Syd Mead’s remarkable career included futuristic vehicle designs for U.S. Steel starting in 1959, groundbreaking concept work on sci-fi films like ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture’, ‘Tron’, ‘Aliens’, ‘2010’, and his best known work on Ridley Scott’s ‘Blade Runner’ and the sequel ‘Blade Runner 2049’. Syd was asked what title he’d like for Blade Runner’s end credits and came up with ‘Visual Futurist’. Though it was an off-the-cuff suggestion, the title perfectly described the work for which Syd Mead would become synonymous. 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 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

Syd Mead, you will be missed by so many artists, designers, and creators. Not only will you be remembered for your extraordinary ability as a thinker and an artist, but also for your kind generosity in allowing us fledgling artists into your studio, to be inspired directly from the master. Your influence will live well into the far flung future. One that you helped create.” Ed Naha, " Blade Runner's Syd Mead: An Artist With Designs on the Future", Starlog (USA) May 1982, Iss. 58, pg. 36–39,+61

Syd Mead – Visual Futurist

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. So this was a little bit of a weird one. Syd Mead is undoubtedly one of the most influential artists of science fiction and filmmaking, and yet.....I'm not sure it entirely came across. The book is crammed with a whole host of film concept art, of productions made and not made, but the tour was so fast across some of them ( Blade Runner: 2049 being one of the shortest chapters in the book). I feel there could have been so much more time and art to have been inserted here. Instead of one fast tour around his work, maybe it should have been split into tour - to give a real insight into his thousands of drawings across hundreds of thousands of hours. The art in here is astounding but...it needed...more?

The man who designs future worlds - BBC Future

a b Fowler, Matt (December 30, 2019). "Syd Mead, Artist Behind Blade Runner, Dies". IGN . Retrieved December 31, 2019. And often even the highest-tech reality is, frankly, disappointing. “The first Cray computer looked like a cheap prop from a badly funded science fiction movie, it was pathetic,” Mead says, “and it was the fastest computer in the world at the time.”They 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.” ART CENTER COLLEGE – PASADENA, CA of DESIGN: Presentation to students as guet of illustration chair

Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist - Goodreads The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist - Goodreads

Design for gaming level and (Shibuya area) laser shooting arena attraction. Six story attraction opens as Dr. Jeekhan’s. An exclusive look into the creative world of one of the great futurists of our time Germany’s first solo exhibition… Read More » With his own company in the 1970s, Mead spent about a third of his time in Europe, primarily to provide designs and illustrations for Philips, and he continued to work for international clients. [7] Through the 1970s and 1980s, Mead and his company provided architectural renderings, both interior and exterior, for clients including Intercontinental Hotels, [8] 3D International, Harwood Taylor & Associates, Don Ghia, Gresham & Smith [9] and Philip Koether Architects. [10]There is a great irony in the fact that although Syd Mead's early work forecast an optimistic technological future - his work on 'Bladerunner' helped to set a powerful dystopian style which predominates today.) 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. 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. With transportation design as his first love, Syd Mead seldom misses an opportunity to provide his unique blend of futurism and believability to those projects consisting of a vehicle that travels from “A” to ‘B”. Whether it be designing solar powered unicycles, show cars, luxury yachts, cruise ships, the interiors of private 747’s, or interplanetary spacecraft, each receives the same attention to detail within a perfectly designed scenario. This combination has become a Syd Mead trademark and has been seen in everything from concept cars for Ford Motor Company to futuristic “Hypervans” which have been the subject of his latest full-color illustrations.