Back to JournalTo mark National Day of the Cowboy, we’re featuring Chris Hunt, the designer and writer behind Code of the West. With a following of over 300,000, Hunt’s stark, values-driven graphics have resonated far beyond cowboy country.
In response to a few questions we sent over, Hunt shared his thoughts on grit, courage, and why the Cowboy Code still matters.
Meet Chris Hunt
Q: Please introduce yourself in your own words. Tell us who you are, what Code of the West stands for, and why sharing the Cowboy Code matters to you.
A: I’m Chris Hunt. I founded Code of the West as a way to name the values I’ve lived by—and struggled with—my whole life. It started as a simple list: Live with Courage. Keep Your Word. Over time, it’s grown into a creative project and community rooted in Western values like integrity, resilience, and self-reliance.
“Live with Courage. Keep Your Word.”
Creative Spark: Sharing the Code
Q: Which of these values speak to you most? What do you hope people think about or carry forward when they consider the Cowboy Code today?
A: If I had to pick one value, I’d say courage. That’s why the first line I ever put on the Code of the West logo was: Live with Courage. Keep Your Word.
There are eight other tenets I built my version of the Code around, but courage is the foundation. It transcends everything else. A lot of people think of courage as something grand or cinematic. Something you’d see in a John Wayne film. And sure, sometimes it is the Alamo. But more often, it’s quieter. Smaller. It scales down just as much as it scales up.
It’s having the guts to speak up in a meeting when no one else will. Or stepping into a conversation that’s veering off course. Not to fight, but to ease the tension and steer it back to something true. Those little moments of resistance, of standing firm, might not feel heroic in the moment, but over time, the absence of them chips away at us. Courage is what allows everything else—integrity, responsibility, loyalty—to exist in real life, not just as ideals.
“Courage is what allows everything else—integrity, responsibility, loyalty—to exist in real life.”
And that’s what I hope people remember when they think about the Cowboy Code today. That it’s not about nostalgia—it’s about action. You don’t have to be born on a ranch to live by it. You just have to be willing to hold the line.
That’s what’s been so wild to witness with Code of the West—it resonates with folks from all over. Out of the 318,000 people who follow the page, many didn’t grow up in the West. A lot are from the coasts. From cities. From other countries entirely. But the values still hit home.
To me, that just confirms something I’ve always felt: the West wasn’t just a place. It was a proving ground for a kind of philosophy. A spontaneous, practical way of living that came out of necessity. There were no rules. No structure. Just open land and people trying to survive—and trying to do it with some measure of honor. That’s where the Code came from. Not as a performance, but as a lived response to a raw and unforgiving environment. And I think that’s why it still speaks to people today. Because deep down, we’re still looking for something solid to hold onto. Something real.
Channeling Duke: Keeping the Spirit Alive
Q: John Wayne is known for embodying grit, honor, and independence. How do you see these values fitting into life today? What does the Cowboy Code mean to you personally?
A: I don’t think grit ever disappeared. It’s just that for a while, it stopped being visible in the culture. That was part of the reason I started Code of the West in the first place. You’d scroll through social media, or look around in pop culture, and that John Wayne archetype that was built on quiet strength, independence, and a code just wasn’t there anymore.
Or if it was there, it came with disclaimers. People weren’t sure if it was still okay to believe in individual sovereignty. And even if they did believe in it, they didn’t always know how to embody it without being labeled as selfish or dangerous.
But to me, that kind of sovereignty is essential. It’s not about isolation. It’s about knowing who you are so you can show up honestly in a community. Not everyone is wired the same. Not everyone wants the same things. But unless you’ve taken the time to figure out your own code, your own compass, you can’t engage meaningfully with others. You’re just reacting. Floating.
“Without a code, you don’t have a decision matrix. You’re winging it.”
Without a code, you don’t have a decision matrix. You’re winging it. And feelings—I do think they’re important—but they aren’t enough on their own. They need to be refined. Grounded and measured against something real. That’s what a code gives you. That’s what the Cowboy Code gave people back then. And it still matters now. If anything, it might matter more. We’re living in a postmodern moment where everything’s been deconstructed. And some of that needed to happen. A lot of the systems that held things together into the mid-20th century weren’t built to perpetuate individual freedom. But tearing it all down without building something better in its place is also a mistake in my eyes. That’s what Code of the West is trying to fix. I’m not interested in recreating the past. I’m using it as a lens to ask, “What can we carry forward?” I don’t think the values were broken or unnecessary. They were just buried in the rubble of the institutions they’d been tied to. And if we’re going to build anything lasting, anything generational, we have to start there. With grit. With honor. With a code that holds up.
Archival Inspiration: Old Wisdom for New Times
Q: Are there any particular ideas, sayings, or traditions you find yourself returning to when you talk about the Cowboy Code? How do you think these can resonate in a modern context?
A: I come back to Louis L’Amour a lot, both as a storyteller and as a sort of Western philosopher. He reminds me of someone like Ray Bradbury. There’s this consistency of craft I really admire. You could tell they loved the worlds they built, but they didn’t take themselves too seriously either. That balance between exploration and humility has always stuck with me.
But if there’s one idea I return to again and again, it’s failure. Like courage, failure isn’t one thing. It’s a landscape. There are different angles, different definitions depending on how you approach it. For me, failure isn’t when something doesn’t work. It’s when you stop trying. That’s the only line I can draw that makes sense. A lot of what people call failure is just the discomfort of testing a new idea and not getting the result they wanted.
But that’s where growth lives—in the friction. And friction, to me, is a kind of teacher.
“Friction is a kind of teacher.”
That’s one of the things the Western way of life teaches you early. You don’t always have the right tools, or enough time, and you’ll never have a perfect solution to a problem. You just find yourself present when something goes wrong, and you’ve got to figure it out. That’s it. You move. You adapt. You try again. I grew up in that space and I’ve carried that mindset into everything I’ve built. Even now, I still live in the space most people would define as failure. Because I’m constantly testing. Building. Trying to figure out what works. And I think that resonates, maybe more now than ever.
We’ve greased the tracks in modern life. Everything’s frictionless now. Groceries delivered, conversations filtered through apps, even opinions preloaded by algorithm. But deep down, I think people—and especially Gen Z—can feel something’s off. Like we’re missing a piece of the equation. Like maybe ease and convenience isn’t always the answer.
That’s why I think these old truths still matter. The original Code of the West emerged naturally out of necessity. It was discovered in the doing. And in many ways, that’s what my version has become: not a throwback, but a re-grounding. A framework for sovereignty in an age where our thoughts are shaped by invisible systems.
We don’t need to all agree. But we do need to remember how to think for ourselves. To disagree for our own reasons, not just because a machine nudged us that way. That’s what the Code is about to me. Not a return to the past, but a return to something real.
“Not a return to the past, but a return to something real.”
Follow and Learn More
To see more of Chris Hunt’s work, visit @thecodeofthewest.
A co-branded Code of the West campaign is live now through July 27 on John Wayne platforms.
