Horse Hands: Spawning high-concept, B-movie schlock for Double Thread Podcast merch
Concept and ideation
Design
Typesetting
Compositing
LOS ANGELES & NEW YORK, USA
The podcast
“Podcasting icons Julie Klausner (Difficult People) and Tom Scharpling (The Best Show)… careen through the best and worst of pop culture, giving the business to blockhead celebrities, rescuing shoddy podcasts, exploring obscure American subcultures...” (via Double Threat)
The premise
I’m a long-time fan of Scharpling and Klausner and a Double Threat fan from the first episode in 2020. In episode 28, That’s the Body of Augustus Gloop, Tom talked about riding a horse for the first time and how the “horse hands” (ranch employees) helped.
Jokes followed. Out of context, Horse Hands sounded to me like a schlocky B-movie premise from the Seventies. I designed the concept, submitted it to the show, and was ecstatic when it was accepted into the Double Threat merch collection. This absurd premise is printed on everything from clothing to stickers and mugs.
The inspiration
I styled Horse Hands after old newspaper movie listings with flattened, monochromatic images and stacked titles. Since childhood, I’ve been inspired by movie title logos and graphics, especially when they add to the gravity or mystique of the film.
The sources
I composited and manipulated a variety of sources, including photos of hands, horse portraits, and wind-blown hair. Colour references came from Seventies B-movie posters. I used scanned Letraset for the type, traced the vectors, and placed the text character by character.
The process
Hours of deep-diving into Seventies movie posters and newspaper listings. Then sketching, photo manipulation, and vector image editing, all while laughing at the absurdity of the concept as it took shape.