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Star Wars Classic Posters: A New Hope

Has the whole world succumbed to Disney’s Jedi mind trick that Star Wars The Force Awakens will be the answer to all of our problems? Poverty? Hunger? ISIS?

It appears the answer is “yes”.

We have to admit it does have us feeling nostalgic for the kneeless, elbowless, not-so-action figures of yesteryear. (Boba Fett for President 2016.) It even led to a few Linkedin hijinks on the part of our creative team, who threw their own website into the fandom pantheon.

So let’s take a moment to stroll, nay, fly light-speed down memory lane, with a graphic designer’s homage to the original, hand-drawn Star Wars classic posters.

May The Art Be With You.

Star Wars Classic Posters Episode IV: A New Hope Style A by Tom Jung

Style A Star Wars Classic Movie Poster Art —by Tom Jung

The Tom Jung illustrated “Style A” original. But don’t forget the client golden rule: He who has the gold makes the rules. Lucasfilm thought this artwork was “too dark” and at the last minute contracted the Brothers Hildebrandt, (twins Greg and Tim, who rose to fame in the late 70’s for their Lord of the Rings illustrations), to do a second version.

But the Hildebrandt duo had no reference photography of Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill, so this much more stylized art was born. And the client was satisfied, right?

Draft 1 Art by the Brothers Hildebrant without droids for the Star Wars Classic Posters

Original Art First Draft by the Brothers Hildebrant

Says Brother Greg, “Incredibly, the first version of it — without the droids — was created in a feverish, nonstop effort over just 36 hours! George Lucas asked for the droids to be added and for our signatures to be larger. We made those changes at the ad agency, and off it went!”

Because the droids were painted onto the original artwork, there is no way to re-photograph the first draft.

Final Poster Art with droids by the Brothers Hildebrant without droids for the Star Wars Classic Posters

By George! Put Some Droids in There

Thanks for the sprint, brothers, but…

In the end, 20th Century Fox opted to use the earlier “dark” poster art by Tom Jung instead of the Hildebrandt art for the original theatrical one-sheet, which had a more accurate likeness of the two main characters. The Hildebrandt artwork did appear on many early Star Wars promo items, a consumer retail poster, and eventually as a U.S. theatrical poster for the Star Wars 15th Anniversary re-release.

Horizontal Star Wars Classic Posters Episode IV: A New Hope Style A by the Brothers Hildebrandt

Re-Release The Hildebrandt artwork wasn’t used officially until 1992

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