Matthew Ferguson

Matthew Ferguson is an artist notable for creating anniversary posters for Star Wars movies, as well as cover illustrations for Star Wars books. His creations include the 40-year anniversary posters released in 2020 for Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back. Ferguson also designed the cover art for Skywalker: A Family at War, a 2021 canon biography focusing on the Skywalker family. When Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi was shown again in theaters for a limited time to celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2023, Ferguson made the poster that commemorated the event. In 2024, Ferguson once again developed a commemorative poster, this time for the 25th anniversary of Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace. For the 20th anniversary of Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith in 2025, Ferguson was the designer of the commemorative posters.

According to Ferguson himself, a key repeating element in his anniversary posters is the increasing size of Anakin Skywalker over time. In the poster he created for The Phantom Menace, Anakin is depicted as a tiny silhouette, but in Return of the Jedi, Darth Vader is massive. Anakin's size is meant to represent his origins as a seemingly unimportant boy discovered by Qui-Gon Jinn and his ultimate fate as the towering Darth Vader. The Phantom Menace anniversary poster also purposefully mirrored the earth-toned color palette of the film, using reds and golds, and aimed to capture the excitement that surrounded the movie's release.