Film & TV / Visual art
Doug Chiang
born 1962 · film designer, concept artist
Dearborn-raised College for Creative Studies alumnus who became Lucasfilm's executive creative director and chief designer of the Star Wars prequels.
- Born
Taipei, Taiwan
age 64- Detroit years
- 1967–1982
- Field
- Film & TV, Visual art
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Chiang was born in Taipei, and his family moved to Dearborn when he was five, after his father came to Michigan for college. His parents pushed the children to speak English and fit in, though home stayed culturally Chinese. Inspired by the original Star Wars and its art book, he studied industrial design at Detroit's College for Creative Studies, the school that has trained generations of car designers, until 1982, then film at UCLA. At Industrial Light & Magic he worked on Terminator 2 and shared the Academy Award for visual effects for Death Becomes Her. In 1995 George Lucas hired him to lead the Lucasfilm art department as design director of The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. He later designed The Polar Express, was production designer of Rogue One, and is now Lucasfilm's vice president and executive creative director.
Highlights
- Grew up in Dearborn from age five
- Studied industrial design at Detroit's College for Creative Studies until 1982
- Design director of Star Wars: Episode I and Episode II
- Production designer of Rogue One (2016)
- Vice president and executive creative director of Lucasfilm
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · 1980–1982
College for Creative Studies
Detroit art and design college in Midtown, renowned for transportation design, where Chiang studied industrial design.