Star Wars logo, prerelease version
When most of us think about the typography of Star Wars, we think of the iconic ligatured logo lettered by Suzy Rice or the ITC Serif Gothic used for advertising Episode IV in 1977 or Episode VII in 2014. But before any of these was a logo that never made it past some letterhead and a few teaser posters.
Alex Jay, via the Star Wars Scrapbook, credits this Star Wars prerelease logo to Joe Johnston. (Pete Vilmur credits Ralph McQuarrie, though he is more often known for his illustration work for the franchise.) The typeface is the very unusual Precis, designed in the early 1970s by Arthur L. Rawn, a guy that Mark Simonson notes isn’t credited to any other type designs.
