It all began in May of 1975 with a handshake between director George Lucas and visual effects supervisor John Dykstra. Industrial Light & Magic formed as Lucasfilm’s visual effects division to work specifically on one project: Star Wars: A New Hope (1977). 50 years later, ILM now spans the globe with studios in five countries and hundreds of productions to its credit.
Now in 2025, the 50th anniversary festivities have kicked off at an appropriate venue: Star Wars Celebration. ILM leadership and artists gathered at the beloved fan event near Tokyo, Japan to reflect on the storied occasion, as well as announce a new book: Industrial Light & Magic: 50 Years of Innovation, written by Ian Failes and coming November 5, 2025 from Lucasfilm Publishing and Abrams.
A New Book Charting ILM’s Continuing Legacy
Industrial Light & Magic: 50 Years of Innovation takes readers from day one at ILM in 1975 up to some of the latest projects and innovations at the company today. Packed with hundreds of rare archival images, author Ian Failes – the noted visual effects journalist at befores & afters – weaves insightful technical history with the beloved stories of ILM’s people.
“ILM has been part of my visual effects life for a long time,” Failes tells ILM.com. “I first ‘discovered’ so much about visual effects just as I left high school when I happened upon two things…. One was the industry magazine Cinefex, and the other was the incredible book, Industrial Light & Magic: Into the Digital Realm, by Mark Cotta Vaz and Patricia Rose Duignan. I read that ILM book from cover to cover multiple times. It really was one of the things that inspired me to become a visual effects journalist.
“So, getting the opportunity to go deeper into ILM’s history with this new book, but now with all the knowledge I’ve gained from time spent covering the industry, is just so rewarding—and fun,” Failes adds.
Readers can look forward to many untold stories in 50 Years of Innovation. Failes identifies the transition from photochemical optical compositing to digital methods as a particularly fascinating era in the company’s history. “In the book there are some great details shared by key ILMers who were there at the time about many different aspects of the move to digital in terms of other areas like film scanning and digital compositing,” the author says.
“Also, readers have never been able to explore so many exclusive behind-the-scenes photos from ILM’s history before,” Failes continues. “Having images from all different fields that highlight what is essentially the history of visual effects like modelmaking, optical effects, puppets, stop-motion, matte paintings, hand-animation, CG animation, virtual production, etc., all in one place, is something very special. I especially love some of the photographs that showcase the various VistaVision and motion control camera systems that ILM developed.”
At the heart of ILM’s story is the spirit of creativity and innovation which has been defined by the company’s people over the decades. “Even back to its beginnings, George Lucas started ILM after identifying that no existing facility could deliver what he imagined for Star Wars,” Failes concludes. “It feels to me that a unique innovative spirit was born during the making of that first film, and never left the company. I think that goes both for technological developments and also cultural ones. ILM helped establish modern workflows inside a visual effects facility, and I think, really importantly, further set the standard for how to collaborate with filmmakers and other creatives.”
On the Stage at Star Wars Celebration
As a special live recording of Lighter Darker: The ILM Podcast, the Star Wars Celebration panel included president and general manager of Lucasfilm business, Lynwen Brennan; head of ILM and general manager Janet Lewin; ILM executive creative director and senior visual effects supervisor John Knoll, ILM Sydney creative director and senior animation supervisor Rob Coleman; ILM lead CG modeler Masa Narita; and former ILM modelmaker Fon Davis. Lucasfilm’s senior vice president of creative innovation, digital production & technology Rob Bredow moderated.
Lynwen Brennan came to ILM 27 years ago as the company ramped up for production of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999). Like many, she’d been inspired to join ILM after seeing Jurassic Park (1993) a few years earlier. “The minute I walked through the door, I just fell in love,” Brennan told the audience. “I knew I’d found my people…. It’s an incredibly spirited place. We have a lot of fun. There’s something so special about a place that attracts these mavericks who are not scared of doing anything new…. Sometimes when you find people who are real risk-takers, they’re not necessarily great team players, right? But this…is a place where you’ve got people who love taking those risks but do it in such a collaborative way. That’s a thing that really got me.”
Janet Lewin started her ILM career some 30 years ago and has had a front row seat to the continuing changes and evolutions in the visual effects industry, much of it driven by ILM. “Back then, we were one studio in San Rafael, just a couple of hundred people, mostly working in the Model Shop and on the stage,” Lewin explained. “It was an exciting time right at that digital revolution. It was a big deal for us to juggle four shows at one time, and a big show was a couple hundred shots. And over my 30-year trajectory, the company has massively grown. We now have 3,500 employees, five global studios, and…we do visual effects work across every possible medium.”
For Masa Narita, appearing onstage at Celebration in his native Japan was a full circle moment. A lifelong visual effects fan, he’d watched Star Wars as a teenager during its original Japanese release in 1978. But as he reached adulthood, Narita first chose a career in finance.
“I used to be a businessman, worked for a Japanese brokerage firm for over 20 years,” Narita said. “But I always loved movies and visual effects because I grew up with special effects pioneers like Ultraman and Godzilla. So my first childhood dream was to wear a kaiju suit and to smash miniature towns. Actually, I still want to do that. [laughs] As I got older, I realized that I wanted to create something special like spaceships and characters [that] I saw in the movies. So at the age of 45, I decided to follow my passion. I quit my financial job and moved to Hollywood and started at a CG school. So that was my biggest gamble in my life, taken with my loving wife and two children. Fortunately, one year later…I got [my] very first CG job, and eventually I came to my dream company, ILM.”
Narita has since worked at the company for over a decade, contributing to productions like Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), The Mandalorian (2019-23), Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023), and Deadpool & Wolverine (2024).
“ILM puts a lot of focus on innovation that makes the impossible possible,” Narita added. “So I feel inspired every day walking in a place with so much creativity and skill. I love what I’m doing and I feel I really achieved my dream. People say life is short, but I don’t think so. We have plenty of time to start over. It’s never too late to chase something new.”
You can hear these stories and many more on Episode 17 of Lighter Darker: The ILM Podcast, coming soon to ILM.com.
By Lucas O. Seastrom
Watch the for the latest information about how you can purchase a copy of Industrial Light & Magic: 50 Years of Innovation, coming to bookstores everywhere on November 5, 2025.
In a world of innovation, skill, and ingenuity, no company has shone as bright or lasted as long in its field as Industrial Light & Magic. First incorporated in May 1975, ILM has led the way in the realm of visual effects for half a century. This iconic brand is as much a marque of quality as “Music by John Williams,” “Conceptual Design by Ralph McQuarrie,” or “Directed by George Lucas.”
To celebrate the 50th anniversary (a first for any visual effects company) Hoodzpah — the team behind the ILM logo redesigns in 2023 — were asked to adapt their work for a fresh new ILM 50th logo, which is featured in a line of new merchandise recently unveiled at Star Wars Celebration Japan and now available on Amazon.com.
ILM.com had the opportunity to chat with the team about this exciting new project and how they decided on the tone for the 50th anniversary logo.
“When you work with a storied company like ILM, there is a wealth of visual inspiration and history to reference,” explains the Hoodzpah team, “so the hard part is narrowing in on one vision when there are so many ways you could take it. We cast a wide net and tried many different directions before landing on this retro-modern celebration that feels quintessentially ILM.”
ILM has an incredible history, not only with its groundbreaking work on-screen but also its branding, going back to the classic Michael Pangrazio-designed magician logo painted by Drew Struzan and through a variety of changes to today. Given that lineage, Hoozpah decided on the mix between the 2023 redesign and the ’70s-style piping in the new logo, a blend that marries ILM’s ’70s vintage with the modernity of the current logo.
“With an anniversary logo, you’re trying to balance two things: celebrating the history and accomplishments and legacy, but also reminding folks that there’s always more horizon to conquer,” Hoodzpah says. “This is just the first 50 years, and there’s so much more to come. Since the execution of the primary logo icon feels modern and intrepid, we wanted to embrace a ’70s vibe from the early ILM days. It felt so right as a nod to where it all started.”
In the world of marketing, there are numerous rules and tricks to designing a great logo that catches the eye and sits in the memory. With ILM and all the history that goes with it, there remains a need to find the right focus for such an emblem.
“When a logo really resonates, it’s because it feels true to the brand,” notes the Hoodzpah team. “There are so many styles and means of execution, but the question should always be, ‘What feels right for this brand?’ People love to look at trademark logo books with hundreds of logo icons shown on a white page. It’s inspiring to see all the styles of execution. But we’re always left wondering, ‘What’s the context?’ It’s not about a logo looking good in isolation because one is rarely used that way. It’s about a logo feeling perfect in context. It was the same for this project. We tested the 50th anniversary logo in key applications and then used it in a suite of anniversary merch designs as well.”
Collaboration is key in everything ILM does, from the core team pulling together on new projects to working hand-in-glove with vendors and creatives behind the films, TV shows, and immersive entertainment projects ILM works with. Given that, it was important for Hoodzpah to spitball ideas with the ILM team themselves because clearly they revel in the spirit of collaboration in the same way that ILM does.
“There’s a reason we didn’t end up choosing fine arts as a career path, even though we really loved it,” Hoodzpah explains. “We like working within the limitations of a prompt and pushing and flexing boundaries to see how far we can take it. Design is a team sport. We all get together and try to push this idea up the field. When we work with ILM, we are keenly aware that everyone we work with is a creative powerhouse in their own right. We’d be fools not to tap into that ‘creative brain trust,’ as [director of PR and communications] Greg Grusby calls it, and gather as many ideas and as much feedback as we can to make this logo as true to the ILM legacy as possible. After all, the people of ILM make ILM what it is. It’s like, why would we want just one violin when we could work with a full symphony orchestra?”
The work on the logo continued with the creation of distinct products now available in the new merchandise line.
“Taking the logo and spinning it off into 50th anniversary merch was so much fun,” Hoodzpah says. “The ILM crew were so game to dream big and really have fun with it. Each piece leans into a different vein of the ILM personality. We have a retro ’70s poster of a magician conjuring new worlds, which is what ILMers do every day. We celebrated all the innovation and milestones ILM has accomplished over 50 years in an infographic T-shirt. We even made custom-scented candles to celebrate the different departments and locations over the years. Our favorite is the Model Shop candle which has notes of sawdust and cedar. There’s truly something for everyone.”
With their work on the ILM logo, Hoozpah has become a key part of ILM’s identity and history, which makes the team proud.
“Getting to work with a cultural icon like ILM once was incredible,” they conclude. “Being trusted by such talented creatives to work with them again was even better. It’s great to be able to pick up where we left off, having already become embedded with the team and learning so much about the brand in our last project. Working on the rebrand was one of those bucket list jobs you continually remind yourself, ‘Wow, we really got to be a part of that.’ It felt like getting the band back together for the sequel.”
New apparel and a tumbler celebrating the 50th anniversary of Industrial Light & Magic are now available on Amazon.com.
Light & Magic Season 2 is streaming now on Disney+
By Mark Newbold