Another good example is the Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight card.
Similarly, the Luke Jedi photo art had characters removed from behind Luke, and had some blue highlights added. This print became the photo art that appeared on the card back.
Bill was also responsible for creating many other design elements we’re all so familiar with such as the Star Wars logo, character name plates and the famed silver “double racetrack” border.
This masterpiece of camera ready artwork consisted of four corners and six straight pieces of varying lengths so that virtually any size border could be achieved for the front and back of the card back.
After the photo art was finalized, it was then photocopied, sized and pasted to the mechanical. In addition, photocopies of the other various camera ready elements and text were sized and positioned onto transparent plastic overlays to indicate exact placement. Any additional information or special instructions were written on a sheet of semi-transparent paper and attached on the top.
All of the text on a mechanical was “live”, which meant how it appeared on the mechanical was how it would appear on the final printed piece. Because of this, the designer had to have all the text professionally type set by yet another outside vendor. In the case of the Star Wars packaging, LPK outsourced the typesetting to a company called Harland. The text had to be exact before going to the printer because making a change after this stage, no matter how small, was very expensive. So a decision like changing a character’s name from “Skiff Guard” to “Weequay” after a proof had already been created probably wasn’t a terribly popular one with the folks at LPK.
After the mechanical layout was approved, it was then given to the printer to execute the second step: the preparation of the final films which would be used to generate the actual printing plates.
These metal plates carried the images that were to be printed on massive rolls of cardstock and were the only way to produce high quality, close-registered images. The printer had the very difficult task of turning the mechanical and the accompanying camera ready images into the final printed product.
The card backs were printed on a press using the four color process. In a nutshell, the four color printing process consists of rendering an image using layers of cyan, magenta, yellow and black dots. First on the printer’s to do list was to break down each of the elements (photo art, star field background, double racetrack border, etc.) into four separate pieces of film using a special piece of color filtering photographic equipment. One piece of film contained the cyan portion of the image. Another contained the magenta portion, and so on. The four pieces of film stripped together would yield the source image.
The Pantone Matching System, or PMS colors, was also used to extend the color palette during printing. PMS was developed to aid clients, designers and printers in the communication process when selecting colors on a print job. Each PMS color has a unique number and formula for ink mixing. PMS colors are referenced by using a Pantone Guide, which consists of a large number of small thin cardboard sheets printed on one side with a series of related color swatches and then bound into a small flipbook. The blue that runs across the top of the Droids card backs is an example of how a PMS color was used on a Star Wars card back.
Kenner also used the Pantone system when painting their figure hardcopies. Using all of the color separations, the printer would strip them all together by hand, yielding the final films. They carry the final images to be printed. However, before the films could be used to create the printing plates, they had to be proofed. Film proofs were highly accurate representations of what the final printed product would look like and were given back to Kenner and LucasFilm for final review, approval and sign-off. Note the words "OK/Lucas” written here at the top of the Luke Jedi chromalin.
Chromalins are a typical example of a film proof. What are referred to as proof cards today are really just printed card backs that have never had a bubble attached to it. Technically speaking, a Chromalin is a true proof card. They were generally one-offs and quite expensive to produce.
Once the film proof received final approval, the plates were created and the job was ready to go to press. At this point, a small run of paper proofs were printed to serve as final samples. When the paper proof was approved, a figure and bubble were applied, creating what collectors today refer to as a “carded sample” or “quality control” sample (Hasbro calls them final pilots), and it was submitted for yet another sign-off. Once approved this final time, the presses were cranked into full production and sheets of production card backs were printed. For the sake of efficiency, card backs were printed anywhere from four to sixteen to a sheet and then die-cut before having the production figure applied.
It goes without saying that creating all those vintage card backs was a formidable task. It took the hard work and dedication from some extremely talented people to create them. Our fond memories of Kenner’s Star Wars card backs and the fact that we still care about them today are a testament to the ground breaking work of the folks at LPK.
The authors, Bill Wills and Tracey Hamilton of Cantina Collectibles, are avid collectors of vintage Star Wars memorabilia with a combined experience of over 30 years. Both have a passion not only for the production toys, but also prototypes and other pre-production materials. It's only fitting that they both grew up and reside in the city in which Kenner, the company responsible for the design and production of the vintage Star Wars line, was headquartered. This has provided them the opportunity to track down some of the more rare and coveted collectibles from the toy line, including actual prototypes used to produce the beloved toys and their packaging.
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