The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist

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His legacy lives on not only through his works as well as all the lectures, interviews and speeches that we are fortunate to have inherited: his vision of the future has become engrained in our culture and I think one day we’ll really discover what a major influence he has had on our reality – and our future. 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. His body of work, as well as his more recent lectures and training courses, have inspired at least two generations of designers, including some of the most prominent designers of today, and he represents one of the few cases – if not the only – where a brand new definition was coined – Visual Futurist.

Syd Mead Website 2023 Gallery | Official Syd Mead Website 2023

Syd Mead wasn’t planning on becoming a visual futurist. The job description didn’t even exist until he invented it. This optimism was probably one of the driving factor of his ability to envision a future we’d love to live in. Garvey, Marianne (December 31, 2019). "Syd Mead, the visual artist behind 'Blade Runner' dies at 86". CNN . Retrieved January 2, 2020.Syd Mead was looked at as the designer of the future. He left us with paintings and designs that even after decades still hold up as the standard. Syd also ensured that the vision of his future would continue by educating, inspiring and encouraging the young artists and designers around him. My lasting memory of Syd will be watching him on stage dressed in a LED graphic equalizer t-shirt (hands on hips with a huge smile) as the room of young artists roared and made the lights on his shirt dance.” Ben Mauro – Senior Concept Designer at 343 Industries Week long series of critiques, presentations, lectures and an original piece of art, now in the PCC permanent collection. 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.

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

Syd Mead: 'Pivotal' Blade Runner designer dies". BBC. December 30, 2019 . Retrieved December 31, 2019. a b c Kilkenny, Katie (December 30, 2019). "Syd Mead, Visionary Conceptual Artist Behind 'Blade Runner' and 'Tron', Dies at 86". Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved December 31, 2019. LaBarre, Suzanne (September 27, 2010). "Almost Genius: Futuristic Food Court by Blade Runner's Set Designer, Syd Mead". Fast Company . Retrieved December 31, 2019. Syd continued to work until September 2019 taking high-profile projects every year, and notably worked on the Blade Runner sequel ‘Blade Runner 2049’ in 2017 where he was asked to imagine the post-apocalyptic Las Vegas by Director Denis Villeneuve. Born on 18 July 1933 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Mead graduated from high school in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 1951. After serving a three-year enlistment in the U.S. Army, Mead attended the Art Center School in Los Angeles (now the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena), where he graduated in June 1959. He was recruited by Ford Motor Company's Advanced Styling Studio by Elwood Engel. 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.FUTURE NOIR” Exhibition of original Syd Mead art with personal appearance by Syd Mead at opening Panel Discussion 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.” Syd Mead is on hand for the 35th annual Hot Wheels Convention to sign prints of his “SENTINEL 400 LIMO” In response to numerous requests, the 4 volume DVD “HOW TO” series of instructional DVD’s, “TECHNIQUES OF SYD MEAD” goes on sale.

In Memory of Syd Mead: The Grandfather of Concept Design

How did his colleagues regard him? We feared him. I was chief artist on Carl Sagan’s original Cosmos series, which was in production in 1979, at the same time as Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Syd’s first movie gig. I already knew his work and was intimidated when I learned he was designing for that film, whose special effects budget far exceeded ours. We were struggling with how to depict Carl’s “Spaceship of the Imagination,” which would inevitably be compared to spacecraft in big hit films. After seeing a few Mead production images, I threw in the towel and opted for a more symbolic approach to spaceship design—hence the dandelion spaceship motif. I certainly wasn’t going head-to-head with Syd Mead in designing cool-looking spaceships. Production of an aerial illustration featuring proposed ‘sport city’ completed with the assistance of Eric van der Palen

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Syd enjoyed working with director Neill Blomkamp in bringing this all new futuristic movie to the screen.