STAR WARS

Description

The first Star Wars film was released in 1977. Over the past four decades, this chronicle of galactic war and adventure has established itself as an American pop culture icon, generating tremendous revenue and attracting an enormous fandom across the globe. During that time, Star Wars has grown into a universe all its own, spawning TV series, video games, toys, and theme parks. The audio and visual technologies used in the films have also provided a foundation for Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound, two film production companies that have had a far-reaching impact on the film industry.

Publisher’s Note: Star Wars

I’ve been spending time recently talking with people at the School of Life in Seoul about the topic of creativity. We talked about was how people often manage to drum up the courage to do something creative, even if it’s just a small part of their life, but they end up giving up because they are afraid they might fail. This discussion on creativity leads to talking about the fear of failure, and about what it means to fail. We need to talk about what it means to succeed to understand failure. If you define success as making money, then failure would mean losing money. If you define it as being together with a friend until the end, then your failure would mean losing that friend. There was once a time when there were no social or economic institutions that could measure success or failure. But even today, if you have your own criteria for success, perhaps they are what you consider as your core values.

In a world where each person advocates different values to determine success, it’s easy to fall into a dichotomy where people who identify with your values are “good” and all others are “evil.” Perhaps these thoughts are what lead to wars and other tragedies.

This month, we introduce Star Wars as a brand. The six Star Wars episodes released to date have formed not only the greatest fandom in the world, but they have also become an unprecedented cultural phenomenon, allowing the franchise to establish itself as a globally influential brand. Star Wars wasn’t created out of an initiative to launch a commercial brand. From the perspective of branding, however, there is a lot to appreciate about how George Lucas’ emphasis on fan relations cultivated the Star Wars brand, and how Disney continues that enthusiasm. While the confrontation between the Rebel Alliance and the Empire might seem cliché, Star Wars enjoys unending love from fans because it has universally appealing characters and stories. Even the villain Darth Vader inspires compassion.

Looking into Star Wars as a brand, I was able to think about why my “good” values could end up being regarded as “evil” by others. If we could just switch places for a second and try to look at “the evil” as “the good,” our confliction will lead to conversations that help us understand each other and come to a peaceful conclusion. It will allow us to break away from the stereotypes we hold and develop creative thoughts.

@SYJ

PublisherSuyong Joh

http://www.johsuyong.com

Magazine B 42nd Issue: Star Wars from Magazine B on Vimeo.

See also Magazine B: DISNEY,  Magazine B: Netflix