The 2024 Concept Art Awards took place this weekend at LightBox Expo. The recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award was Lucasfilm's Doug Chiang. During his ceremony, a familiar face surprised everyone in attendance.
Host of Star Wars: The High Republic Show Krystina Arielle revealed on her Twitter account George Lucas shared a personal message to Chiang before he accepted the award. It's hard to hear what is said, but the message is clear in the pride in Lucas' voice.
Tonight I hosted the Concept Art Awards where Doug Chiang received a Lifetime Achievement award. Nothing could have prepared me for a wild George Lucas appearing (via video message) to congratulate him. A much deserved award for an incomparable Star Wars titan pic.twitter.com/45y9uBVbqP
— Krystina Arielle (@KrystinaArielle) October 27, 2024
In her Tweet, Arielle calls Chiang "an incomparable Star Wars titan," which is a very apt title for him. Star Wars is not what it is today without Chiang's influence. He's just as important as other great Star Wars artists like Ralph McQuarrie.
Doug Chiang is the current vice president and executive creative director at Lucasfilm and at one time he was also the Chief Creative Officer AKA the job that Dave Filoni has now. His journey began with Star Wars with the original trilogy, specifically the 1979 art book The Art of Star Wars which made him pursue a career in this field.
After working at Industrial Lights and Magic, where he was a creative director for several major films like Terminator 2: Judgement Day, he was hired by Lucasfilm. Chiang became the lead of their art department, becoming a design director, visual effects production designer, and concept design supervisor for The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. During this time, he was also one of the man designers behind the multimedia project Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire.
He stepped away from Lucasfilm for a time, creating his own studios and working on other projects. However, Chiang would return to Star Wars for the sequel trilogy. He served as a concept artist for The Force Awakens, production designer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and was the head of design for both Solo: A Star Wars Story and The Rise of Skywalker. He also jumped into Star Wars TV as the design supervisor for The Mandalorian and Obi-Wan Kenobi. You can also find him making the occasional cameo in the series as well.
This is such a well earned award for Doug Chiang. He is one of the great Star Wars artists, and his contributions are legendary.