Rick Sternbach
Encyclopedia
Richard Michael Sternbach (born in 1951 in Bridgeport
, Connecticut
) is an illustrator who is best known for his space illustrations and his work on the Star Trek
television series.
with an art major, but after a couple of years switched to marine biology. After leaving University, he became an illustrator for books and magazines, with his first cover illustration published on the October 1973 issue of Analog magazine.
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.
and PBS
, in April 1978, Sternbach was offered an illustrator position on Star Trek: The Motion Picture
. As a member of the art department, working alongside Mike Minor
, Sternbach designed control panel layouts and signage for the starship sets. He also helped to create the animated asteroid wormhole sequence and helped source material from NASA
/JPL
that was used in the design of V'ger.
From 1977 to 1980, Sternbach worked as an Assistant Art Director and Visual Effects Artist on Carl Sagan
's Cosmos: A Personal Voyage
series, where he designed sets and storyboard sequences during pre-production and then worked on visual effects scenes during production. For his work on the episode The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean he won the 1980-1981 Emmy Award
for Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Creative Technical Craft.
At around the same time, Sternbach collaborated with Charley Kohlhase and Jim Blinn
at JPL on the Voyager 1
Jupiter
flyby movie, creating textures for the Galilean satellites.
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.
(the first two art department hires) to start design work for a new Star Trek series, Star Trek: The Next Generation
. Sternbach recounts that he heard the news about TNG on his car radio, and then quickly called Gene Roddenberry
's office.
Sternbach helped define the look of the 24th century that would be used throughout The Next Generation and the series that followed it, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
and Star Trek: Voyager
. Props such as the phasers
, tricorder
s, 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 starship
s and Federation starships such as the Prometheus class, the Dauntless, the Nova class and the USS Voyager
itself.
As fans of the original series of Star Trek and fans of the space program, Sternbach and Michael Okuda
found roles as Technical Advisors on the series, advising the writers on technical matters and developing a number of concepts to add realism to the Star Trek universe, such as the Structural Integrity Field and the Inertial Damper. To this end, they produced a technical manual for each series, that was made available along with the series bible to any prospective script-writers to familiarize them with the concepts behind the series' technology. In 1991, Pocket Books published an updated, illustrated version of the Next Generation Technical Manual
and then seven years later, the Deep Space Nine Technical Manual.
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 Enterprise-E
and Romulan starships in Star Trek Nemesis.
newsgroup sci.space.history, and is an accepted expert on the various paint schemes used on the Saturn V
booster. His company, Space Model Systems, is a leading provider of accurate decals for model kits of the Saturn V, as well as the Apollo Command Module.
Bridgeport, Connecticut
Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Located in Fairfield County, the city had an estimated population of 144,229 at the 2010 United States Census and is the core of the Greater Bridgeport area...
, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
) is an illustrator who is best known for his space illustrations and his work on the Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
television series.
Early years
In 1969 Sternbach enrolled at the University of ConnecticutUniversity of Connecticut
The admission rate to the University of Connecticut is about 50% and has been steadily decreasing, with about 28,000 prospective students applying for admission to the freshman class in recent years. Approximately 40,000 prospective students tour the main campus in Storrs annually...
with an art major, but after a couple of years switched to marine biology. After leaving University, he became an illustrator for books and magazines, with his first cover illustration published on the October 1973 issue of Analog magazine.
In 1976 he helped found the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists
Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists
The Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists, ASFA, is a non-profit, educational association, whose membership is made up of amateur and professional artists, art directors, art show managers, publishers and collectors involved in the visual arts of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mythology and...
(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
Ralph McQuarrie
Ralph McQuarrie is a conceptual designer and illustrator who designed Star Wars , the original Battlestar Galactica , E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Cocoon, for which he won an Academy Award....
's move from working in the aerospace industry to working for George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
on Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
, Sternbach moved to California to seek illustration work in the film and television industry.
Movie work
After some work for DisneyThe Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
and PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
, in April 1978, Sternbach was offered an illustrator position on Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a 1979 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. It is the first film based on the Star Trek television series. The film is set in the twenty-third century, when a mysterious and immensely powerful alien cloud called V'Ger approaches the Earth,...
. As a member of the art department, working alongside Mike Minor
Michael Minor
Michael Minor was an illustrator and art director on Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan....
, Sternbach designed control panel layouts and signage for the starship sets. He also helped to create the animated asteroid wormhole sequence and helped source material from NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
/JPL
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center located in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The facility is headquartered in the city of Pasadena on the border of La Cañada Flintridge and Pasadena...
that was used in the design of V'ger.
From 1977 to 1980, Sternbach worked as an Assistant Art Director and Visual Effects Artist on Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan
Carl Edward Sagan was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularizer and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences. He published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books...
's Cosmos: A Personal Voyage
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage is a thirteen-part television series written by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan, and Steven Soter, with Sagan as presenter. It was executive-produced by Adrian Malone, produced by David Kennard, Geoffrey Haines-Stiles and Gregory Andorfer, and directed by the producers, David...
series, where he designed sets and storyboard sequences during pre-production and then worked on visual effects scenes during production. For his work on the episode The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean he won the 1980-1981 Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
for Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Creative Technical Craft.
At around the same time, Sternbach collaborated with Charley Kohlhase and Jim Blinn
Jim Blinn
James F. Blinn is a computer scientist who first became widely known for his work as a computer graphics expert at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory , particularly his work on the pre-encounter animations for the Voyager project, his work on the Carl Sagan Cosmos documentary series and the research...
at JPL on the Voyager 1
Voyager 1
The Voyager 1 spacecraft is a 722-kilogram space probe launched by NASA in 1977, to study the outer Solar System and eventually interstellar space. Operating for as of today , the spacecraft receives routine commands and transmits data back to the Deep Space Network. At a distance of as of...
Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
flyby movie, creating textures for the Galilean satellites.
With four other artists, in 1981 Sternbach helped found the non-profit International Association of Astronomical Artists
International Association of Astronomical Artists
The International Association of Astronomical Artists , is a non-profit organization whose members implement and participate in astronomical and space art projects, promote education about space art and foster international cooperation in artistic work inspired by the exploration of the...
(IAAA), to arrange projects that promote and foster space art.
In 1983, he worked as an illustrator on The Last Starfighter
The Last Starfighter
The Last Starfighter is a 1984 science fiction adventure film directed by Nick Castle. The film tells the story of Alex Rogan , an average teenage boy recruited by an alien defense force to fight in an interstellar war. It also featured Dan O'Herlihy, Catherine Mary Stewart, Robert Preston, Norman...
, story-boarding visual effects sequences and developing texture maps for computer rendered space scenes.
After Star Trek, as Scenic Artist on Steven Soderbergh
Steven Soderbergh
Steven Andrew Soderbergh is an American film producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, and an Academy Award-winning film director. He is best known for directing commercial Hollywood films like Erin Brockovich, Traffic, and the remake of Ocean's Eleven, but he has also directed smaller less...
's Solaris
Solaris (2002 film)
Solaris is a 2002 science fiction film and psychological drama directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring George Clooney and Natascha McElhone...
, 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.
Star Trek: The Next Generation and Beyond
In January 1987, Sternbach was hired along with Andrew ProbertAndrew Probert
Andrew Probert is an artist who is best known for designing the USS Enterprise for Star Trek: The Motion Picture and the Enterprise-D for Star Trek: The Next Generation....
(the first two art department hires) to start design work for a new Star Trek series, Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...
. Sternbach recounts that he heard the news about TNG on his car radio, and then quickly called Gene Roddenberry
Gene Roddenberry
Eugene Wesley "Gene" Roddenberry was an American television screenwriter, producer and futurist, best known for creating the American science fiction series Star Trek. Born in El Paso, Texas, Roddenberry grew up in Los Angeles, California where his father worked as a police officer...
's office.
Sternbach helped define the look of the 24th century that would be used throughout The Next Generation and the series that followed it, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe...
and Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Voyager is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe. Set in the 24th century from the year 2371 through 2378, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet vessel USS Voyager, which becomes stranded in the Delta Quadrant 70,000 light-years from Earth while...
. Props such as the phasers
Weapons of Star Trek
The Star Trek fictional universe contains a very large number of weapons. As with most science fiction franchises, the series focuses primarily on energy weapons...
, tricorder
Tricorder
In the fictional Star Trek universe, a tricorder is a multifunction handheld device used for sensor scanning, data analysis, and recording data.Three primary variants of the tricorder are issued in Star Trek's Starfleet...
s, 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
Cardassian starships
This is a list of starship classes in use by the Cardassian Union in the Star Trek fictional universe.- Galor class :The Galor class is a group of starships used by the Cardassian Union. Galor class destroyers have a low profile, are long and narrow and are usually painted in a burnt orange color...
, the Klingon Vor'cha
Klingon starships
In the Star Trek franchise, the Klingon Empire makes use of several classes of starships. As the Klingons are portrayed as a warrior culture, driven by the pursuit of honor and glory, the Empire is shown to use warships almost exclusively. This contrasts with the exploration and research vessels...
and Negh'Var class starship
Klingon starships
In the Star Trek franchise, the Klingon Empire makes use of several classes of starships. As the Klingons are portrayed as a warrior culture, driven by the pursuit of honor and glory, the Empire is shown to use warships almost exclusively. This contrasts with the exploration and research vessels...
s and Federation starships such as the Prometheus class, the Dauntless, the Nova class and the USS Voyager
USS Voyager (Star Trek)
The fictional Intrepid-class starship USS Voyager is the primary setting of the science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager. It is commanded by Captain Kathryn Janeway....
itself.
As fans of the original series of Star Trek and fans of the space program, Sternbach and Michael Okuda
Michael Okuda
- Work in Star Trek :In the mid-1980s, he designed the look of animated computer displays for the Enterprise-A bridge in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. This led to a staff position on Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987 as a scenic artist, adding detail to set designs and props...
found roles as Technical Advisors on the series, advising the writers on technical matters and developing a number of concepts to add realism to the Star Trek universe, such as the Structural Integrity Field and the Inertial Damper. To this end, they produced a technical manual for each series, that was made available along with the series bible to any prospective script-writers to familiarize them with the concepts behind the series' technology. In 1991, Pocket Books published an updated, illustrated version of the Next Generation Technical Manual
Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual
Star Trek: The Next Generation: Technical Manual is a paperback reference guide detailing the inner and other workings of the fictional Federation starship Enterprise-D and other aspects of technology that appeared in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.Authored by Rick Sternbach...
and then seven years later, the Deep Space Nine Technical Manual.
When Voyager finished its seventh year in 2001, the producers decided they wanted a different look for the prequel series Star Trek: Enterprise
Star Trek: Enterprise
Star Trek: Enterprise is a science fiction television series. It follows the adventures of humanity's first warp 5 starship, the Enterprise, ten years before the United Federation of Planets shown in previous Star Trek series was formed.Enterprise premiered on September 26, 2001...
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
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
.
Sternbach returned to Star Trek in 2002, when he produced control panel designs and signage for the Enterprise-E
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E)
The USS Enterprise is a Sovereign-class starship in the Star Trek franchise. It serves as the primary setting of the films Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection, and Star Trek Nemesis...
and Romulan starships in Star Trek Nemesis.
Space history
Sternbach is also a noted contributor to the usenetUsenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
newsgroup sci.space.history, and is an accepted expert on the various paint schemes used on the Saturn V
Saturn V
The Saturn V was an American human-rated expendable rocket used by NASA's Apollo and Skylab programs from 1967 until 1973. A multistage liquid-fueled launch vehicle, NASA launched 13 Saturn Vs from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida with no loss of crew or payload...
booster. His company, Space Model Systems, is a leading provider of accurate decals for model kits of the Saturn V, as well as the Apollo Command Module.
Awards
- 1977 Hugo AwardHugo AwardThe Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
for Best Professional ArtistHugo Award for Best Professional ArtistThe Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially... - 1978 Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist
- 1981 Emmy AwardEmmy AwardAn Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
for Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Creative Technical Craft