The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist

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In 1979, projects began to include work with most major studios, on such feature films as Star Trek: The Motion Picture, followed by, Blade Runner, TRON, 2010, Short Circuit, Aliens, Time Cop, Johnny Mnemonic, Mission Impossible-3, and most recently Elysium starring Jodi Foster and Matt Damon, directed by Neill Blomkamp. Beginning in 1983, Syd began to develop close working relationships with a number of major Japanese corporate clients, including; Sony, Minolta, Dentsu, Dyflex, Tiger, Seibu, Mitsukoshi, Bandai, NHK, and Honda as well as contributing to two Japanese film projects, The New Yamato and Crises 2050. In the 1990s’, Syd supplied designs for two Japanese toy icons, “The New Yamato” and all eight robot characters in the new Turn-A Gundam mobile suit series which were also seen as characters in Television shows. 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.”

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

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. 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.) Another unique characteristic of Syd Mead’s work was the optimism infused in his visions of the future, which makes it even more remarkable the fact that his images are so memorable, as it’s much easier to have a strong impact using dramatic, dark tones rather than peaceful, colorful scenes. 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'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]Excellentartbook worthy of any 'Blade Runner' and for that matter science fiction fan’s library”-Adventures in Poor Taste The other thing that jabbed me a little during this book was the words by Craig Hodgetts. I understand, after doing a bit of research, he is a successful California architect and therefore that would give him a good amount of scope to really analyse the artistic language behind the art. Brilliant! A lot of it gave a new angle I could view a lot of science fiction art with. HOWEVER, across the book he seemed to look down upon science fiction language with a little bit of distain. I got the impression that multiple long words, constructed in a typical winding description about motive and comparison to more spiritual and ethereal drives behind the work would be suitable instead of the word "cyberpunk" or "noir" or a whole host of other little helpful devices, and so ultimately I felt him trying to distance himself from the people that used that language. By convolutedly attempted to avoid the genre defining/ sub-genre nametags, he one one hand allowed a fresh take on the work without the reader coming in with previous expectation (I grant this was interesting), but on the other hand Hodgetts seemed to distance himself from the community of popular science fiction, and filmmaking in general. There were obvious nods to other brilliant science fiction works in some of Mead's concepts and yet were not mentioned or given a confused description. I don't know Hodgetts, I don't know his preferences, and it full well might be me missing something from the aim of his when he was writing this, but it seemed that he missed some key points to really bring the reader in.

In Memory of Syd Mead: The Grandfather of Concept Design

Week long series of critiques, presentations, lectures and an original piece of art, now in the PCC permanent collection. 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. Garvey, Marianne (December 31, 2019). "Syd Mead, the visual artist behind 'Blade Runner' dies at 86". CNN . Retrieved January 2, 2020. Concept design and illustration: Theme project AWAGI) (Concept design and illustration: Theme project NEOTOPIA) 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.Cynicism and sarcasm are the fashion for now. Let us not give up on a bright artistic future simply because it is not 'popular'. who is Mr. Mead, однако его имя вначале упомянулось в артбуке по Homeworld и, кажется, промо-ролике по Homeworld 3 по поводу источников вдохновения; затем, на ютюбе XYZ-школы появилось крайне симпатичное видео о самом художник, ну и наконец, в книжном внезапно обнаружился здоровенный артбук. Ну, Бог троицу любит, что поделать. 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.” Tl;dr: Mead's art is genre defining and highly recommend this book for that, the let down was in the writing. Absolutely worth getting and sitting with a big cup of tea and immersing yourself in some of the best science fiction art of all time, you're going for the art not the writing. The second of Syd’s watch designs goes into production, this one titled “ALWAYS” and available only in Japan.