Star Trek: TNG The Art of Juan Ortiz
Illustrator Juan Ortiz gives every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation its own poster. How successful has he been?
Author Juan Ortiz Publisher Titan Price £40 Web www.titanbooks.com
Back in 2013 Juan Ortiz imagined how every episode of Star Trek: The Original Series would look as a film poster. Now he’s back with a similar collection for Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The biggest difference this time round is that Juan is shying away from the retro aesthetic that ran through his first book. In the book’s intro he says that the show’s relative youth played a part in the decision: “A lot of what was good decades ago is still good now. So why just leave it in the past?”
It’s debatable whether the end results succeed. Lots of the posters have good ideas, but they’re executed with similar elements and repeated techniques. There’s the occasional eyecatching design that doesn’t rely on Photoshopped images of the cast, but they’re few and far between. We can’t help but think Juan could’ve made a better collection by focusing his talents on posters for selected stories.