It’s Star Wars week everyone, and we are not the only ones celebrating! With the new film out this week, The Last Jedi, and the corresponding Star Wars Battlefront II expansion – it’s a good week to be a fan of this iconic franchise! Sony is throwing their own little celebration by letting players show off their Iden love with a brand new, and FREE, PlayStation 4 Battlefront II theme that is available right now! What’s even more special is that the artist behind it sat down to discuss, in detail, the creative process behind the chosen design.

Russell Walks took to the PlayStation blog to talk about what it meant to him to work on such a well-loved franchise. He also gave some intriguing insight into his own creative process and where he drew his inspiration from:

I was incredibly excited when the opportunity of creating a Star Wars Battlefront II inspired PlayStation theme was presented to me and had all sorts of ideas as to what could be done. In my mind I was looking for color, for action, and for a sort of “retro/propaganda” feeling, and I believe that comes across nicely in the work.

To take you behind the creative process here is that path I take on a project like this. First I spend a couple of days doing research – I’m sometimes looking for images of the characters I’ll be depicting, but I also spend time just checking out art, sort of free associating and following whatever trail the web lays out for me. In this instance, I started by looking at vintage racing posters, WPA artwork from the 30’s, and street art created by folks like Banksy and Shepard Fairey. This an important step. Inspiration is a collaborative process, and seeing what others have done almost always gives me an idea or ignites a spark in the creative part of my mind.”

https://www.facebook.com/playstation/videos/10156070319231803/

He then went on to show several prototypes that he came up with, and nixed ideas that he felt didn’t quite capture the feel of Star Wars the way he wanted. After showing off several stages, several scrapped ideas, and several headaches – he finally came to the final product, the one available now for free. He later added:

I look at these pieces over and over, and while they are inspiring, I don’t look for elements from them to include in my work. It’s more accurate to say that these pieces, and many, many others inspire me to do my best, and to find a new/different way of looking at a property so many of us love. It’s not a stretch at all to say that Star Wars changed my life, and if you told twelve-year-old me that this is what grown-up me would be doing for living – creating artwork for a Star Wars game! – twelve-year-old me would probably have a heart attack. Doing this is hard work, no doubt, but it’s also fulfilling, and rewarding, and most days – when I’m deep in the heart of a single-player campaign, for instance, and I’m laughing in amazement at how freaking cool Battlefront II is – I can’t believe how lucky I am.”

To read his full blog, you can check out the post right here. What do you think about the new theme? Thoughts on the new direction Star Wars is headed? Sound off with your thoughts in the comment section below, and don’t forget to tune into DFTG on Twitter for gaming and entertainment news live 24/7!