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 . 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. His one-man show, “Cavalcade to the Crimson Castle” consisting of 114 original paintings and illustrations, enjoyed a three month showing at the Center for the Arts in San Francisco in the Fall of 1996. The highlight of the show turned out to be Syd’s presentation and lecture attracted an audience that exceeded the available capacity of the auditorium. Subsequent personal appearances at schools across the country have attracted record numbers. “SYD MEAD PROGRESSIONS” a traveling one-man-show of his work, is now in the planning stage to mark the 40th anniversary of his work. This touring exhibition is currently scheduled to premiere in Glendale, California at the Forest Lawn Gallery of Fine Arts in January 2012.

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

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. Torino Italy staged a celebration of possibilities for he future development of the villages that will come After our current plans have come to pass and invitedSyd Mead is featured in episode 3 of this 4 part series on the Future of the Automobile along with world renowned automotive experts such as Luigi Colani a b c d "Syd Mead Futurist: Biography". Sydmead.com. Archived from the original on April 6, 2010 . Retrieved June 7, 2010. Syd Mead wasn’t planning on becoming a visual futurist. The job description didn’t even exist until he invented it.

The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist - Goodreads

Syd was the grandfather of concept design, creating world class designs and unmatched visions of the future that were uniquely his to the very end. Few people have had such a massive influence on the world of art and design as he did throughout his career. He will be sadly missed by all, but his legacy will live on forever.” 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 Syd Mead’s vision is exemplary, offering an artistic and highly believable approach to architectural and industrial design that few could ever hope to match. His technological reality is one you’d desperately want to spend extended time in, so that you can investigate, touch and conceptually grasp all of the small details together with the much bigger picture – experiencing the intrigue and excitement of something familiar reshaped with an expert’s eye. 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 Wax, Roxana (May 14, 2017). "Syd Mead – The Master". Graphicine. Archived from the original on March 3, 2018 . Retrieved January 2, 2020.Syd is invited to be featured in an exhibition and join New York City artists in panel discussion 2002

Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist - Google Books The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist - Google Books

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. Third venue for this exhibition at the College for Creative Studies Gallery, Detroit, MI and personal appearance presentation.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.” Always an advocate of new technologies, Syd Mead has expanded his horizons to include computer illustrations and graphics by mastering a variety of Softwares. Beginning with the official poster of the 1991 Concours d’Elegance “Eyes on the Classics” in Detroit, Michigan, Mr. Mead has attempted to utilize the latest in available techniques to their best advantage. In 1993, a digital gallery comprised of 50 examples of his art with interface screens designed by Syd Mead became one of the first CD ROM’s released in Japan in 1992 and in 2004 in response to many requests, cooperated with the Gnomon School of Visual Effects to produce a 4 volume, “How To” DVD series titled, “TECHNIQUES OF SYD MEAD” which continues to be sought after by designers around the world.

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

ADDICT Ltd. London, A trend setting magazine and fashion provider released a line of T-shirts featuring artwork by Syd Mead 2004 FUTURE NOIR” Exhibition of original Syd Mead art with personal appearance by Syd Mead at opening Panel Discussion