Most of us have come around to the notion that any number of everyday things -- a chair, a computer, a soda bottle, a toilet -- can be examples of graceful, idiosyncratic design. But are we willing to grant the same status to something as hardscrabble and utilitarian as a ranch gate? The coffee-table book 'Ranch Gates of the Southwest' argues that we'd be fools not to. A collaboration between Daniel M. Olsen, an associate professor of design at the University of Texas, and Henk van Assen, a Dutch American designer and former visiting professor at UT, 'Ranch Gates' is a beautiful collection of large-scale horizontal photos taken during a series of road trips through seven states. There are, as you would expect, many examples from Texas. But Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and Utah hold their own as well, collectively making the case that ranch gates, with their handwrought lettering and occasional embellishments, are a form of folk art. Olsen and van Assen answered a few e-mail questions about their project. Q: What was your initial reaction when Henk van Assen suggested that you embark on a project of shooting ranch gates? Daniel M. Olsen: I had noticed ranch gates, but had not spent a lot of time thinking about them, and was not so sure there were enough interesting examples to make a substantial project out of it. But after our first trip I was hooked. It was like being handed a gift every 20 to 40 miles. Q: What changed your mind? Olsen: The time spent with ranch gates also made me realize that ranch gates are not just signs. They are placeholders for people unseen. They are surrogates for the ranch owner and those associated with the ranch. In this respect the gates become individuals, with idiosyncratic personalities, standing in the landscape. Realizing this put ranch gates into a whole new light for me. Q: Looking at the maps in the book, the area around Austin seems to have the densest collection of ranch gates you shot. Is that a reflection of how many interesting ranch gates there are around Austin, or just of your proximity to the area? Olsen: Living in Austin did give the opportunity to explore more of the roads in the area, but we did find the Hill Country to be one of the most dense in terms of numbers of ranch gates per mile. Perhaps this is a combination of Texas pride and that the Hill Country has smaller, more frequent ranches than West Texas, for example. Other states have aspects that also tend to decrease the number and density of ranch gates -- for example, the National Forests of New Mexico, the Native American reservations of Arizona and the open range lands of Nevada. Q: Are there any trends or styles that struck you as distinctive of Texas ranch gates? Olsen: Not surprisingly, the star is prominent on ranch gates in Texas. But beyond this motif, ranch gates can change as much on a single road as they can change from state to state. We did not see much regionalism. Instead it was the individualism that stood out to us. Q: You say in your essay that all but one of the ranchers you met were friendly. Can you tell me about the one who wasn't? Henk van Assen: Parts of southern Arizona, near the Mexican border, felt like a militarized zone. Soldiers could be seen at regular intervals and camouflaged tents were scattered in the landscape. In the middle of this fairly grim environment, we suddenly encountered a gate that ranked pretty near the top of exquisite samples of beautiful, original and humorous design. The ranch was bordered by a train track and the gate had made good use of different elements of the railroad signs. The lettering was highly original and the rough mountains in the distance would have provided a perfect backdrop. Excitedly we started setting up the tripod, measuring light and discussing different possible angles to take the picture. However, at the same time we saw a dust cloud coming in our direction from the ranch house a mile away. After a few minutes, a big burly rancher in a massive pickup truck belligerently demanded to know what we were doing. Politely we tried to explain the purpose and potential of the gate's inclusion in a book but he would have none of it. He kept referring to 'streams of illegal immigrants' on his property and somehow felt that if his ranch were to be documented in a book, this would only get worse. After a few futile attempts to convince him otherwise, his anger seemed to increase and took on threatening tones. We also noticed the two rifles in the back of his truck, and at that point we packed our stuff and moved on. He seemed to lack the humor of his own gate -- sadly, not every gate is the true expression of its owner. Q: There's one really unusual looking ranch gate on page 94 -- 'State Highway 522: North of Questa, NM' -- that has this industrial feel to it. Did you get the story behind this one? Olsen: Actually, we did. Unlike the 'Border Rancher' Henk mentioned previously, most of the people we encountered were very friendly, as were the people at this ranch, and they were glad to talk about their gate. This gate is located near Questa, N.M., and there are four ski hills in this area. The big circles you see in that gate are the old wheels that were used to guide and power the chairlifts. The owner spoke at great length of the challenge to get the wheels down to his ranch and get them installed properly. This is a great example of designers improvising a design, that is reflective of both the local community and the rancher, with the materials at hand. Q: Did working on this project change your ideas of what design can be and how it functions? Van Assen: While documenting the gates, I felt intrigued and sometimes humbled by the visually compelling solutions people, supposedly uninformed about design, create. Most structures and letterforms were very well considered and expressed a sense of care -- in essence showing pride about the land and its owners. It made me realize once more that design is something innate to human beings and, whether created at a fancy studio in New York City or in the barren landscape of the Southwest, impossible to ignore. Q: Do you have a favorite ranch gate in the book? Van Assen: The M (plus sign) M gate in Moab, Utah. While driving on the interstate one late afternoon with light snow, we noticed a few small red signs in the distance. To reach them we had to get off on a parallel road and dig through snow to get there, but it paid off. We found a gate with just two simple bright red letterforms, symmetrically organized on both halves. Due to the triangular construction of the gate, the letters are distorted in effect creating seemingly ascending and descending letters climbing up and down the gate. The blue-grayish land and sky with snow-capped mountains provides the perfect contrast for the red. The thin red beams just over the letters seem to be an enigmatic typographic and/or linguistic accent. Olsen: One of my favorite gates is 'Rancho Cuatro Hermanas,' located between Austin and Blanco. The design of the gates seems so appropriate for the name of the ranch. The decorative patterns and letterforms remind me of a patterned fabric that might be used for a Mexican dress, but it's the title itself that really wins me over ... 'Ranch of the Four Sisters' ... it sounds like a great title for an epic novel. Jeff Salamon writes for the Austin American-Statesman. E-mail: jsalamon@statesman.com. 