Someone posted this album art for an collection of John Williams music and I don't think the artist had ever actually seen a Star Wars film.
This is how you would draw Star Wars if all you've ever seen was Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers comics and someone was describing Empire Strikes Back to you. And I think it is AMAZING.
I mean, look at that interpretation of Darth Vader!
I'm going to track down this artist and see if did some Return of the Jedi art. Am dying to see how he would've done Jabba!
I shared this with my newsletter, and this is was I though until a guy named Chris emailed me back to say that this was all a total marketing ploy. All of the music choices mentioned are covers and unlicensed. He went on to tell me that he thinks they drew a cover that suggested as much Star Wars as they could without having to actually pay licensing or worry about copyright infringement. In his words, “It’s like hack illustration work at it’s best.” Thanks for the info Chris!
Regardless of it’s origins, this might be a fun exercise for illustrators: Redesign a prominent IP so that people can tell what it’s from, without pinpointing any one thing that says you copied it. What this would teach you is what design elements are essential to recognizing that IP and what is unnecessary. Which will come in useful when you sit down to design your own IP.
So where is the threshold? What makes something uniquely IT? I want to see how someone would do this with Marvel, Harry Potter, Toy Story, or Star Trek.
-Jake