John Berkey John Conrad Berkey ( August 13 , 1932 — April 29 , 2008 ) was an artist who made his name illustrating cover art for science fiction books . He illustrated at least eleven pieces of " Star Wars " art , including cover art for the and " " video game . Early life . Berkey was born in in 1932 . Until the age of six , Berkey and his family lived in , , whereupon they moved to St . Joseph , and later , . In 1950 , after graduating from , Berkey attended the . Career . John Berkey worked for three studios over a six - year period , including Artists Inc . , before being hired by for eight years . Since then , he continued to illustrate for various projects , such as cover art for a cover . In the 1960s , Berkey was commissioned by NASA to produce artworks depicting the Apollo space program and other missions , as part of the NASA Art Program . He continued to paint space exploration subjects , including Skylab and the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster . Among other commissions , Berkey regularly produced artwork for magazines such as " Popular Mechanics " , " Omni " , " Science Fiction Age " , " Discover " , " National Geographic " , " TV Guide " and " The Plain Truth " . His paintings were used as cover art for a large number of science fiction books , including Ballantine Books ' 1972 reprint of the " STAR Science Fiction " series , and works by Isaac Asimov , Ben Bova , Philip K . Dick , Robert Heinlein , Glen Cook and many more . For the 1972 edition of Asimov ' s novel , " The Caves of Steel " , Berkey ' s cover art featured a self - portrait with his arm showing exposed cybernetic mechanics . Berkey began to work in film , designing the artwork for the theatrical release posters for several blockbuster movies including " The Towering Inferno " ( 1974 ) , the 1976 remake of " King Kong " , " Orca the Killer Whale " ( 1977 ) , " Meteor " ( 1979 ) , " Black Stallion " ( 1979 ) , " Superman III " ( 1983 ) , and " Dune " ( European release , 1984 ) . He declined an invitation from Stanley Kubrick to work on the 1968 film " 2001 : A Space Odyssey " . " Star Wars " . In 1975 , the young filmmaker George Lucas purchased several pieces of Berkey ' s science fiction artwork . The paintings served as visual reference material while Lucas was trying to pitch his ideas to film studios for a new space fantasy film , " The Star Wars " . Among the paintings was one of a rocket - plane diving down through space towards a gigantic mechanical planet ( the image had been used as cover art for the 1972 reprint of the short story anthology " Star Science Fiction Stories No . 4 " ) . It is thought that this painting in particular had a strong influence on the production design of " Star Wars " and served to inspire the film ' s leading concept artist , Ralph McQuarrie , and the model maker Colin Cantwell , whose early designs for the Death Star battle station bore a strong similarity to Berkey ' s painting . A number of other " Star Wars " spacecraft , such as Star Destroyer s , may also have been influenced by Berkey ' s designs of naval - style ships with smooth hulls and conning towers bristling with antennae . Berkey was commissioned by Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox in 1976 to provide some of the first poster art for " Star Wars " . Among this work was a painting which depicted the character Luke Skywalker brandishing a lightsaber , flanked by the robots C - 3PO and R2 - D2 , and a number of Imperial stormtrooper s ; in the background is a large figure of Darth Vader looming behind them , a similar composition to the theatrical poster artwork for " Star Wars " by Tom Jung and the Brothers Hildebrandt . When the novelization of the film was published , " " , the United Kingdom edition published by Sphere Books featured cover art by Berkey ( Ballantine Books ' US edition originally featured a cover by Ralph McQuarrie ) . Another of Berkey ' s original paintings for " Star Wars " was a poster depicting the final battle over the Death Star from the final scenes of the film . Berkey reportedly never saw " Star Wars " , and this is evidenced in the fact that he illustrated multiple Millennium Falcon spaceships ( in the film there is only one ) . Berkey said of the poster in an interview , " It was the first time that I was asked to paint fictional space crafts not of my own design " . The painting was issued as a souvenir poster that was included in the first release of the by 20th Century Records . Berkey ' s involvement in " Star Wars " was brought to an end after a conflict of interest with his work for rival film studio Universal on the 1978 TV series " Battlestar Galactica " . Berkey revisted the " Star Wars " universe in 1983 when he was commissioned to provide the cover artwork for the Atari video game , " " . Honors and Awards . In 1999 , John Berkey received the Spectrum Award for Grand Master . John Berkey was inducted into the in 2004 .