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Keltie Cochrane designs reach for the stars

A North East creative firm are set to see their work go global, when their designs for the front cover and online trailer for the latest series of Star Wars novels are finally unveiled.

Later this month Lucas Films Ltd is due to release ‘Apocalypse’ , which will signal the end of a four year illustrations project for Keltie Cochrane, who designed the covers for all nine novels in the series, as well as the animated trailer.

Keltie Cochrane were headhunted to pitch for the design by Random House New York and Lucas Film Ltd in San Fransisco, and were eventually chosen for their unique approach and innovative ideas.

Keltie Cochrane creative director Ian Keltie said: “We are very privileged to have worked with Star Wars; it’s been a dream come true.

“The brand being so huge worldwide has been a fantastic profile builder, however it has also meant there was an immense amount of pressure on us to deliver something that the dedicated fans would appreciate.

By not taking the traditional sci-fi art approach which fans have previously been used to, the firm was quickly able to gain the support of Lucas Film Ltd, who were keen to take the novels in a new direction.

Keltie continued: “Having received some wonderful feedback from people all around the world who have followed the storylines of Star Wars for the past 30 years, I really couldn’t ask for a greater feeling of satisfaction in my job.

“A hidden gem to the project was that in order to create the artwork I was given the passwords to the Star Wars image vault which is full of the original photography and behind the scenes imagery, which I had to promise to never share – I felt honoured to be part of a privileged few with something that was so special to so many people.”

During the project, Ian and his colleagues were given the opportunity to visit Lucas Films in San Fransisco and see original costumes, props and artwork from Star Wars.

Proudly describing the project as “an overwhelming experience” Ian concluded: “We are really looking forward to the unveiling of the final book and hope it helps to start a new chapter for us with more exciting projects in the future.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .