Rick Sternbach

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Rick Sternbach
Born
Richard Michael Sternbach

(1951-07-06) July 6, 1951 (age 72)
Emmy Award
for Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Creative Technical Craft
1981

Richard Michael Sternbach (born July 6, 1951) is an illustrator who is best known for his space illustrations and his work on the Star Trek television series.

Early years

Born July 6, 1951,

Analog magazine.[2] Sternbach became a friend of science fiction writer Greg Bear, after his illustration of "A Martian Ricorso" featured in the cover of the February 1976 issue of Analog.[3]

During 1974 to 1976 he produced several original works of art for the Gengras Planetarium, part of the Children's Museum of West Hartford, in Connecticut. The works included airbrush paintings of the Earth as a primeval planet. It is unknown if these works are still in possession of CMWH, the original owner and client of Sternbach.[citation needed]

In 1976 he helped found the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists (ASFA), to give legal advice to science fiction and fantasy artists on contracts and copyrights.

In 1977, inspired by the story of artist Ralph McQuarrie's move from working in the aerospace industry to working for George Lucas on Star Wars, Sternbach moved to California to seek illustration work in the film and television industry.[2]

Movie work

After some work for

V'ger.[2]

From 1977 to 1980, Sternbach worked as an Assistant Art Director and Visual Effects Artist on

Emmy Award
for Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Creative Technical Craft.

At around the same time, Sternbach collaborated with Charley Kohlhase and

Galilean satellites.[5]

With four other artists, in 1981 Sternbach helped found the non-profit International Association of Astronomical Artists (IAAA), to arrange projects that promote and foster space art.

In 1983, he worked as an illustrator on The Last Starfighter, story-boarding visual effects sequences and developing texture maps for computer rendered space scenes.

After Star Trek, as Scenic Artist on Steven Soderbergh's Solaris, Sternbach contributed control panel designs to the Prometheus station set and the Athena 7 ship cockpit and also designed and rendered animated loops to play on background set displays.[6]

Star Trek: The Next Generation and beyond

In January 1987, Sternbach was hired along with Andrew Probert (the first two art department hires) to start design work for a new Star Trek series, Star Trek: The Next Generation.[2] Sternbach recounts that he heard the news about TNG on his car radio, and then quickly called Gene Roddenberry's office.[2][7]

Sternbach helped define the look of the 24th century that would be used throughout The Next Generation and the series that followed it,

phasers, tricorders
, PADDs and the communicator badge were all based on his designs.

During his time in the Star Trek art department at Paramount, Sternbach was also responsible for a number of starship designs including the Cardassian

Galor class starships, the Klingon Vor'cha and Negh'Var class starships and Federation starships such as the Prometheus class, the Dauntless, the Nova class and the USS Voyager itself.[2]

As fans of the original series of Star Trek and fans of the space program, Sternbach and

Deep Space Nine Technical Manual.[2]

When Voyager finished its seventh year in 2001, the producers decided they wanted a different look for the prequel series Star Trek: Enterprise that was set in the 22nd century, so Sternbach did not transfer over to the Enterprise art department, concluding his fourteen-year employment at Paramount Studios.

Sternbach returned to Star Trek in 2002, when he produced control panel designs and signage for the

Star Trek Nemesis.[6]

As of 2015, he is also a member of the board of advisers for the Hollywood Science Fiction Museum.

Space history

Sternbach is also a noted contributor to the

Apollo Command Module
.

Awards

Books

  • Goldstein, Stan; Goldstein, Fred; & Sternbach, Rick (1980). Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology. Pocket Books.
    ISBN 0-671-79089-7
    .
  • Okuda, Michael; & Sternbach, Rick (1991).
    ISBN 0-671-70427-3
    .
  • Sternbach, Rick (1996).
    ISBN 0-671-50093-7
    .
  • Drexler, Doug; & Sternbach, Rick; & Zimmerman, Herman (1998).
    ISBN 0-671-01563-X
    .

See also

References

  1. ^ "Sternbach, Rick". Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. September 12, 2022. Retrieved February 3, 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Tyler, Greg (June 2001). "Rick Sternbach Interview". TrekPlace.com. Retrieved 2007-03-04.
  3. ISBN 0-765-30161-X
    .
  4. ^ Ian M. Cullen (2003-03-06). "Visual Journeys Into The Final Frontier". Sci-Fi Pulse. Archived from the original on 2007-01-04. Retrieved 2007-03-04.
  5. ^ Blinn, James F. (1980). "The Jupiter and Saturn Fly-By Animations". Saturn Ring Plane Crossings of 1995-1996. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Archived from the original on 1999-10-09. Retrieved 2007-03-04.
  6. ^ a b Krutzler, Steve (2002-07-12). "Interview: Veteran Illustrator Rick Sternbach Talks Romulan Redesign for NEMESIS and TREK Tech!". TrekWeb. Archived from the original on 2006-12-17. Retrieved 2007-03-04.
  7. ^ Frederickson, Eric (October 1997). "Unsung Hero of the Federation". Star Trek Magazine. Titan.

External links

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