Top Winners at the 2019 Lucasfilm Sidewalk Chalk Festival

Our San Francisco campus enjoyed one of its favorite traditions this month with the 8^th Annual Sidewalk Chalk Festival! Groups of four from across Lucasfilm, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), ILMxLAB and other tenants at Letterman Digital Arts Center create their own chalk art along our campus campus walkways. Employees and guests then vote for their favorites.

Here are this year’s winning teams:

The grand-prize winners from the Lucasfilm Video Production team created pop-art inspired image in the vein of artist Andy Warhol. “Pop art is a style none of us had worked in before,” explained producer Trish Brunner, “and it felt great to bring so much color to the sidewalk.” The vibrant color “played to the strengths of the medium” as Video Production & Asset Specialist Bruce Marchant noted.

“I’m shocked to win first place!” added Brunner. “There are so many amazing artists here at ILM and Lucasfilm, and I feel lucky to be able to be artistic for a day at work. This is one of my favorite company events.”

This year’s second-place team, “Chalk Full of Nuts,” has been among the consistent top-scorers in recent years. Hailing from Lucasfilm’s Business Affairs department, their design mixed Star Wars with Spider-Man, with “The Amazing Spider-Rey” swinging alongside a specially-colored BB-8.

“I always get nervous and anxious right before chalk art day, like I’ll forget how to use chalk,” said Contract Coordinator Sarah Garcia, “But encouragement and support from other teams and co-workers (and the occasional passerby), is a nice confidence boost.”

Many chalk teams begin preparations months in advance. On the day, they’ll often start early in the morning and work through the late afternoon to finish their squares in time for voting.

“It was very satisfying to have people stop and look while we were working to compliment our work and to remark how ‘it doesn’t look like chalk!’” commented Executive Assistant Ashley Smith, who used plates and cups to form the circles in their design.

The team simplified much of their initial concept on the day. “The negative space we created turned out well,” Garcia explained. “We had a whole background planned that involved a dripping paint effect which got cut for time, but I think it was for the best as it might have been too much happening in the square.”

“I was really proud of how BB-8 turned out,” added Garcia. “The shading turned out really well and the mash-up between Star Wars and Spider-Man came together with just enough of each represented.”

The second-place winners threw praise on the First Place recipients, team “Star Warhol.” “It was both adorable and artistic,” Smith commented. “I loved how they used so many vibrant colors to illustrate the dogs.”

So traditions go, Sarah Garcia’s parting words were “can’t wait to do it all again next year!”