Recently, Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford spoke with GameInformer. He talked about the creation of the Borderlands art style, which strongly distinguished the franchise from other projects.
Initially, the project looked different. When development of the first game began in 2005, the authors worked on six different art styles.
At first, they believed that they needed to use "realism" otherwise there simply wouldn't be a "market opportunity." And the team did that, but, according to Randy's memories, they understood then: "this is not quite right" and did not correspond to the spirit of Borderlands — its gameplay.
The authors were brought to "that" style by chance: Adam May, art director of the upcoming Borderlands 4 and character designer of the original shooter, worked with concept artist Scott Kester.
Scott drew things in his free time that Adam described as "illustrated graffiti." Subsequently, one of the characters he drew then turned into Captain Flint, marking the beginning of the recognizable Borderlands style.
Kester, along with his colleagues, turned two-dimensional sketches into three-dimensional game art, which they showed to Pitchford.
This happened at a time when deadlines were tight — the game was about to reach the alpha stage. Randy then agreed to give them time and two weeks later they presented their work.
He felt that it was "right" and was ready to promote the style:
"We were already taking any risk: we were risking the design, we were risking the universe and the plot, it was a new IP [intellectual property]; we were taking all possible risks," then it was decided to "do what the heart tells you."
As a result, the style was approved, but such changes required a large-scale rework: the authors of Borderlands abandoned almost all of their previous work.