(From left) Brian Daley, James Luceno, and Chris Barbieri are pictured here in 1994.
Christopher Barbieri, also known as Chris Barbieri, was the artist who created the galaxy maps found in the New Jedi Order series books. Barbieri collaborated with both Dan Wallace and James Luceno to produce a set of five maps for the New Jedi Order books. These maps illustrated the Yuuzhan Vong's invasion of the galaxy over a five-year period. Barbieri's galactic maps were included at the beginning of each of the series' 19 novels.
Barbieri's involvement with the New Jedi Order began during the series' initial planning stages. Shelly Shapiro, an editor at Del Rey, and Sue Rostoni, an editor from Lucasfilm, decided to develop a more detailed galactic map as the series was being planned. James Luceno was selected to oversee the map's creation in December 1998. He collaborated with Dan Wallace, who had previously compiled a galactic guide, and used a planetary database created by Jason Fry. Together, they began crafting a new map that incorporated events from prior books and films, as well as integrating events and locations from the New Jedi Order to help shape the galaxy's layout.
After organizing the locations of various planets and trade routes, Luceno and Wallace felt that including the maps at the beginning of each novel would be beneficial for readers. Luceno used Vernor Vinge's science fiction novel A Fire Upon the Deep and Michael Shaara's Civil War novel The Killer Angels as examples during a story conference in March 1999, arguing that the maps in those books demonstrated their value to readers and that Del Rey should include galactic maps in the New Jedi Order series. The proposal was approved, and the maps were slated for publication that fall.
Barbieri then joined the project as the official artist, having been friends with Luceno and Brian Daley for many years. Luceno recalled, "Chris suggested several different artistic approaches. I remember a number of conversations about the limitations of 2-D art, the overall artistic style, the typeface to use, and different ways to depict the Unknown Regions, Wild Space, and the invasion path." Barbieri created the maps by hand using pen and ink in a classic fantasy style, which Wallace said successfully "evoked the romantic feel of an old pirate treasure map."
As the series progressed, additional maps were created to show the Yuuzhan Vong's invasion route. Wallace noted that the ominous black arrows used to depict the invasion "called to mind the black-and-white graphics of the German army's European encroachment as seen in the newsreels of the 1940s." Luceno and Wallace even considered creating campaign maps that would zoom in on specific areas to show the movements of the Yuuzhan Vong and New Republic fleets. While these detailed maps were never created in Barbieri's style, more detailed digital maps of fleet movements during the war were eventually released a decade later in The Essential Atlas, which was written by Wallace and Fry.