He’s a master of GFFA design, and he’s also a bit of a whizz at designing race car paint schemes as Doug Chiang reveals his latest design after last years X-Wing inspired NASCAR design. Working with Columbia, a paint scheme was designed for the car, firesuits and helmet inspired by Darth Vader.
“Last year’s collection was so iconic,” says Chris Araujo, director of brand management at Columbia Sportswear — where Lucasfilm and Columbia collaborated on the design of the X-wing and TIE fighter-inspired car wraps for NASCAR. “It felt very natural to continue onto Vader after Luke and his iconic orange flight suit from the original trilogy.”
The design process for the Vader-inspired paint scheme spanned several months as Chiang and a team at Columbia worked from brainstorming sessions to locking in final details. “It’s interesting, because past car designs don’t apply, as each project is very new,” notes Chiang. “Each one has its own challenges, and they’re always unique. It’s the same thing that we do with our Star Wars vehicles. You’ll think we’ve done so many spaceships now that it’d be very easy, but each one has a very specific demand, and each one is really, really challenging, because at the end, you’re dealing with an inanimate object that you’re trying to infuse with a lot of personality, and the personality is key. And so our goal was to make sure that it worked on a car, but then aesthetically, it had to marry the Vader aesthetic from the film to the car.”
We took our X-Wing Pilot gear from last years Columbia collection to Finse in February of this year, so check out a few of the images below.
1 of 7
Bubba Wallace will be racing in his Vader-inspired gear at the NASCAR Cup Series Championship on 10th November 2024, while Columbia will reveal their new seasonal Darth Vader apparel collection on Tuesday 19th November.
Exploring the galaxy since 1978, Mark wrote his first fan fiction in 1981 and been a presence online since his first webpage Fanta War in 1996. He's contributed to Star Wars Insider (since '06) and Starburst Magazine (since '16) as well as ILM.com, SkywalkerSound.com, StarWars.com, Star Wars Encyclopedia, Build The Millennium Falcon, Geeky Monkey, TV Film Memorabilia, Model and Collectors Mart, Star Trek magazine and StarTrek.com. He is a four-time Star Wars Celebration Stage host, the only podcaster to have appeared on every Celebration podcast stage since the stage began in 2015, the Daily Content Manager of Fantha Tracks and the co-host of Making Tracks, Canon Fodder and Start Your Engines on Fantha Tracks Radio.
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He’s a master of GFFA design, and he’s also a bit of a whizz at designing race car paint schemes as Doug Chiang reveals his latest design after last years X-Wing inspired NASCAR design. Working with Columbia, a paint scheme was designed for the car, firesuits and helmet inspired by Darth Vader.
“Last year’s collection was so iconic,” says Chris Araujo, director of brand management at Columbia Sportswear — where Lucasfilm and Columbia collaborated on the design of the X-wing and TIE fighter-inspired car wraps for NASCAR. “It felt very natural to continue onto Vader after Luke and his iconic orange flight suit from the original trilogy.”
The design process for the Vader-inspired paint scheme spanned several months as Chiang and a team at Columbia worked from brainstorming sessions to locking in final details. “It’s interesting, because past car designs don’t apply, as each project is very new,” notes Chiang. “Each one has its own challenges, and they’re always unique. It’s the same thing that we do with our Star Wars vehicles. You’ll think we’ve done so many spaceships now that it’d be very easy, but each one has a very specific demand, and each one is really, really challenging, because at the end, you’re dealing with an inanimate object that you’re trying to infuse with a lot of personality, and the personality is key. And so our goal was to make sure that it worked on a car, but then aesthetically, it had to marry the Vader aesthetic from the film to the car.”
We took our X-Wing Pilot gear from last years Columbia collection to Finse in February of this year, so check out a few of the images below.
1 of 7
Bubba Wallace will be racing in his Vader-inspired gear at the NASCAR Cup Series Championship on 10th November 2024, while Columbia will reveal their new seasonal Darth Vader apparel collection on Tuesday 19th November.
Exploring the galaxy since 1978, Mark wrote his first fan fiction in 1981 and been a presence online since his first webpage Fanta War in 1996. He's contributed to Star Wars Insider (since '06) and Starburst Magazine (since '16) as well as ILM.com, SkywalkerSound.com, StarWars.com, Star Wars Encyclopedia, Build The Millennium Falcon, Geeky Monkey, TV Film Memorabilia, Model and Collectors Mart, Star Trek magazine and StarTrek.com. He is a four-time Star Wars Celebration Stage host, the only podcaster to have appeared on every Celebration podcast stage since the stage began in 2015, the Daily Content Manager of Fantha Tracks and the co-host of Making Tracks, Canon Fodder and Start Your Engines on Fantha Tracks Radio.
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