Syd Mead wasn’t planning on becoming a visual futurist. The job description didn’t even exist until he invented it. Syd enjoyed working with director Neill Blomkamp in bringing this all new futuristic movie to the screen.

Syd Mead Website 2023 Project History | Official Syd Mead Website 2023

Syd Mead is one of the most accomplished and widely respected artists and industrial designers alive today. His career boasts an incredible array of projects from designing cars to drafting architectural renderings, but he is most famous for his work as a concept artist on some of the most visually arresting films in the history of cinema. Since working on Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1978 as a production illustrator Syd Mead has always aimed to render ?reality ahead of schedule,? creating evocative designs that marry believable content with a neofuturistic form. It is this ability to predict technological potential that has helped Mead create such a distinctive and influential aesthetic. From his work with Ridley Scott on Blade Runner, to his striking designs for the light cycles in Tron, to his imposing concept art for the U.S.S. Sulaco in James Cameron?s Aliens, Syd Mead has played a pivotal role in shaping cinema?s vision of the future. The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual . Design for gaming level and (Shibuya area) laser shooting arena attraction. Six story attraction opens as Dr. Jeekhan’s. Syd Mead passed away on Monday 30th December 2019, and his loss has been felt deeply around the world. His body of work was ahead of its time both in content and vision, and we want to celebrate the life of Syd Mead, Visual Futurist.

Pedersen, Erik (December 30, 2019). "Syd Mead Dies: Visionary Futurist Who Worked On 'Blade Runner' & 'Tron' Was 86". Deadline . Retrieved December 31, 2019. Concept design and presentation illustration: KANGHWA, Korea; Club “21,” Seoul, Korea; Commercial mall area, Seoul, Korea; “Virtual” theme project What makes Syd’s vision so compelling,” says the book’s author, architect/designer and professor Craig Hodgetts, “is not only the means he employs to convey it, but the acute physical and environmental awareness: the endless curiosity about how the world works; the precise level of detail and the practical engineering knowledge that he brings to even the most fantastic devices.” Beginning with the look of the both geometric and organic mechanical villain V’ger from the year 2273 in 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture to a mid-21st century casino and hotel in this year’s Blade Runner 2049, Mead’s sketches, drawings, illustrations, and paintings have inspired and influenced the art design of dozens of movie productions. Syd was invited to be not only the guest speaker and presenter but also contributed the vehicle design and consultation for the showcase corporate video.

Syd Mead Website 2023 Biography 1933-2019 | Official Syd Mead Website 2023

From organic starships and glistening space colonies, to dystopian cities and grimy spacecraft, if you want to know what any possible future looks like, Syd Mead is the man to call. As well as Blade Runner, his designs have enabled directors to realise future worlds for movies including Star Trek, Aliens, Tron and Elysium. Most recently audiences saw Mead’s designs realized on the big screen throughout 2013’s dystopian sci-fi tale Elysium, as Mead created the interiors and exteriors of the film’s orbiting paradise. He also designed the prosthetic replica head carrying case in 2006’s Mission: Impossible III. Syd’s earliest creative memory wasn’t set in the future, but a little closer to his surroundings in South Dakota: “It was a stencil illustration of a guy skiing down a slope when I was in the second grade. I used brown paper, cut out the stencil, and then sprayed it with a white paint supplied by the arts class teacher.” Over several decades Syd developed a great understanding of the creative business: “First, have a grasp of context, detail, and the rationale which makes design and image-making worthwhile to yourself and commercially, to someone else. Try not to become a ‘linear’ professional. Learn a variety of techniques, of thinking methodology and most of all, don’t become complacent. Honestly, I get scared shitless every time I start a new, big job. I read, I gather information and push the client to tell me what they want. (Sometimes they really don’t know, and those jobs are usually nightmares!) Remember details, notice how people move, how sunlight cascades over moving objects, why foliage looks the way it does (it’s nature’s own fractal magic) and how come velvet has about the same range of value as metallic surfaces but one is soft and the other is brittle. Finally, don’t assume that technique alone will save your ass. It still is the idea that wins—every time. Remember that elaborate technique and dumb story produces a demo reel, not a narrative.” Blade Runner 2049 But also this wasn't about the words (although I do think Mead deserved more in terms of descriptions and writing). This was about the incredible genre defining art of Syd Mead, art which has, unbeknownst to me, followed me throughout my childhood and furnished my imagination for a very long time. His art is timeless, gathering it into a single place made me realise it is a reminiscence of the past, and a prediction of the future. There will always be something in his work which is years old, that can connect you to it, and then something which defies our current technology and capability, making us wish to see a glimpse of what the future of the human race may hold.This book is an amazing catalogue of work that Syd Mead has done - I just wish it went in to more depth but then again is that not the sign of a great book that what ever they give you are left wanting more. Mead's one-man shows began in 1973 with an exhibit at documenta 6 in Kassel, West Germany. His work was later exhibited in Japan, Italy, California and Spain. [11] In 1983, Mead was invited by Chrysler Corporation to be a guest speaker to its design staff. He created a series of slides to provide visuals to the lecture, and the resulting presentation was a success. It was later expanded and enhanced with computer-generated images specifically created at the requests of several clients, including Disney, Carnegie Mellon University, Purdue University, Pratt Institute and the Society of Illustrators. In March 2010, Mead completed a four-city tour of Australia. [7] Moon, Mariella (December 30, 2019). "Syd Mead, concept artist behind 'Blade Runner' and 'Tron,' dies at 86". EnGadget . Retrieved December 31, 2019. In 1993, a digital gallery consisting of 50 examples of his art with interface screens designed by him became one of the first CD-ROMs released in Japan. In 2004, Mead co-operated with Gnomon School of Visual Effects to produce a four-volume "how-to" DVD series titled Techniques of Syd Mead. [7] Syd Mead’s art features in an exhibition on design from California at London’s Design Museum until October 2017

The man who designs future worlds - BBC Future

In 1959, Mead was recruited to Ford Motor Company's Advanced Styling Studio by Elwood Engel. From 1960 to 1961, Mead worked in Ford Motor Company Styling in Detroit, Michigan. Mead left Ford after two years to illustrate books and catalogues for companies including United States Steel, Celanese, Allis-Chalmers and Atlas Cement. In 1970, he launched Syd Mead, Inc. in Detroit with clients including Philips Electronics. [6] Throughout the years he has reached a legendary status among all concept and industrial designers: his modern yet grounded-in-reality style; the simple, elegant lines and harmonious proportions of his creations; the colorful, detailed environments surrounding each design; the refined gouache painting technique – realistic yet with a delightful artistic touch; all these elements create a unique combination, the ultimate concept designer’s dream. At the beginning of the 1970s, Syd started his own company, Syd Mead Inc. which started a twelve-year account with Philips C.I.D.C., and also worked with Raymond Loewy in Paris and New York in addition to other contract work. Syd’s first standalone book was published in partnership with Roger and Martyn Dean in 1976 titled ‘Sentinel’. In 1975 Syd headed to California while continuing his work for the automotive industry and other clients. The next chapter of his career in film began in 1979. Production of an aerial illustration featuring proposed ‘sport city’ completed with the assistance of Eric van der PalenThey were doing the credits for Blade Runner and they rang and asked what I’d like to call myself,” Mead says. “I’d been doing visual stuff for 20 years and it was mostly future, so I came up with Visual Futurist.” Although he’s made his name in the movies, Mead maintains that a good designer can work on anything. “Cassettes, TVs and starships – one technology is just way ahead of the other,” he says. Mead worked with major studios on the feature films: Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Blade Runner, Tron, 2010, Short Circuit, Aliens, The Spirit of '76, Timecop, Johnny Mnemonic, Mission: Impossible III, Elysium, Tomorrowland and Blade Runner 2049. [3] [14] George Lucas created the AT-AT for his Star Wars saga based on art by Mead. [15] Mead also contributed to the Japanese film Solar Crisis. In the 1990s, Mead supplied designs for two Japanese anime series, Turn A Gundam and the unfinished Yamato 2520. [14]

Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist|Hardcover The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist|Hardcover

ADDICT Ltd. London, A trend setting magazine and fashion provider released a line of T-shirts featuring artwork by Syd Mead 2004 Re-design of core character MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM and five ancillary story characters Production of promotional poster art

The artwork created for Blade Runner – initially done only to provide a context for the vehicle designs – ended up being the main basis for the look of the entire movie TIMELINE” featuring new and old examples of Syd’s illustrations, 10 of which were on sale including newly introduced fine art Prints. Concept design and illustration: Theme project AWAGI) (Concept design and illustration: Theme project NEOTOPIA)