Final Project – Wild West Creative Lighting

My aesthetic exists somewhere between creative lighting, a western / cowboy aesthetic, and a futuristic “dashboard” UI aesthetic. This is quite a random assortment of aesthetics, but when put together I think that it can make more sense. One of the primary reasons that I appreciate a western / cowboy aesthetic is likely due to my upbringing. I grew up in Washington state, which certainly is quite removed from the traditionally southwestern US “wild west”. However, I think my parents influenced my interest in the west. My mom would let me watch rodeo competitions on ESPN as a toddler. My dad, a lifelong fan of westerns like “Tombstone”, also probably influenced this aesthetic on me. As a kid, whenever we would go to Disneyland as a family, my favorite area was Frontier land. All things considered, I now have a strong interest and desire to surround myself with this western aesthetic. Here are some examples of this aesthetic that I think aligns most closely with what I like:

Another one of my aesthetics of choice is oddly shaped / exposed warm lighting aesthetic. I’ll refer to this more simply as “creative lighting”. I am not really sure where this comes from, but I know that I absolutely love creative lighting constructions, especially ones with warm light. One of my favorite examples of this is the exposed edison bulb lamp from IKEA, which I own!

Another example of this that I saw in person at a first Friday in the art district in Denver. Unfortunately, I cannot find the artist that made this! But, I remember that they soaked wood and then put it in a large frame jig with string to bend it into shape.

And last, I think that an aesthetic I really appreciate is a retro futuristic monochrome. I know that this is sourced exactly from my long playtime of one of my favorite games, Elite Dangerous. This game features a kind of mechanically rustic but equally high tech futuristic aesthetic. I have long appreciated this design and have wanted to emulate it in all of my UI / UX projects since.

My goal for my final project is to combine all of these aesthetics into one creative light fixture for my apartment. I think that I could use a combination of woodworking, 3D modeling / printing, and lighting design to create a compelling artifact that could be a centerpiece of my family room. Alternatively, I could make several lower fidelity lamps that could be synchronized and span across my apartment.