May the Fourth: Art Vader

Painting by David T Cho

 May the Fourth is once again here, which seems an appropriate moment to comment on the astonishing degree to which Star Wars has become a common design motif.

 

Yes, the galaxy far, far away has all the same sorts of marketing merchandise as any other pop culture franchise - t-shirts, hats, bedsheets, action figures and so on – but how many of those franchises have toasters?  Or waffle irons?  Or gas barbecues, for heaven's sake?* 

 

A brief search of the internet reveals a plethora of Star Wars derived items: dresses, measuring cups, screwdrivers, fish tanks, shoes, tape dispensers, cookie jars and so on.  I'm not certain that Hello Kitty has even managed to achieve the same degree of horizontal coverage that Star Wars has.

With this sort of thing apparently becoming more and more common, it's not hard to see a point in time where Star Wars is recognized as a historical design movement like Art Deco, Bauhaus or Scandavian Modern – Art Vader, if you will. One imagines some future socialite commenting to a friend, “Oh, that’s my Lucas VII chair, it’s in lovely condition, isn’t it?”

Ultimately, though, I think we need to draw the line somewhere, and I think I've found the place.  Mummified Ewok head purse, anyone?

 

- Sid

* I don't know why, but for some reason a Tie Fighter Gas Grill strikes me as being a little more absurd than a waffle iron.  Really, though, they're probably equally odd.