For me, Star Wars went hand-in-hand with customizing my computer. Twenty years ago—when I was just seventeen—my Windows computer was pretending to be a Mac. I had a Dock, jumbo-sized desktop icons, and visual styles made by Javier Ocasio (some of which were ported from Max Rudberg’s OS X themes). I really wanted a Mac, I just didn’t have one yet.
I was as into Star Wars then as I am now. And 20 years ago, it was Revenge of the Sith season. I had designed a Mac OS X GUIKIT for ShapeShifter called Kamino with Chris McElligott. Javier Ocasio was making the port for Windows. I made icons of Clone Troopers. This is what we used to do for fun.
I guess I still do.
In 2005, this is what my Windows desktop looked like. (Originally posted on DeviantArt.)

Prior to the release of Revenge of the Sith, I designed this wallpaper to go with the black-and-white theme and hard drive icons I was making. You know, as a whole set.
A couple years later in 2007, I updated the wallpaper with a significantly heavier texture. It was super grungy, which I thought made it look “darker” (edgier). More real. Remember that I was just 19 years old, okay?

In April of 2007, I revisited the Empire wallpaper again, this time with the intention to make a Rebel Alliance version too. In order to differentiate, I made a dual-stripe in a dark blue.


In 2020, I did it again on a sandier color.



To break for a moment, I want to say that I’m very grateful that my free wallpapers and icons have reached so many people, but I resent a little that much of their proliferation is done without my consent.
Over the years, these wallpapers have been reposted by people who neither made them nor had permission to post them. They’ve been altered, defaced, compressed, and even turned into memes. It’s not that hard to find just how pervasive this has been. You could reverse image search any of them to see for yourself.
It’s not just these. Almost every pop culture wallpaper I’ve drawn ends up this same way. Way before anyone ever became concerned with AI sucking up all the images on the web, real human beings didn’t seem to hesitate taking something that didn’t belong to them and reposting it, sometimes claiming to have made it themselves. (Consider for a moment that even if I don’t consent to AI training from my own websites, I can’t stop it from sucking up images I made that people reposted on other websites.)
As a result of this culture of believing everything you find on Google Images is yours to take and use however you wish, some truly wild things have happened. An older version of my Dark Knight wallpaper was in an SNL sketch. A Star Wars logo I made was on Rotten Tomatoes. All too often, my Magic Passport icons end up on t-shirts that people sell on Etsy. I know because I see guests wearing them at Disneyland.
But when it comes to these wallpapers—if you can believe it—they were used on the side of a penny press machine at Disneyland. No one told me. I noticed it myself. I noticed the distinct scuffs from my wallpaper on that machine.
I may have redrawn them, but I know these symbols aren’t mine. However, I think the composition and treatment are. And seeing that blue, double-stripe motif, with the texture from my wallpaper being used in the park like that made me realize that someone else has the job I want, except they’re not making the art like I would be.
There are people out there who are taking credit for what I’ve made—in an official capacity—and getting paid for it. To my greater surprise, it was later interpreted by someone (who?) to be the flag for the Rebel Alliance. Now, people sell flags (really!) with this composition that I made over ten years ago. They’re all over Amazon. Flags, patches, stickers. It’s on the Wikipedia page for the Rebel Alliance. I don’t know why it’s there. I don’t think it’s ever been flown in a Star Wars movie or TV show.
Nevertheless, that flag ended up in a video game, The Sims: Journey to Batuu. As home decor.
I don’t want to spend my time trying to do anything about all this. But it sure seems to me that some companies could just pay me to do this work instead of paying someone else who merely steals it from me.

All that said, making Star Wars stuff is still my hobby, despite knowing what others will do with it.
I love Star Wars. I love drawing compositions like this. Some people have cosplay. I have this. Some people make fan films. I have this. Some people build droids. I have this.
So in celebration (?) of this wallpaper I started making 20 years ago, I took some time to redraw twelve different faction symbols from Star Wars, ranging from the Old Republic to the Resistance. I drew these how I think they should be, not necessarily how they are. Consider this my Special Edition release.

I sincerely hope you enjoy them. They’re all in a 6K resolution with rich P3 color, in a square aspect ratio so they’re great for your computer, phone, or tablet. If you do enjoy them, I would appreciate your donation. I spent 3 days making these. (A lot longer if you count the time I spent over the last 20 years!)
Long live Star Wars.

Sith Empire
Old Republic
Jedi Order
Galactic Republic
Confederacy of Independent Systems
Galactic Empire
Imperial Security Bureau
Rebel Alliance
New Republic
First Order
Sith Eternal
Resistance

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