Galaxies 101 - Volume 04
(I was almost an NFT)
Volume 04 closes out the Galaxies 101 series, and it comes with a confession: this collection almost became an NFT drop. Back when the market was still buzzing, these seven pieces were built with that world in mind — the oval-framed portrait style, the glowing towers, the sense of a skyline that belongs to no planet in particular. Then the NFT bubble did what bubbles do, and Legacy Star Designs quietly pivoted back to what it does best: printable, wearable, huggable art instead of a blockchain token. No regrets. The city stayed. The ships stayed. The cats definitely stayed.
What's left is a skyline caught somewhere between retro-futurism and a swap meet on Mars — saucer-topped towers, lightbulb spires on wire stems, a moody portrait ship in an oval frame, and a lone cratered moon keeping watch over all of it. It's a fitting sendoff for the series: playful, a little self-aware, and still very much wall-art and T-shirt material. Grab any of these seven as prints, stickers, tees, or phone cases — the oval "portrait" piece in particular makes a striking phone case now that it never got its chance as a profile picture on the chain.
01 — Seraphim Eclipse
This is the piece that almost started it all — a winged, insectoid ship rendered like a formal portrait, hovering dead-center inside a soft oval frame. The wings sweep out in magenta and violet, tipped with pale globes that read like eyes or headlights depending on how long you stare at it, while a hazy, striped cityscape blurs into the background like it's being viewed through frosted glass. It's the closest thing in the volume to profile-pic energy, which is exactly why it was the flagship candidate for the NFT project that never launched.
That oval composition happens to translate beautifully to a phone case — the frame does half the design work for you. It also holds up well as a smaller print or sticker, where the contained shape keeps it from getting lost the way busier, edge-to-edge pieces sometimes do.
02 — NFT Cat City
A trio of black cats stand sentry beneath a cluster of saucer-topped towers, their long striped tails curling like question marks across the bottom of the frame. The towers themselves glow soft blue and cream against a pink, radiating sky, giving the whole piece the feel of a city built specifically so cats could rule it uncontested. It's the most on-the-nose "almost an NFT" image in the set — cat-themed collectibles were everywhere back then, and this one was drawn with that trend directly in mind.
The pink-and-black palette and clear cat silhouettes make this one an easy pull for T-shirts and stickers, especially for anyone who wants their love of cats to read from across the room. It also scales down cleanly, so it works just as well as a small accent print as it does a full wall piece.
03 — Pink Lightscape
Rows of lightbulb-topped towers rise on slender wire stems against a pale pink, sunburst-striped sky, with one larger bulb arched over like a halo above the rest. There's a stillness to this one that the other Space Needle pieces don't quite have — no cats, no ships, just the quiet geometry of light fixtures standing at attention. It reads almost like a diagram for a city that hasn't been built yet.
The soft, monochrome-pink palette makes this a natural fit for phone art and wall prints in a room that leans toward blush and rose-gold tones. It's also a strong sticker candidate for anyone who wants something calm and pattern-like rather than a bold focal image.
04 — Space Needles: Aqua & Pink
This one turns the volume, up the density: dozens of towers, orbs, and bulb-topped spires crowd together in cool greens and aquas, with a few pink saucer shapes breaking up the palette like punctuation marks. Small glowing lights and atomic-style accents are tucked throughout, rewarding a slower look. Of the whole series, this is the piece that feels most like a fully realized skyline rather than a study of one shape.
That density makes it a great fit for larger wall art and posters, where there's enough room for the eye to travel. It also holds its detail well on T-shirts, giving it a busier, more maximalist look than the simpler pieces in the set.
05 — Space Needles: Vintage Postcard
Here the same tower motif gets a sepia-and-plum wash and an antique postmark texture layered over the sky, like a travel postcard mailed from a city that was never quite real. The saucer towers, needle spires, and floating orbs stack up in a tighter cluster than in the aqua version, giving it a denser, more nostalgic silhouette. It's the most "vintage sci-fi" of the seven images.
The warm, muted tones make this one especially suited to wall art in a home-office or reading-nook setting, and it also translates nicely to smaller formats like stickers or postcards themselves, given the print already leans that direction stylistically.
06 — Rock
The odd one out in the volume, and deliberately so — a single cratered moon or asteroid, rendered in fine linework and soft color washes, floating in a starry indigo sky. Where the rest of the collection is all glowing towers and busy skylines, this one is quiet and singular, a reminder that even in a city built from lightbulbs and saucers, there's still a sky above it with something older watching.Inspired by Douglas Adams books.
Its simplicity makes it one of the most flexible pieces for phone cases and small prints, where a single strong subject reads better than a crowded scene. It also works well as a T-shirt design for anyone who wants something understated rather than maximalist.
07 — More Space Needles
The volume's final skyline, and its most jewel-toned — teal, plum, and silver towers rise in a dense cluster, several capped with faceted, gem-like ornaments instead of plain saucers or bulbs. A scattering of lightbulb spires and orb-topped columns fills in the gaps, closing out the series on its most decorative note. It reads like the city's skyline at its most dressed-up.
The richer color palette here suits wall art and posters meant to anchor a room, while the ornamental detail also makes it a strong candidate for larger stickers or laptop skins where the jewel-toned towers can really shine.