The Art of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

Image archivist Phil Szostak was embedded with The Force Awakens art department as a conceptual researcher and archivist from December 2012 through the end of production, and has worked in conjunction with Star Wars art departments for six years at Lucasfilm. A graduate of the School of Visual Arts in New York, Szostak worked for Wild Brain Animation on the Disney Channel series Higglytown Heroes and he ran the JAK Films Art Department on Skywalker Ranch for over three years before joining the narrative design team on LucasArts' Star Wars: 1313. He resides in San Francisco. Production designer Rick Carter has won two Academy Awards®: One for his design of Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, and one for his otherworldly production design on James Cameron's mega-hit Avatar. Carter received his first Oscar nomination for his work on Robert Zemeckis's Forrest Gump, and an additional nomination for Steve Spielberg's historic epic War Horse. Carter served as co-production designer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and is currently collaborating with Steven Spielberg on The BFG. He lives in Los Angeles.