, before with a thatch hut for Tropical Paradise—really serves to frame each piece as an architectural exploration. Also, when all seven of them are completed and displayed together, there will be some visual unity. For this board I drew primarily on Disney's Frontierland vision, Knott's Berry Farm (Buena Park, CA), ghost town attractions of the Southwest, Dollywood (Pigeon Forge, TN), restaurant chains such as the Claim Jumper, and various Las Vegas casinos, some long since demolished—The Frontier, The Westerner, El Rancho, The Silver Slipper, The Pioneer Club, et al.
Besides the main shed roofline at the top, I built in some smaller roof elements—Spanish tile and steel shed—to showcase the diversity of the Western image. In discussing the mood board yesterday with my thesis advisor, we hit upon an interesting observation. More so perhaps than any other archetype, the visual cues for the Wild West are often typographically driven. There is a plethora of signage on this board, owing to the fact that nearly every example I found was replete with mimicked wood typography from the late 19th century. I became fascinated with this style of lettering when I produced a research book on the topic for a typography class in my first year of grad school. What grabbed me is that wood type seems to have left an indelible mark on American culture, far beyond the reaches of just a design audience. Although the layperson would be hard-pressed to identify the distinctions between a transitional and a humanist typeface, you can grab nearly anybody and point to a slab-serif or extended bold clarendon and get “Old West” immediately.
In any case, to theme 'The Old West’ properly requires wood type, and a whole lot of it.