Since you're creating pieces for the far future, how do you come up with a good design, that's not too sci-fi cheesy, or too retro? Have you asked CR to send you into orbit for, you know... research? :)asked by Notable Joe

We joke about it sometimes... about getting sent into orbit. I actually want to do the "vomit comet" - the parabolic flight - that would be super cool.So, coming up with a cool design...

Can I just stop you for 2 seconds and just join me in this...[Looks into the camera]CR... we want to go to space. For research.

For research.

For research.

So, the design question - I think in a previous 10 for the Artists we talked about this a little bit. We tend to start off with real life examples of what it is that we are trying to achieve. So, if a spaceship is designed to accomplish a specific goal - whatever that might be, transporting fuel, dogfighting...

Space AAA.

Space AAA. A mining ship... whatever it is. We collect as many references for the actual function before we even start figuring out how we're going to design the aesthetics of the ship. So, we start off with function and then we go ahead and build the design around it. The rest of that comes from the style guides that we've already put in place for the manufacturers. So, if you have an Aegis ship which is supposed to be a mining vessel - well, the Reclaimer is actually not a mining vessel. But, as an example let's assume there was an Aegis ship that was a mining vessel. We would start off with mining equipment as references, and then we'd go ahead and apply the Aegis aesthetic on top of that. So we'd have smooth curves. We'd have like... space shuttling panelling, since that's part of the look for them, and we'd probably have the intakes on the top since that's like an Aegis thing. So, we have style guides which define some of the elements that these ships need to have and that's kind of how we arrive at the look. And we'll do variations of that and pick the coolest one.

Right. I think just to add some colour to that... the game takes place in the year 2900 [not entirely accurate... 2945] and one of the things we kick around a lot, more as a form of entertainment to new people who come on - myself included - the year 2900 is just a date that works for the story. It doesn't have practical implications on how design is going to work in the future. And a good example of that would be... there is some technology that is being worked on today and that technology far outshoots anything we're planning for Star Citizen 900 years later.So, the concept that we've been working with on the art side, specifically with the Persistent Universe and with some of the concept art, instead of people going... "Well, in 900 years everything is going to be a hologram and you may have a teleporter and your dog is going to be made out of nanobots and they'll be able to freeform and reform." Instead of all that stuff, we're saying... you can take a look at Rome as an example and 2000 years ago Rome was a dominant culture on the planet. They were hundreds of years ahead of almost every other culture and then they had the plaques and wars and they were sacked several times by the Gauls and basically it sent them back into the stone age. So, 900 years is really... what does it mean? You look at Star Wars is at 900 years... you look at Star Trek is at 300 years. So, it's our timeline and how we choose to tell the story.And to your point about the ships: I think that the ships take a nod from a lot of the cultural and creative influences that we grew up with. So, you're always going to see something that inspired us at some point in time slowly work its way into some of our designs because that's what we grew up with - that's what we really enjoy. More importantly, it's also what CR's tastes are - it's right in line with the stuff that we grew up with.I think the aesthetics kind of lends itself to something we've seen and re-envisioned, more than something that we've never seen because we can't imagine what stuff is going to look like 900 years from now.