“To make a scary face, just turn a happy face upside down.”
This meme is a good example of how the human brain unconsciously interprets complex symbols.
My suspicion is that the designers working for George Lucas did this consciously, not unconsciously. The best evidence is how the breathing apparatus of the storm trooper is really just the eyes and nose of a clown turned upside down.
Coincidences are rarely as detailed as that.
When you apply this “unconscious interpretation” to the languages of color, shape, phoneme, radiance, and proximity, abstract art becomes much easier to understand. (Or any art, for that matter.) – Roy