Star Wars Logo Creator Based Her Design on Nazi Propaganda, But Says Star Wars Is Not Political

Since the release of Rogue One, debate about the movie’s political messaging (or lack thereof) has been all over the internet. Screenwriter Chris Weitz called the Empire “white supremacist,” while Disney CEO Bob Iger swore that Rogue One has “no political statements in it, at all.” (We here at The Mary Sue also weighed in.)

George Lucas, however, seemed to know exactly what his movie was about when he requested the iconic logo. Suzy Rice, the original designer of the Star Wars logo, said that she was asked to create something “very fascist” and “intimidating.” She therefore turned to Joseph Goebbels and Nazi propaganda for her inspiration. “What I read was that Goebbels wanted…a standardized font without any variations to be used for all signage throughout. So it struck me as an indication of what I’d call utmost ‘fascist’ design or insistence on the harsh imposition of severe graphics to make a forceful social and political point.”

However, she maintains that her choices were not meant as a commentary on the Nazis. “I did not want to…represent any aspect of or from that political movement but instead wanted to reference a similar forceful impact, an environment of fascism.”

As a Trump voter, she also disagrees with applying a present-day political message to Rogue One specifically. “It dissipates the drama and the archetypical characters while creating a new, inept thing in doing so,” she said. “At no point, however, have I ever viewed the SW literary canon to be a comment on any phase or time in U.S. political history.”

Perhaps it’s fair for Rice to deny that Star Wars is making a specific political point about a specific political moment in history. However, I find it difficult to believe that anyone would order a “very fascist” logo for a movie that had nothing to say about fascism–even if it were fascism in the general sense.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter and Suzy Rice’s blog, image via Lucasfilm)

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