As the Lucas companies were preparing to move to their new home at the Letterman Digital Art Center in Presidio back in 2004, I was part of a team that created new corporate identities for 12 Lucasfilm companies. In response to George Lucas’s request for a more cohesive, uniform branding system, our team took on the challenge to modernize existing brands, such as ILM, LucasArts and Skywalker Sound, as well as create new ones for more recently added entities.

George’s vision was to have these companies share a commonality by infusing the iconic Lucasfilm arch into each brand. Our team ensured that every brand had its own unique personality but still shared that one common visual element. To differentiate them, we also modernized existing “glyphs” to create visual harmony across the board. The result was a family of brands which collectively represented a spectrum of entertainment. The team carried out this branding system digitally across the company’s various websites and portals as well as through print collateral and business systems. In addition, I designed the Lucasfilm style guide which is still being used by the Lucas companies today.

In collaboration with Visual Effects Supervisors (John Knoll and Denis Muren) and the ILM Publicist, I produced Academy Awards promotional materials for Harry Potter and the Prisoner from Akzaban, Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, Lemony Snickett, and A Series of Unfortunate Events. These sheets, which depicted before and after visual effects snippets from these movies, were sent to Academy members to showcase ILM’s visual effects magic. Members reviewed the sheets prior to casting their votes for the Best Visual Effects award recipient.

It was an incredible honor and wonderful learning experience to have worked alongside notable giants in the visual effects arena. Dennis Muren, the artist behind the famous 1982 movie moment of E.T.’s flying bicycle, and John Knoll, one of the original creators of Photoshop, are both superstars in the visual effects industry. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have had this opportunity. 

Another fun print project was designing the Lucasfilm yearbook. With the goal of creating a style and format reminiscent of a high school yearbook, I teamed with a company photographer to choose memorable images which best showcased each division and conveyed their day-to-day activities.